ELYRIA – Elyria High School’s 2011 graduating class has the same goals as an astronaut, according to graduating senior Rosemary Behmer. They both want to leave, and they both desire to change the world.

It’s also true that both are pioneers, and not just because that’s the high school’s mascot. The class that graduated Saturday evening is the first to do so in the era of the new high school.

Superintendent Paul Rigda, in his speech before nearly 430 graduates, praised the class for its ability to transition out of the old building.

“You left behind the old Elyria High School and watched as it turned to rubble,” he said. “You looked to embrace the present” and look to the future.

The crowd clapped and cheered at every mention of the new high school building, which opened for students in the fall after a massive $70 million renovation and new construction.

Friends and family of the graduates filled the grandstand and other bleachers at the high school football stadium where the ceremony was held. Hundreds more stood along a chain link fence that separates the field from the fans. So many people came that an auxiliary police officer was standing guard at the entranceway to the stadium, which had been closed because he said the stadium was filled to capacity.

Speeches that were given by Rigda, senior speaker Behmer and Principal Daren Conley were mostly inaudible due to the quality of the sound system at the stadium, but that gave the crowd all the more incentive to snap away photos and shout out the names of their loved ones.

Conley, who will be the athletic director beginning next school year, thanked the graduates for their patience, understanding and leadership throughout their high school careers, and instructed them to have  a “wonderful life,” both for themselves and the world.

“That is, after all, what Pioneers do,” he said.

Behmer also had some closing words for her classmates. In keeping with the astronaut theme, she asked everyone not to forget where they came from, and to always remember Elyria High School.

“As you’re floating about out there, look back at Earth,” she said.

Contact Adam Wright at 329-7155 or awright@chroniclet.com.

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Last month, Rusty Parsons walked into the Mellen Center at the Cleveland Clinic, the same place he has sat through numerous doctors appointments in his battle with multiple sclerosis, and faced his biggest challenge.

Sitting in a chair across the room was the love of his life, 23-year-old Jessica Selva, and inside his pocket was an engagement ring. The 34-year-old Elyria man went to the hospital to propose to his girlfriend, also an MS patient who was diagnosed in March 2008 after unexpectedly losing vision in her right eye.

Such a location may seem odd, but Parsons credits the state-of-the-art MS research and treatment facility with his meeting Selva and ultimately falling in love.

In December 2009, the two crossed paths at the Mellen Center and in the quick 10-minute conversation a connection between the two of them was felt. However, phone numbers were not exchanged and for months afterward, the two didn’t run into each other.

“I was kicking myself because I wish I got her phone number that day,” said Parsons, who was diagnosed in November 2008. “So I made sure to ask the nurses about her every time I came for my treatment and let them know if she ever asked about me to give her my phone number.”

Little did Parsons know, but Selva was doing the same thing. She was also using the nurses to gain tidbits of information about Parsons.

Then, in October 2010, Selva said she got up the courage to ask a nurse for Parsons’ phone number. She sent him an innocent text message under the guise of wanting to see how his treatment was going.

“I couldn’t just come out and say, ‘ask me out,’ ” Selva said Tuesday.

Regardless, the technique worked. The message led to a first date, which has blossomed into a beautiful relationship.

“It’s nice to have someone who understands what you are going through,” Selva said. “Our families have been great, but to actually have someone who really knows how you feel is wonderful.”

“She is very sweet, generous and beautiful,” Parson added. “She makes me laugh. She makes me happy. I don’t know what else to say, but I love her.”

On the day of the proposal, Rusty first sent Selva at the hospital a dozen roses and a balloon. She said she just thought it was her sweet suitor wooing her some more.

She grabbed her cell phone to send him a quick thank you when she spotted him coming through the door.

“He is so sweet, so I didn’t think anything of it,” Selva said of the flowers. “I mean, I hate going to treatment. I moan and complain. I thought he just wanted to do something nice. But when he made me stand up and started talking, I knew he was proposing.”

Parsons grabbed Selva’s hands.

“It’s because of MS we were able to meet and be together. I love you, and I can’t imagine my life without you,” he said before popping the question and pulling out a ring.

Selva said yes and the entire moment was caught on camera by a Cleveland Clinic employee while others in the clinic watched in disbelief. The only ones who knew exactly what was going on were the nurses/matchmakers.

The Cleveland Clinic will not only be remembered by the couple as the place they meet and the place where Parsons proposed, but it could also be the place where they marry.

The couple said it won’t hurt to ask if that would be possible.

“We are both Plain Jane people,” Selva said. “We just want to get married, but if it wasn’t for the Cleveland Clinic, we would have never met.”

