Softball Team Honors Memory of Major Parent Supporter

UPDATE: The FLHS softball team won 11-1 in six innings.

The Fair Lawn High School softball program will honor the memory of one of its most loyal supporters Monday night, when the Cutters take on St. Mary's at the Dobrow Complex.

The game, which starts at 6 p.m., is being played in memory of Lisa Sudol, the mother of senior shortstop Ashley Sudol, who died last month after a brief battle with lung cancer. She was 48.

Sudol, whose older daughter Alison also played softball at the high school, had been highly involved in Fair Lawn athletics and never missed a softball game, varsity coach Sue Benjamin said.

"This family has been part of Fair Lawn softball for a long time and Lisa Sudol was very involved in our support system," Benjamin said. "Whenever you needed something you could always call her and she would help us out."

Benjamin said it's been tough for the entire Fair Lawn softball community, but that she's proud of the way her team — both current and former members — has pulled together.

"Having a part of your family taken away was tough for everybody, but I think it was good to see all the kids rally around Ashley and her family and kind of do whatever they could to help Ashley through this," she said. "It's a long process. It doesn't happen in a day or a week or a month, but I believe that these girls will be there for each other for a long time after their high school season is over. And that's what makes me most proud."

Christina Danko, a former FLHS softball player and friend of the Sudol family, has been the primary driver of Monday's "Strike Out Lung Cancer" event.

"I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to turn something so tragic into a happy night for her family," she said. "Our families have become very close and my mother and Lisa were best friends."

The field at Monday's game will be decorated with white ribbons and balloons for lung cancer and players will wear hair ribbons, pins and a helmet sticker to honor Lisa Sudol.

Alison Sudol, now a sophomore in college, will sing the National Anthem, a member of the Sudol family will throw out the first pitch and Lisa's husband, Robert, will likely say a few words, Benjamin said.

Community members are invited to attend the game. Any donations made will be given to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where Lisa Sudol was treated while she was ill.

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