Legislative Recap Breakfast

Hodge family living on Mustang Drive. Shirley and Dave Hodge found the perfect house in the school system they wanted – Boone County Schools – and near I-75. They moved into their home Feb. 6, 1999. The builder did the basic things: foundation, walls, roof, plumbing. But the Hodge family finished the job and have continued using their skills to adapt and change as their needs changed.

They are also all working on rehabbing a rental property owned by Shirley’s mother and step-father, Langda and Bill Sullivan, who now also live just up the street. Another former rehab project was a house in Elsmere that Dave II and brother Daniel bought together several years ago. Daniel lives there still.

The Hodge household is a marvel in organization and loving, structured living.

There are three distinct families under one roof, each with their own “house,” as they call it, with sleeping and small private living quarters. Everybody shares the dinner, the prayers and general living areas. A playroom holds communal toys used by anyone. All together, there are the two grandparent Hodges, two adult children, five grandchildren ages 4 to 13, two dogs and five cats – currently. At one time there were 11 humans in the house.

At one point, daughter Danielle Knox and her two children were living with her parents and were almost ready to try home ownership of their own, when brother Dave II appeared on the doorstep with his three children – so everybody just stayed and made it work for all. As Shirley said, “God does have a sense of humor.”

It’s all about respecting others’ personal space. Everybody knows to knock before entering another family’s “house.” Everybody has their assigned chores. Adults have worked out how they get the kids off to school and who is on kid duty when parents are busy or away.

The five cousins each have their chores. Preston and Owen do trash and dishes, the girls do laundry, Eli handles the sweeper and things rotate around the group. Everybody cleans up after themselves. Shirley is the designated “Fun Police.”

Outside, the neighborhood group moves among five yards. The Hodge backyard has the pool and room for soccer games in the front. Next door neighbors adopted the portable basketball court when it appeared there would never be enough room in the Hodge driveway with four cars and five bikes. The Tourikians have the trampoline and others have space for other activities.

Grandkids were glad to share the advantages of such a large, lively and loving home.

“There is always somebody to play with,” one said. “There is always somebody to blame.”

The Hodge family business seems to be firefighting and paramedic service with a side of construction.

The three men are all firefighters. Danielle works for a company that retrieves tissue and bone for transplant purposes. David Sr. has been a firefighter since age 17, retiring in 2022. He worked at the Florence Fire Department for 22 years, City of Covington Fire Department for 20 years, Ludlow’s department part-time for six years and has been retired one year. Some of those assignments overlapped.

David II volunteered at Union, worked part-time at Ludlow and has now been a paramedic/firefighter for five years at Bellevue/Dayton Fire Department.

At one point both David Sr. and David II were assigned to the same firehouse. As it turns out, David II outranked David Sr. because he was a paramedic and his dad was an EMT.

Daniel began as a volunteer at the Union FD and is now a paramedic at the Covington FD. The work schedules mean firefighter/paramedics are on duty a full 24 hours and then off 48 hours. David II tells of the stresses of paramedic schools, two part-time jobs, a newborn baby and clinical training all at once.

The family tells of David Sr.’s cooking abilities that moved from the firehouse, where he cooked for eight grown men, to home where the group was smaller and younger. Today, he is back to the larger portions and rapidly mixing up a meatloaf for dinner.

Shirley is proud to point out that, during the pandemic, “with everybody in the family as a first responder, they were at high risk but, by taking precautions, nobody got sick.”

Also, during that time, Shirley acted as the family classroom teacher and kept the classes moving along like a one-room school teacher, being able to send them all back to the classrooms in their schools without anyone falling behind. Even the little ones had pre-school lessons alongside their older cousins and siblings.

Just when they might get really tired of each other, there is that every-other-weekend reprieve when all the kids go to their other parents for the weekend. As Shirley puts it, ”With any luck their resident parents are gone, too.” Shirley also says that when things get too hectic, she goes outside and works in the yard.

Dave II says the most stressful issue in the household is the parking. Juggling the four cars in the driveway involves always coordinating who has to leave first in the morning.

Somehow, the guys in the family have also appeared in two different films. David, David II, Daniel, and cousin Tim all appeared in “Dark Water.” Daniel and David II were in the Ted Bundy movie that premiered on Netflix in 2022.

Mustang Drive at one time was home to the former Bengal player, Andrew Whitworth. These days, the claim to fame is a large model train display one of the neighbors has installed in his backyard. On Fridays in December, it is open to the public and according to Sue, “People come from all over to see it. The hosting neighbor even serves hot chocolate and distributes candy canes.”