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

Atkinson

The Cleveland school board made a surprising move Tuesday morning by not naming any of the three outside finalists for the jobs of superintendent/chief executive office and instead appointing from within its ranks.

The board unanimously voted to make its chief academic officer, Eric Gordon, its new chief executive officer.

Gordon was chose over three finalists that included Lorain Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson.

An 11 a.m. press conference is scheduled to offer more details on the announcement.

AVON — Rookie second baseman Zac Messer was the only Crusher without an RBI heading into Tuesday night’s game with Normal.

So, naturally, with two men on in the bottom of the eighth in a tie game, Messer lined a single to left, driving in one and setting the table for a huge four-run inning that gave Lake Erie the edge in a 12-8 slugfest over the CornBelters in front of 1,206 fans at All Pro Freight Stadium.

Messer’s single started it, but there were a ton of big boppers on this night for the Crushers (5-5), who had season high in runs, home runs (three) and hits (14). Five of their 14 hits were for extra bases, and all nine hitters in the lineup had at least one hit.

“I’ve been struggling at the plate lately,” said Messer, a Massillon native who was 1-for-4 with  run and two RBIs. “I’ve been seeing it well, but I just haven’t been coming through when I started to swing the bat. I just went up there relaxed, knowing that everything in the past is the past, and just looked for something I could handle and put a pretty good swing on it. That was my goal.

“I noticed that the infield was in, so I just wanted to put it in play. To see it go through and get at least one run in was the bonus part of that situation.”

It was also only fitting that the Crushers’ offensive explosion occurred with hitting coach Dave Schaub serving as the acting manager because John Massarelli was at the high school graduation of his only daughter, Noel.

But, according to Schaub, he was getting constant text messages from his boss all night.

“I was not surprised (by our output),” Schaub said. “I think we have the lineup to do that consistently. To me, it was just a matter of time. The more games these guys get in, the more comfortable they’re feeling. Obviously, they have the experience and the potential to hit the ball like they did tonight.

“And it was big because they put it on when we needed it in a game like tonight’s, when you knew it was going to be a shootout from the get-go.”

Shortstop Andrew Davis, also overdue for a big game, finally got one, going 3-for-5 with his first home run, a double, a run and four RBIs. His two-run double in the eighth scored the final runs in that four-run inning.

“The whole game, every time we kept scoring, they kept battling back and tying it,” Davis said. “To bust out in the eighth inning with four runs was big.

“It’s kind of like everything’s contagious. When someone has a big game, someone else has a good game the next day. It just kind of builds off of each other. When everybody starts playing the same way the whole year, it’s kind of tough to beat someone when you have five or six guys all having big games at once.”

Kellen Kulbacki continued his recent torrid streak at home, going 3-for-4 with a double and two runs. Rookie Kyle Shaffer blasted his team-leading second home run of the season — and his second in as many games — while Scott Houin also blasted his first home run since 2009.

“That’s what we’ve come to expect out of Davis,” Schaub said. “He’s a big-game player who’s come through in the clutch for us more than anyone in the league in my opinion. That doesn’t surprise me at all.

“With Zac, his average doesn’t indicate the quality at-bats he’s been having. He works his butt off, and we’re happy to see him come through.”

Messer’s hit came after the Crushers greeted Jeremy Brewer (0-2) with a leadoff walk to Nick Mahin, a sacrifice bunt by Joel Collins and a two-base error when Shaffer’s fly ball down the right-field line was dropped by Asif Shah. Shaffer was thrown out at the plate on Messer’s hit.

With two outs, Patrick Norris followed Messer with an infield single, and Houin drove in Messer from second with an RBI single to make it 11-8. Then Davis came through with a two-run double to left-center to make it 12-8.

It could have been worse. Kulbacki followed Davis with a single up the middle. Davis, however, was caught too far off third base and was thrown out at the plate to mercifully end it for the Belters.

The rally made a winner of closer Ruben Flores (2-0). Despite allowing the game-tying double in the top of the eighth, Flores tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings with one hit, one walk and two strikeouts.

Flores’ outing was the lone bright spot in a rough pitching day for the Crushers. Starter Andrew Weeks, who came into the game 2-0, and relievers Andrew Berger, Jeff Cinadr and Kelyn Schellenberg all struggled  against a Belters team that also pounded the ball all game long.

Nine of Normal’s 14 hits went for extra bases — seven doubles and two home runs.

“I had a feeling early in the game that it was going to be that kind of game,” Schaub said. “At the end of the day, we got the job done. That’s all I really care about.”

Contact Dan Gilles at 329-7135 or dangilles73@gmail.com.