Tabitha Bemis is on a roll.

As a waitress at a Sonic fast-food restaurant in Wexford, she uses roller skates to get around the parking lot, delivering food to customers on a tray.

Bemis' summer job imitates her athletic career at Quaker Valley High School. From year to year, season to season, sport to sport, Bemis rolled with the best of the WPIAL. When she graduated last month, her athletic tray was filled with medals.

Bemis had a terrific career in three different sports at Quaker Valley, and a memorable senior year.

To fully appreciate her accomplishments, just look at the wooden hat rack in her bedroom in the family's Sewickley home. That's where she keeps all of her gold medals. On the WPIAL and state level over the past four years, she won 17 golds in two different sports (track and field and gymnastics). But she also competed in diving the past two years, and all told won an additional seven silvers and three bronze medals in the three sports.

In WPIAL and state competition, medals are awarded to individuals who finish in the top eight in an event. Bemis won a surreal 43 medals in her career. The ones that aren't gold, she keeps in four separate boxes in her room -- one box for each year of her high school career.

For her efforts, Bemis was selected as the Post-Gazette Female High School Athlete of the Year. The award was started in 1979 and takes into consideration all athletes in the WPIAL and City League. Some former winners have gone on to win gold and silver medals in the Olympics, and some others have played professionally or had highly successful college careers.

"For every year I was in high school, I used to put different signs in my room for different goals I wanted to reach," Bemis said. "I had them all planned out for high school. I don't really have any more right now."

Maybe because she reached every goal in high school. Just this year alone, Bemis won WPIAL Class AA track and field gold medals in the long jump and 100 hurdles, and PIAA gold in the same two events. She also was second in the triple jump at both the WPIAL and PIAA meets. She counts the PIAA hurdles championship as the highlight of her year.

In February, Bemis was second at the WPIAL Class AA diving championships, and sixth at the PIAA meet.

But Bemis also was an outstanding gymnast as a freshman and sophomore before an elbow injury and surgery forced her to give up the sport. As a freshman and sophomore, she won gold medals in gymnastics all-around at both the WPIAL championships and the state meet.

"When you think about it, if you said you won five medals in your high school career, you'd probably be celebrating," said Quaker Valley athletic director Mike Mastroianni. "Ten medals would be, 'Oh, my goodness.' But to have that many medals, that might be some kind of record and a record that might stand for a while."

And this should tell you enough about Bemis' athletic ability: She tried the pole vault as a freshman and finished eighth in the WPIAL.

But Bemis' agility and mobility were evident at a very young age. Like when she was a few days old.

"She was only 5 pounds, 3 1/4 ounces when she was born, so they had her in an incubator," said Bemis' mother, Robin. "The nurses nicknamed her 'Scooter' because she was all over that incubator.

"Then when she was six days old, she got jaundice and we had to take her to a different hospital. Not knowing what happened at the other hospital, the nurses nicknamed her 'Scooter' again because she was moving everywhere.

"I remember when she was 2 and we were redoing our house, she was climbing a ladder. So she's always been one who was very active and not one to sit still."

In a Quaker Valley-Sewickley Academy girls' powder puff flag football game this year, Bemis played running back and receiver, and scored three touchdowns.

"I see her as sort of 'The Natural,' " Mastroianni said. "She obviously is a very high-level athlete, but I think what sets her apart is her competitive nature. She's just on a totally different level when she gets into a competitive environment. She sort of attacks it. There are other athletes around like that, but they're very minimal on the high school level."

Bemis says there isn't a sport she doesn't like, although basketball frustrates her. Not because she dislikes it. "Just because I could never play it. I was terrible at it," she said with a laugh.

She regrets giving up soccer after seventh grade, because she felt she also could have excelled at that sport. She also was a cheerleader at Quaker Valley.

"I gave up soccer because I just didn't think I could balance everything," Bemis said.

Bemis said she admires the Steelers' Troy Polamalu because of his humility and Hines Ward "because he's always smiling."

Bemis, though, is struggling deciding what to do with her future. She had originally planned to dive at Pitt, but didn't have a scholarship. After she did so well in track and field, some Division II colleges became interested in Bemis, who was a good student at Quaker Valley with a 3.5 average. Edinboro University has offered her a scholarship for track.

"It's a tough decision what to do," Bemis said.

But no matter what she chooses, Bemis is ready to roll.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.