In the first edition of Sundt's Scribes for 2011-12 school year, Hal Sundt tells you about a soccer standout who isn't just talented with her feet.

Lori Sako is worried that she isn't interesting enough to be interviewed for this story. Maybe that's why she kept smiling so much during our interview, and gently balling up her fists when she was answering my questions, a nervous response to the fear that I might expose her as something that many young college kids are afraid of being: ordinary. So now I have a dilemma; do I cut the story short, and leave Sako as the bland college student with no story to offer, or do I mention that she was once a world-class harpist?

Oops. Did just I let that little tidbit of interesting information slip? Looks like I better roll with it.

You see, Sako initially applied to the Oberlin College Conservatory as an aspiring harpist, but she was wait-listed and eventually not admitted. Of course, a host of other schools would have loved to have Sako on campus practicing and perfecting her elite harp skills, but for Sako, if she couldn't be playing with the world's elite, she wanted to direct her attention elsewhere.

“I didn't want to continue with it if I couldn't study at the highest level possible because being a musician is really competitive and a lot of it is about where you study and who you know and those connections,” Sako says. “The schools that I did get into [for playing the harp] are solid, but they don't compare to Oberlin's Conservatory. So I just looked at it logically like 'Well, it doesn't mean I have to give up the harp completely, I'm just not pursuing it at the highest level.”

Sako's change of plans left her college future up in the air until she finally decided to attend Oberlin, this time as a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, where she is now a Biology major. But even then her soccer future was left hanging by a thread. It wasn't until she called Oberlin Head Coach Kristen Hayden in July before the school year began that Sako knew she would continue her soccer career. And it's a good thing she did. Sako excelled immediately, starting nearly every game she played en route to being named an All-North Coast Athletic Conference performer in her second and third seasons.

As a student, Sako's study in Biology has opened a number of doors for her to pursue a future in physical therapy. Over the summer Sako exposed herself to a wide variety of areas of physical therapy including aqua therapy, geriatrics and sports rehabilitation. Of the three, she preferred sports rehabilitation the most.

“I feel like physical therapy is more hands on and I've been hurt so many times that I feel like I would be able to relate the people I'm working with.”

Oh yes, the injuries. While in middle school and playing for an elite travel soccer team, Sako suffered a severe concussion that caused her to miss eight months heading into her freshman year of high school. As a precaution, Sako now wears a dark headband to protect against further head injuries. And when she's not avoiding concussions, or scoring goals, or playing the harp, or studying for biology, she is traveling.

Last semester Sako took a break from the Oberlin campus and studied abroad in the Caribbean in an intensive program with an emphasis on marine biology.

“It was fun,” Sako says. “It was very marine biology-focused. All of the classes related to biology and biology of the coral reefs.”

“We scuba-dived almost every day. A lot of our class was based under water. We had tests under water where we had to identify certain things. It was a nice change from sitting in a classroom.”

Her studies abroad not only afforded her the opportunity to travel far and away, and study hundreds of feet below the sea, but also equipped her with a set of skills that few students learn sitting in a classroom taking notes. As a prerequisite to her program, Sako had to become a certified rescue diver.

So Lori Sako may not think she is interesting enough for this story, and maybe as she reads this now she is blushing a little bit and gently balling up her fists if only for the sole fact that I mentioned this habit at the beginning of the story. I just hope she realizes how many incredible things she's been a part of, both before and during her time at Oberlin.

But there's no rush for her to come to the realization just yet. For now I'll let her think she is the least interesting harp-playing, rescue-diving, soccer-star I have ever met.

Hal Sundt is a senior member of the Oberlin College basketball team and feature writer for goyeo.com.