The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Two Franklin High School athletes formalized their college choices November 11 during a National Signing Day ceremony at the school.
Josh Kuroda-Grauer, a shortstop on the FHS baseball team, with be playing hardball for Rutgers University come the 2021-22 school year.
Maddy Straub, a center-back for the girls’ soccer team, will continue her athletic career at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where she plans to study nursing.
Ken Margolin, FHS’s athletic director, had high praise for both student-athletes.
“I don’t think there’s a finer young man in the building,” Margolin said of Kuroda-Grauer, who played both baseball and basketball for the Warriors.
“I think that’s a tribute to your parents and your upbringing and your family, but I really respect you and what you’ve accomplished here,” Margolin said. “You’ve been a leader from day one, you’ve been confident in your decisions and that has paid off with where you’re going and what you’re going to be doing at the next level.”
Straub, Margolin said, is “a beautiful young lady, a tremendous athlete, (with a) tremendous upbringing.”
“Watching your growth in the four years … has been really breathtaking and amazing, and we thank you for everything that you’ve done for us and we hope that you get all your dreams fulfilled at the next level as well,” Margolin said.
Kuroda-Grauer said that he’s played a number of sports growing up, but baseball is his first love.
He played basketball for three years at FHS, but didn’t this season so he could focus on baseball, he said.
“it’s been a long time coming for this, but this is what I wanted to do, play at a high level in high school and especially in college,” he said.
Straub said she was both “excited and nervous” about the prospect of going to college.
Straub said she’s only been playing soccer for about six years, and got interested in the sport watching her brother play.
“I got into it and liked it more, so I continued,” she said.
Straub said she picked Wilkes because, “I like the campus and just the way they treat their students. I met the team and they’re all really nice people, so I thought it would be a good place to continue.”
Here are some scenes from the day:
