Wedding bells and a coach's whistle

Now that this busy, busy fall sports season is quickly winding down, the first task for second-year Franklin Athletic Director Sara Petric is to find the school a new girls swim coach.

Because the current one has just got too much on her plate.

Late in the summer, Franklin lost its girls swim coach to another job and when a replacement couldn't be found on such short notice, Petric, the former head of the Germantown program for three years, found herself in the position of pulling double duty.

From 7 a.m. in the morning to 3 p.m. each day and then again after 5:30 p.m. at events involving the Sabers' sports teams, she wore her administrative hat, supervising, coordinating and making sure the games went off smoothly.

But from 3 to 5:30 p.m. each day she was back to being swim coach for the 60-some girls in the Franklin swimming and diving program.

"It's been relatively OK," said Petric. "The girls have been great and I'm sort of used to this. I just had to change my schedule around a little bit. I have so many other duties, it's just one more on the list.

"It was this way back in high school (when she was a state champion swimmer herself at Mequon's Homestead High School). I was always involved in everything and anything."

Planning a wedding

However, as noted, it has been a much busier fall than usual for Petric.

"I got married about a week ago," she said at a home football game in October.

She married Dan Unertl, whom she had met about five years ago while both were just getting their education careers fully under way at Germantown High School. Both had majored in English and secondary education, she at Northwestern and he at UW-La Crosse.

Unertl, who is now chair of the English department at Germantown, is a graduate of Hartford High School.

The story gets even more interesting in that Petric's maid of honor was none other than Germantown girls swim coach Kate Patterson. Patterson was Petric's assistant during Petric's tenure with the Warhawks (2007-09). The pair became fast friends many years ago when they were swim club pals at the Schroeder Aquatic Center, with Patterson making the long trek up from Racine.

Patterson took over the Germantown swim program in fall 2010 just after Petric assumed the AD reins at Franklin.

Even with their close bond, Patterson was floored when Petric asked her to become her maid of honor.

Organizational skills helped

"I was deeply touched when she asked me to be her maid of honor for her big day," Patterson said. "We have been friends for over 15 years, so it meant a lot to me.

"… and I can't believe all the things that she was able to accomplish this fall. It just says so much about Sara and her organizational skills that she could get so much of the wedding planned before school started."

The wedding day (Oct. 15) was precisely four years to the day on which the couple became engaged.

The girls on the Franklin team took it all in stride, said Petric.

"We threw a little party right before the wedding and brought her some gifts," said state-qualifying diver Mel Pearson. "She's been really great about it all fall. She really didn't talk about it much at practice and was really able to keep things separate.

"Still, it was a lot of fun."

She'll miss coaching

So Petric has settled into the new normal. The state meet for the girls was last Saturday in Madison, and then she'll have the team's awards banquet and say all the great things she needs to about this overachieving squad of hers.

And then she'll probably go out and hire a new coach, give someone else an opportunity, and then settle into overseeing the winter season.

"Everything is just really good right now," she said. "I may even have a little bit of free time now. I'm really going to miss (coaching) next fall. The girls made me feel very welcome."