Huron baseball, softball players earn Kedas Memorial Scholarships

Editor's note: On June 23, 2021, Chris Kedas and his son, Owen, 11 passed away from open-air carbon monoxide poisoning while transporting a boat along the coastline of Lake Erie. To honor this Huron family's legacy, Lynn Kedas — wife to Chris and mother to Owen — started a foundation, which recently named its first scholarship recipients. People can learn more by visiting kedasmemorialfoundation.com HURON — Shortly after Chris and Owen died, one of my husband's co-workers and friends approached me about starting an annual memorial fishing derby. One of the things we wanted to do with the proceeds from the derby was to provide scholarships. Chris grew up playing ball, and Owen was playing on a travel team and recreational team when he died. So, naturally, it made sense to us to award one senior softball player and one senior baseball player with Huron ties a $500 scholarship in their memory. The Kedas Memorial Scholarship is not an academic scholarship or an athletic scholarship. Our focus as a foundation is on character. • How do you handle yourself on and off the field? • Are you coachable, polite, a supportive teammate and a sincere friend? You could literally be the least valuable player on the team and still be awarded this scholarship because this scholarship isn't based on the grades or the GPA you earn or how many home runs you hit or how many RBIs you get. The criteria listed for this scholarship is simply based on Owen's kind demeanor and humble character. Because of a coach's relationship with his/her players and how closely he/she works with them on a near-daily basis, we felt that it made the most sense for the coaches to pick who should receive the scholarship. They would know better than anyone as to which one of their players checks all the boxes. Softball scholarship winner This was not an easy decision. From what I was told about our five senior girls, any one of them could've earned this scholarship. It is important for me to tell you that, because of the conflict with head coach Jude Schmidt picking the recipient of this year's scholarship — the conflict being that he has a senior daughter on the team — he believed that it would only be fair to pass the responsibility over to the foundation to make the final decision. He left it up to the foundation's board members to decide. Coach Jude showed honesty and integrity, and I made sure that the girls and their families knew that. In fact, he didn't even know who the recipient was until the recipient's name was announced at the banquet. After a few of the board members talked to some other parents to get their opinions, we chose our scholarship winner: Jayci Schmidt. Jacy's sharp focus, fiery spirit and dedication to the game are just a few of the reasons why she deserved to be awarded this scholarship. She encouraged her teammates the best she knew how and jumped in to help whenever the team needed to get things done. Baseball scholarship winner With four seniors on the team this season, coach Dan Lindsley had the tough job of choosing this year's baseball player to receive the scholarship. Based on our criteria, coach Dan believed the standout this year was Huron senior Austin Wasily. He loves the game, works hard, is a team player and stays out of trouble. Coach Dan had nothing but kind things to say about Austin. And based on what Coach Dan knows about Owen, he felt that Austin is deserving of the scholarship because Austin's demeanor and character very much mirrors the way Owen carried himself.