Jerry Petro was a standout athlete on the basketball court, baseball field, and on the track throughout his high school career. Jerry was the team leading scorer during both of his junior and senior basketball seasons, and graduated with 964 career points, which made him the schools All-Time Leading scorer, a record that he held for 16 years, until it was broken by Rick Parmer in 1979. Jerry is currently tied for 8th on the all time scoring list. Jerry led his teams to two firsts at Southwestern. During his 8th grade year, his team won a county championship, which served as the first trophy won at Southwestern, and then his Senior year he helped lead his team to the Brown County Holiday Tournament Championship, which was the first trophy won by the Southwestern high school basketball program. Jerry went on to make a career on the basketball court officiating both high school and college basketball games. Jerry worked his way up to doing some big time college basketball games, working Big Ten games. He is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.On the baseball field Jerry was the team's batting champ during his Senior season. On the track, he was a co-MVP his Senior year with teammate Butch Gorrell. Jerry was an accomplished runner and high jumper, where he held the schools high jump record for several years following his graduation. Jerry continued in athletics being an IHSAA official and is a member of the IHSAA Hall of Fame. Jerry also officiated at the collegiate level, including 14 NCAA tournaments. One highlight of his officiating career was officiating the nationally televised IU vs Purdue game in 1993 which included Bob Knight, Gene Keady, Damon Bailey, Alan Henderson, Glen Robinson, and Matt Painter.