[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15777]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         IN HONOR OF JIM RUCKI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 13, 1999

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Jim Rucki, a 
basketball coach for 10 years and baseball coach for 13 seasons at 
Rocky River High School, home of the Pirates.
  Rucki capped his career at Rocky River High School by coaching his 
players to 22 wins this season and 20 victories last season thus 
leading them to their second consecutive state championship. Rocky 
River High School is the first Cleveland-area public school to make 
consecutive state-title game appearances since 1979.
  While a basketball coach, Rucki led his teams to 160 victories 
including two conference titles, two district championships, and nine 
sectional titles. After more than 13 wonderful years of coaching, Coach 
Jim Rucki has proved himself to be an outstanding coach who truly loves 
what he does.
  Not only is Coach Rucki an exceptional coach, he is also a modest one 
as well. Coach Rucki is known for saying that his players are the ones 
responsible for all the awards that he has earned.
  However, Coach Rucki also stresses hard work off the field. As part 
of the educational process of his players, he expects that his players 
earn good grades in all of their academic classes. He truly knows the 
importance of education in the development of a young person's 
character.
  Although Coach Rucki is moving, he will however continue to coach 
boys basketball, one of the sports he loves. Both his players and a 
very grateful community will deeply miss him and all of his hard work 
and we thank Coach Rucki for all that he has done. I ask you fellow 
colleagues to join with me and the community of Rocky River in 
congratulating Coach Jim Rucki on an excellent job throughout his 
coaching career.

                          ____________________