SLIPPERY ROCK — The first time Nick Ayres reported to Slippery Rock High School golf practice his freshman year was the first time he ever picked up a golf club.

He needed to fill a void.

“I didn't have a sport for the fall,” Ayres said.

This fall — Ayres' senior year — will mark his fourth year on the Rockets' golf team. He is also a catcher on the baseball team in the spring and wrestles during the winter.

He's been doing the latter two sports for 13 years.

“I like being active, staying healthy and ready for the next sport coming up,” Ayres said.

Only he doesn't stop at sports.

Ayres works fulltime — from May through August — at the Always Summer Herbs greenhouse in Slippery Rock. He also does landscaping for the Borough of Slippery Rock during the week and works for a landscaping company in Wexford on weekends.

“I love working with plants and working with my hands,” Ayres said. “I've probably got 30 plants in my room at home and I've got a couple of greenhouses there.”

One other thing — Ayres is a junior volunteer firefighter in Slippery Rock.

“He doesn't stop,” Slippery Rock wrestling coach Denton Zeronas said. “His work ethic, the never-quit attitude ... Nick's got it. He keeps pushing himself to do better all the time.

“Every coach in every sport has that one kid where you wish you had 10 other kids just like him. Nick Ayres is one of those guys. He's simply amazing.”

Ayres averaged in the low 40's per nine holes for the Rockets' golf team. He was 27-7 as Slippery Rock's 120-pound wrestler this year, but was unable to compete in the district tournament because of a bad case of the flu.

“I could barely walk,” Ayres recalled.

He is a backup catcher in baseball, stuck behind senior David Duffalo, who will continue his diamond career at Gannon University in the fall.

SR baseball coach Fred Pryor has never heard Ayres complain about a lack of playing time.

“Not at all,” Pryor said. “In fact, we call him Captain Nick because he acts like a captain. He's always catching pitchers in the bullpen. He's my pitching coach's right-hand man.

“He does our scouting reports, anything he can do to help this team win. I'm an older coach and when our season was shut down with this pandemic, he told me that if I needed him for anything, to just call.

“I mean, what 16-year-old does that? He's an incredible kid. I love him like a son,” Pryor added.

Ayres stands 5-foot-2 and weighs 125 pounds. He never played fooball because he didn't want to bulk up in weight, then have to cut down again for wrestling season.

He's received college interest in wrestling from Thiel, Pitt-Bradford, Gannon and Washington & Jefferson.

“When I got the coaching job this year, Nick was the first wrestler to come up and introduce himself to me,” Zeronas said. “When everyone's tired in the room, he's the kid who stands up, encourages the other kids to keep pushing, that the coach has a plan.”

Ayres has different paths ahead of him in life. He's just unsure which one he's going to follow.

He plans to major in greenhouse science in college. He works from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the greenhouse, then does landscaping for the borough until 7 p.m. His weekend shift in Wexford runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

He gets up and runs at 6 a.m. each day. He works out with his father at 9 p.m. each night.

Possessing a pager as a firefighter, he may get a call at 2 a.m. — and he answers the call.

“My grandfather is a volunteer firefighter, my father is a firefighter ... I grew up around the fire station. I love it,” Ayres said. “I'm not ruling out pursuing that as a career.”

A junior volunteer for two and a half years, Ayres is not permitted to enter a burning structure. He does, however, help prep firemen from the outside, fights fires himself from outside, throw ladders against buildings, etc.

“I've probably answered 800 calls since I joined,” Ayres said. “We're always busy. There's always something happening.”

One could say the same about Nick Ayres' life.

“There's a guy who's going to be successful no matter what he chooses to do in life,” Pryor said. “He's just an unbelievable kid.”