Best of 2021: Hamilton’s youth took the spotlight in top stories this year

And then there were The Cunningham Sisters, who won praise for their individual voices and smooth Gospel harmonies from judges on the NBC-TV program, “The Voice.”

Badin High School’s football season led to the state championship final.

As if that weren’t enough, Nicole Fleetwood, who fondly recalls growing up in Hamilton’s Second Ward — she’s now 48 — was awarded the prestigious MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ fellowship, which comes with a $625,000 grant to continue her work as a curator and writer who explores works by or about people who have been incarcerated.

And then there was Melody Kandil, a basketball star from Hamilton High School Class of 2007 who was good enough to win a Division I basketball scholarship, but left college after one year to become a successful globe-traveling model. Her film debut was released this year, and she plays the starring role in “She Ball.”

Playing Baseball

Players in the West Side Little League team became such local heroes that each player and coach was honored with a separate day of his own.

They were only the third Ohio team to reach the semifinals, and the first since 1974. They later became the first Ohioans to play in the Little League World Series championship game.

To reach that final game, the team of 12-year-olds won four straight elimination games.

They lost 5-2 in the final game to Michigan’s Taylor North Little League team, but were celebrated in several ways after their return, and were praised for their grit and the way they played.

Singers on the national stage

Marie and Macie Cunningham, now known nationally as The Cunningham Sisters, were pleased to be part of a bidding war among the celebrity singing coaches of The Voice. The daughters of Marc and Tara Cunningham were sought by coaches Kelly Clarkson and Springfield native John Legend. They chose Clarkson.

They ultimately fell during the show’s knockout rounds.

Badin’s team makes state finals

The Badin Rams, using one of the state’s toughest defenses, went 14-0 on the gridiron and was heading to a perfect season before the state Division III championship game, the school’s first since 1990.

The Rams lost to the Chardon Hilltoppers 21-14 in a matchup of stout defenses. With the victory, the Hilltoppers claimed their second straight championship.

The team played seven games before it gave up more than 17 points to an opponent, and only gave up 21 or more in three games, including the championship. By comparison, Badin shut out six teams, including three during the playoffs, and outscored opponents 464-130 through all games.

She’s now officially a genius

Hamilton native Nicole Fleetwood, a 1990 Hamilton High School graduate who fondly remembers living in the city’s Hamilton’s Second Ward neighborhood, was surprised to be the winner of a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ this year. She didn’t even know she was nominated.

When she graduated from high school, she known as Nicole Hickman, but later took the last name of the maternal line of her several-generation-Hamilton family.

Fleetwood, also a Miami University graduate, won the fellowship largely because of a celebrated book and art exhibition with the same name — “Marking Time: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration” — that is expected to go on exhibit this spring at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, one of several stops for the show.

Basketball-playing model from Hamilton makes starring film debut

Melody Kandil had a heck of a film debut, starring as the lead female role as Shelby, a basketball player going through difficult times.

Kandil, 33, acts opposite Nick Cannon, who also directed and produced the film.

A trailer for “She Ball” can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/ct8crj3j. The film was an official selection of the 2020 Pan African Film Festival.

What’s next?

2022, Hamilton officials expect, will be another year of kids — when 10,000 or more athletes and their families will drive three hours or more in some cases to participate in sports tournaments, training and other events at Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill. But that’s next year.

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