Talk of the Town

by Judy Stringer

Hudson churns out successful sports teams and individual athletes every year – many placing at the district, sectional and even state levels – and our Special Olympics team is no different. Eighteen athletes represented Hudson at the Ohio Special Olympics Summer Games in Columbus, held June 24-26.

For the track and field competitors, “it was a glorious sun-filled weekend where the athletes won many medals and awards,” said track coach Josanne Hyclak. Nina Ackerman earned a sliver medal in the 200-meter run and placed fourth in the 100-meter. Brad Bohrer won a silver medal in the 200-meter and a bronze in the 400-meter. Michael Nicholson brought home a silver in the 200-meter and finished fourth in the 400-meter run. Nate Shockey earned a silver in the 200-meter and finished sixth in the 100-meter. Adam Musarro came home with a silver in the 100-meter and finished fifth in the 200-meter.

Joseph Korane won a bronze medal in the 200-meter run and had a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter. Michael Gosiewski finished with a bronze in the 100-meter and a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter. His brother Nicholas Gosiewski finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the same events. David Gurreri competed in the 200- and 400-meter runs, finishing sixth and fourth. Connor Hayslip finished fourth in both of his events, which were the 50-meter run and the softball throw.

Not to be outdone, the bowlers earned some hardware as well. The team brought home three gold medals, one silver, two bronze and a fourth-place finish, according to coach Kelly Norville. Those team members include Nicole Knoblach, Holly Norville, Nicholas Tomins, Sarah Faiman, Savannah James, Bill Shawcross and Butch VanKirk.

“We congratulate these fine athletes,” Hyclak said. “The community should be very proud.”

Our high-flying Scouts are another source of pride. Last October, Talk of the Town featured recent Hudson High School graduate Mia Censoprano’s Gold Award status. In May, we brought you the story of Hudson Gold Star Girl Scout Audrey Fuller, also a 2022 Hudson High School grad, earning the Eagle Scout rank. Now we are pleased to introduce readers to Rachel Lanham, another Hudson Gold Award recipient.

The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. At the center of the award is a project that challenges Scouts to identify an unmet need or core issue in their community, research and investigate it, recruit volunteers and build a team to create a plan to address the issue or need. For her project, Rachel created a website (sites.google.com/view/feelings-forward) that aims to help teens and their parents with issues like stress, anxiety and depression.

“I’ve struggled with mental health myself, and it was something that I became really passionate about,” Rachel explained. “And I decided a website to explore healthy emotional habits would be a great resource for students in our community.”

The website includes a list of hotlines and coping skills; pages addressing stress, anxiety, and depression; and personal statements from students and parents to aid each group in helping each other. Site analytics suggest more than 10,000 people have visited the page. More than 100 site visitors have filled out a survey on the site about the use of the resources.

Rachel, who graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School in the spring and will attend Alleghany College this fall, said the biggest challenge with her project was acquiring the technical skills to create the website. She’s been pleasantly surprised with the number of site visits.

“I wasn’t expecting for that many people to see what I had made and hopefully take something away from it,” she said.

Congrats, Rachel. Those Alleghany Gators will be lucky to have you.

Good luck to longtime Hudson resident Jeanette Moleski, who will complete in the World Skat Tournament in Edmonton, Canada, this month. Moleski, a retired physician and addiction treatment specialist, began playing the three-person, 220-year-old card game about eight years ago after hearing about a “Learn to Play” night with the Cleveland Skat Club.

“I love to play Euchre so at that point I was really interested,” she said. “Once I went up and played, however, I absolutely fell in love with it. I don’t think I’ve played Euchre since.”

Skat is the national card game of Germany and the regional club – which has about 20-25 regulars, according to Moleski – plays at the Cleveland Maennerchor. It’s a trick-taking game, she explained, that is especially hard to master. Moleski said it was a year before she “finally won a pot,” which is modest to say the least. On club nights, everyone pays $3 to play and another 50 cents for each hand he or she bets on and loses.

“You’re generally not going to bet more than two or three hands, so you’re probably getting out of there for like $5 for a whole night of entertainment,” she laughed.

The Edmonton competition, Aug. 11-21, will be Moleski’s third tournament in recent weeks. She played in national games in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 22, and in the US Open Skat Championship in Las Vegas on June 25.

Ready to jump in? Moleski said she and her fellow club members are eager to teach the game to others. The next Learn to Play is Wednesday, Aug. 24, at 6:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Maennerchor, 4515 State Rd. in Cleveland.

“Everybody is welcome, it won’t cost you anything to learn, and it’s a fantastic group of people,” she said.

I promised last month I would include in this issue a list of college graduates per notices sent out from their universities. But before I dive into that catalog of distinguished young Hudsonites, a quick shout out to my own 2022 grads. Maddy Holman graduated from the University of Cincinnati in April, and Maura Holman, graduated from Hudson High School in May. Here’s to your next adventures!

Other recent graduates include: Anna Burr, Baldwin Wallace University; Gabriella Elliott, University of Tampa; Grant Norman, Citadel; Shawn Svacha, Belhaven University; Mckenzie Hornung, University of Vermont; Anna Tomic, Cedarville University; Joshua Nagy, Marietta College; Khushbakht Shah, Youngstown State University; Colin Dickens, University of Alabama; Josh Flenniken, Olivia Nitzsche, Kyle Sweitzer and Maddie Zammataro, Grove City College; Olivia Adkins, Chloe Hunt, Kiley Kerrigan and Henry Tikkanen, Ohio Wesleyan University; Kaitlyn DeWitt, Maxwell Doyle, Jennifer Hedges, Kathryn Brodbeck, Christopher Motter and Emily Shawd, University of Mount Union; Tanner Anthony, Christina Geiger, Alex Geisler, Trent Gray, Noah Hamlin-Darby, Alissa Hitchcock, Tyler Klein, Ashleigh Kremer, Ben Lindner, Colin Paltani, Eliza Pierson, Max Semenczuk, Sean Smith, Catherine Sommer and Kaylee Yanovich, Ohio University; and Emily Akin, Alex Beegle, Annalee Berger, Alex Dyer, Eliot Dyer, Dawn Falokun, Camryn Ferris, A.J. Fulco, Taylor Gojdics, Grace Killeen, Kyle McCorvey, Lauren Miller, Charlie Murphy, Grace Murphy, Meghana Muvva, Will Orazen, Tori Shriver and Grace Stiles, Miami University.

In addition, several Hudsonites completed graduate degrees, including Anne Zito from Youngstown State University and Austin Mullen, Ryan Nofziger, Logan O’Keefe, Sophia Rafferty, Lisa Sukenaga, and Pauline Van Dijck from Ohio University.

As always, share what’s happening in your world by emailing news@scriptytpe.com with the subject Hudson Life. ∞