NKU ends losing streak with win over Wright State

gether, then we win a lot of games.

Wakeham’s contribution was the main reason NKU improved to 14-12 and 5-4 in the Horizon League and is tied for second with Purdue University-Fort Wayne. (Wright State fell to 15-12 and 7-2.) His three-run double off Chris Gallagher in the seventh helped send 11 Norse batters to the plate.

Simon Kenton softball wins twice on windy day

much as I can. But I still have to remember you’re not going to be perfect all the time. I try to be the best leader I can be.”

Junior first baseman Emilie Young and eighth grade catcher Jayden Jones both went 2 for 3 for Simon Kenton. Emilie Young batted in two and Jones scored twice. Junior right fielder Kayden Porter drove in two and scored twice with eighth grade shortstop Taylor Jones batting in two.

Welch’s grand slam leads Beechwood to All ‘A’ region title

Carson Welch heard his Beechwood baseball teammates screaming.

Northern Kentucky University’s baseball team was streaky on Sunday, April 2, but in the best possible way.

The Norse rode a six-run seventh inning and held off a late Wright State rally to claim Sunday’s 9-5 win at Bill Aker Baseball Complex at Friendship Field.

Two streaks against the Raiders ended: NKU’s consecutive losses on March 31 and April 1, and 21 straight painful games since April 7, 2019.

“As a team, we were looking for that spark,” Norse catcher Jayden Wakeham said. “We had a couple opportunities we couldn’t cash in … Last time we beat them was four years ago, my freshman year.”

Norse head coach Dizzy Peyton didn’t say anything different before Sunday’s game.

“We just always work the same process,” Peyton said. “Nothing changes whether we win or lose. We’re always going to work our same process and try to get quality at-bats, quality innings. String enough of those to-

High winds could not stop the tripleheader from taking place at Simon Kenton on Saturday, April 1.

The Simon Kenton Pioneers (7-2 overall) and Cooper Jaguars (6-3) run-ruled the West Chester (Ohio) Lakota East Thunderhawks (2-2) before facing each other trying for two wins on the day. Simon Kenton earned it with a 12-1 five-inning run-ruling taking control in the second inning.

Eighth grade pitcher Lauren McIntosh (1-1) pitched a complete game for the win. She struck out four, walked no one and allowed no runs as the Pioneers made one error behind her. McIntosh retired the side in the top of the first and fifth innings.

Simon Kenton saw three players put up multi-hit games batting .588 (10 for 17) overall, starting with sophomore center fielder Larkin Mitchell. Mitchell went 3 for 4 with a double, two runs batted in and scored all three times she reached.

“I definitely take that responsibility very seriously,” Mitchell said of leading off the game. “My approach is to try to get on as

“We’ve consistently been good at the plate all year long,” said Chris Young, Simon Kenton’s head coach. “Our defense is starting to catch up, which is where I feel we should be strong in the first half. It’s nice to have a young girl like Lauren McIntosh come out against a really good Cooper team and do what she did. That’s exciting to see longterm. I’m hoping we keep swinging the bats like we are. If we do, then we have a chance.”

The Pioneers scored five runs in the bottom of the second to break a 1-1 tie. They added five in the bottom of the fourth to make the final score 12-1.

He wasn’t immediately sure why until he realized he had hit a grand slam home run. His shot off St. Henry’s pitcher Nick Browning was the marquee blow in a ninerun seventh inning, which gave the Tigers a 10-4 win in the Ninth Region All “A” final at Thomas More Stadium on April 3.

“It felt like a dream, honestly,” Welch said. “It’s like, ‘When are you going to wake yourself up from it?’ You’re just so locked in the game, you couldn’t hear anything when the ball was hit.

“I thought I popped out at first.”

Beechwood coach Kevin Gray was screaming, too.

“When the ball left the bat, ‘Please get out of here!’ is what I was screaming,” Gray said. “But I knew it was going to at least tie the game ‘cause I knew it was at least a double.

“But when it left the bat, I knew he hit it good; I didn’t know he hit it that good.”

Welch wasn’t swinging for the left field fence. But when he got the inside fastball from Browning, “I was just trying to put the ball in the gap,” Welch said. “I wanted to make something happen.”

Beechwood meets the 10th Region winner in the first round of the state small-school tournament at 10 a.m. April 29 at Campbellsville High School.