Lockport’s Hudson gets a rock-solid tribute

Updated: October 24, 2011 8:56PM

For 33 years, Julia Hudson has been a rock for Lockport High School as a volleyball coach and math teacher.

Now she has her own rock to prove it.

On Saturday, Hudson was presented with a surprise: an inscribed boulder that’s on display outside the entrance to the Wellness Center at Lockport East.

After the team’s practice Saturday at Lockport Central, the Porters went to the East campus where some parents already had put the rock — which was ordered through boulderdesigns.net — in place. Soon after Hudson was brought to East by longtime assistants Chris Lareau and Wendy Squires.

Hudson was blindfolded in anticipation of a surprise and led out of the vehicle by Squires. The seniors on the team then read a special tribute to Hudson, which included many rock references.

At that point the rock, complete with the Porters logo and the inscription “To coach Julia Hudson for her 33 years of dedication to Lockport girls volleyball. Love, your 2011 varsity team,” was unveiled.

Upon seeing it the veteran coach, who is retiring at the end of the school year, nearly was speechless.

“This is so special,” she said. “Every time I come here I’ll be reminded of this group and all the others. I usually have a lot of words, but this time I have none. Just thank you.”

The surprise ceremony was originally going to be on Oct. 19. It was moved to Saturday because of the rainy weather on that date.

Streak-busters

Because of a reschedule, the match between Lincoln-Way Central and Sandburg was moved to Friday. With all the football games that night, it came in under the radar — except it didn’t for the Knights, who toppled Sandburg 25-9, 25-23.

The victory tied Central (24-11) with Sandburg (29-6) for the SouthWest Suburban Blue title, both finishing at 6-1 in the league. It also broke the Eagles’ 35-match winning streak against an SWSC opponent of any kind. That streak dated to a 25-23, 25-22 loss to Lockport on Oct. 16, 2008.

“It’s probably the biggest win we’ve had in my short (three-year) coaching career,” said Central coach Kathy Sulkowski, who was an All-State player at Sandburg. “It was special to me because I know how well Sandburg competes.

“I’m glad it was us that ended the streak. We’re very excited about it.”

Central outside hitter Deedee Dowd led the Knights in the match with 15 kills, seven digs and no errors.

“We played very solid and consistent volleyball and executed the game plan,” Sulkowski said. “In Game 2, Sandburg picked it up and jumped to an 8-3 lead.

“But I was proud of our girls because they got right back in it. At 21-21 I called a timeout and told the girls there was no pressure, they can do this and they did.”

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