By Cort Reynolds
ADA - The Ada girls and boys varsity basketball teams will compete in the third annual Border Battle tournaments after Christmas hosted by Upper Scioto Valley.
The girls tourney will be held Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 26-28 at Upper Society Valley High School.
Ada (2-6) faces Waynesfield-Goshen (1-6) in the first semifinal game, Thursday, Dec. 26 at 6 p.m.
"Waynesfield will be physical and play hard," said Ada head coach Morgan Bass.
Allen East (1-5) and USV (0-4) then face off in the second girls semifinal Dec. 26.
Bruce Neely, funeral director and owner of Hanson-Neely Funeral Home of Ada and Alger, has announced his retirement after serving the Ada community for nearly 46 years.
A retirement community open house takes place at the funeral home, 311 E. Lima Ave., Ada, from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, Dec. 27.
“Since serving area communities from January of 1974 it is with mixed emotions that I announce my retirement,” he said.
While Santa Claus moves around, for 27 years he and Mrs. C lived in Ada. We caught up with him on Christmas Eve and posed these important questions to him. He is also known as Richard Gainey on the other 364 days of the year.
Icon: Where in Florida do you reside?
Santa Gainey: Fernandina Beach. When entering the State of Florida from Georgia we are the first two exits.
Madison Wright, an Ada High School senior, was born on Dec. 25, 2001. Not knowing too many people with a Christmas Day birthday, we were curious ow she spends the day. Here’s part of our interview:
Click here to read Bluffton Icon's interview with Eden Nygaard, a Bluffton HS junior, who also has a Dec. 25 birthday.
Icon: What’s your first-ever birthday you can remember?
Madison: This is a hard one. I might have been around 4 or 5 and we went to Disney World for Christmas. I remember watching the Christmas parade on my birthday.
Ada Icon wishes its viewers a Merry Christmas and season's greetings. Please excuse us if our stories don't update as frequently as usual. We are taking some time off this week.
Kenneth W. Zuercher, 99, died Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019, at Danbury Woods Assisted Living in Wooster.
He was born April 18, 1920, in Pandora, Ohio, the son of Ernest S. and Ida Kiene Zuercher. He married Betty J. VonGunten on Oct. 23, 1943, and celebrated 71 years of marriage. She preceded him in death on Oct. 31, 2014.
Kenneth graduated from Rawson High School in 1938, and from Findlay College in 1942, where he held basketball scoring records at both schools for many years.
