New Richmond High School’s first Division I college players
in football and basketball will join two of the school’s all-time greats in
softball and swimming in the 2016 class of the New Richmond Lions Sports Hall
of Fame.
Thomas Wildey, 1959 graduate who played football at Ohio
State; Jeffrey Kuhn, 1962 graduate who played basketball at the University of
Cincinnati; Michelle Sweet, 2009 graduate who was a three-sport star in soccer,
basketball and softball; and Alex Lewis, 2010 graduate who owns 11 school and
league swimming records, will go into the Lions Hall of Fame at the annual
induction banquet at 6 p.m. on Jan. 16 in the high school cafeteria.
The Hall of Fame banquet will follow the 4 p.m. Hall of Fame
basketball game between the boys varsity against Mariemont. Tickets for the
banquets are $15 and available at the high school.
Thomas
Wildey, Class of 1959
Whether it was standing his ground against Ohio State coach
Woody Hayes or helping bring needed social services to New Richmond, Tom Wildey
never backed down from a challenge. When football coaches Dave Bechtel and Robert
Tucker were tasked with putting New Richmond High School’s first football team
on the field in 1955, one of their first stops was to a hay field in Monroe
Township where they saw Tom Wildey and older brother Carl sling heavy hay bales
onto a wagon. “These two will do,” they said as they left to scout other future
Lions football players. Tom Wildey more than lived up to the young coaches’
expectations and went on to become a four-year, two-way starter at tackle for
the Lions, earning all-league honors as a junior and senior before going off to
college and making the Ohio State freshman team as a walk on. Hayes tested the
mettle of walk on players by using them for tackling practice. Wildey was still
standing after 150 hits and make the OSU squad. Wildey got a job in the summer
with Cincinnati Gas & Electric, where he worked for 32 years, and never
returned to college. Wildey wasn’t just noted for his brawn and was a
three-year varsity basketball player for the Lions and ran relays for the track
team in addition to throwing the shot and discus. Wildey served for 12 years on
the board of the Clermont County Developmental Disabilities and 12 years on the
county Planning Commission. He worked for nine years with Clermont County
Family and Children First and has been Monroe Township director of services for
the past 14 years.
Jeffrey
Kuhn, Class of 1962
Jeff Kuhn earned all-star recognition on the basketball
court, baseball field and in the classroom for New Richmond during his time in
the Eastern Hills League and became New Richmond’s first Division I college
basketball player. Jeff was named honorable mention All-league his junior year
and after averaging 15 points (including five consecutive games of 20 or more
points) and 15 rebounds a game his senior year earning 1st team all-league
honors, Jeff walked on and made the University of Cincinnati freshman team in
1962-63, out of more than 50 players who tried out to join the seven
scholarship recruits. UC’s freshman team went undefeated that season, and was
widely recognized as the best in the country. Jeff also was a four-year varsity
starter in baseball as a pitcher, catcher and infielder for New Richmond. Jeff
also excelled in the classroom and was a member of the National Honor Society
and served as class vice-president his junior and senior years. Jeff majored in
applied mathematics at the University of Cincinnati, and was awarded a
Fellowship and two teaching assistantships to pursue graduate studies in
applied math while making the academic dean’s list twice. He joined Western and
Southern Life Insurance Company in 1967 as an actuarial student following a
year of graduate school and remained with the company in full-time or part-time
positions through 2014.
Michelle
Sweet, Class: 2009
Michelle Sweet was a scholar athlete all four years in three
sports at New Richmond. She was named Clermont County Sports Woman of the Year
in 2009 as well as VFW Athlete of the Year. She ranks at the top of New
Richmond’s record book in softball with a pitching record of 45-11 with more
than 369 strikeouts (no records are available for her freshman year). Michelle
was a 4-year varsity letter winner in softball as well as a 4-year 1st
team SBAAC All-Star, All-City Honorable Mention from 2007-2009 and a 3-year
captain. Her record included a perfect game against Indian Hill in the 2008
sectional tournament. Michelle led the Lady Lions to three Southern Buckeye league
titles (2006-08) and a Division II sectional title in 2009 when she pitched a
shutout against McNicholas in the title game. Michelle won 16 games her senior
year including pitching eight shutouts, a 0.66 ERA and ended No. 1 state ranked
Western Brown’s 26-game regular season winning streak with an 11-1 win. She was
named New Richmond’s defensive MVP in 2008 and all around MVP in 2009. Michelle
was a four-year varsity player in soccer and was team captain her senior season
which was cut short by injury. She was also captain of the Lady Lions
basketball team her senior year. A National Honor Society member, Michelle
graduated 5th in her class in 2009 with a GPA of 4.321. She graduated Magna Cum
Laude from Ohio Northern University in 2015 with a Doctorate of Pharmacy
degree. Michelle was also a member of the Rho Chi (Academic Honor Society in
Pharmacy) as well as a member of Northern Without Borders completing a mission
trip to the Dominican Republic. She played four years of softball at Ohio
Northern and was named to the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) all-tournament
team 2011 and OAC Honorable Mention in 2013. She was team captain in 2013 and
was named NFCA Scholar Athlete 2011-2013. Her team also made an appearance in
the D3 College World Series in 2012 being one of only 8 teams. Her team also
made appearances in the Regionals 2010- 2012 and won the OAC the same years.
Alex Lewis,
Class of 2010
A typical holiday visit home for Alex Lewis would be a trip
to the pool at the ‘Y where he would swim twenty 500-yard workouts. That
dedication and hard work resulted in Alex setting 11 school and league records at
New Richmond and receiving a four-year athletic scholarship where he would become
a four-year star for DI Cleveland State University where he qualified for the
United States Nationals three times. Alex was a 13-time Horizon League champion
counting relay events during his four years at Cleveland State and was named
the conference’s swimmer of the year and swimmer of the meet in 2014. He was
the college’s first swimmer to go under 20 seconds in the 50 Freestyle (19.56).
Alex was a 3 time District Qualifier & a District Champion in 2009-10 in
the 100 Butterfly. Alex was a two-time Division II state qualifier for New
Richmond in both the 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle events, finishing 4th
in the state in the 100 freestyle and 5th in the 100 butterfly his
senior year. Alex owns individual school
and pool records in the 50 freestyle (22.21), 100 freestyle (s-47.09, p-48.37)
and 100 butterfly (s-51.07, p-53.93), 200 freestyle (1:49.57) and was on record
setting teams in the 200 freestyle (1:37.02), 400 freestyle (3:44.48) and 400
medley relays. He also holds league records in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle,
100 butterfly and 200 freestyle relay. Alex was named team MVP 3-years in a row. Alex was also instrumental in establishing
the NR Alumni Swim Meet held each year. After college, Alex was named head site
coach at Xavier University for the Mercy Health Seawolves and produced six
Junior Olympic qualifiers in two years. Alex currently is an assistant swim
coach at Xavier University.
