LOCAL

Oak Harbor student remembered as passionate, caring friend

Jon Stinchcomb
Port Clinton News Herald
Ryliegh Myosky

OAK HARBOR - The Oak Harbor and Penta Career Center communities are mourning the loss of Ryliegh Myosky, who is remembered as both a passionate student and a caring friend.

Myosky, 17, a junior at Oak Harbor High School and the Penta Career Center in Perrysburg, died as the result of a car crash on Thursday in Bay Township.

He was enrolled in the landscape and turfgrass management program at Penta Career Center and loved it, where he was respected by both peers and staff members.

“He had a real passion for that kind of thing, I think because it was outdoors,” said Jeff Kurtz, director of the career center. “I knew Ryliegh quite well. He was very engaging and there were lots opportunities for interaction with him.”

Myosky loved working outside and working with large, heavy equipment, such as bulldozers.

Jody Germann, the turfgrass management instructor at Penta Career Center, said Myosky even had a summer job in the irrigation field, moving dirt and building irrigation systems using large equipment.

“He was doing very well in the program,” he said.

Myosky and another student, Lucas Crunkilton, participated in an irrigation assembly competition at the Ohio High School Landscape Olympics, where they finished second in the state as a team, earning a silver medal.

“That was a nice honor for Ryliegh and his friend Lucas,” Kurtz said. “That was the kind of passion he had.”

According to his teachers, Myosky also really enjoyed interacting with people and his classmates enjoyed interacting with him.

“He would even teach me, but in a very appropriate manner — engaging conversations over lunch, those kinds of things,” Kurtz said. “He was a fun-loving young man that people considered a good friend.”

His friends and classmates described Myosky as a jokester who was just fun to be around, as well as very caring.

“I’ve heard some young ladies talk about him as a brother,” said Guy Parmigian, superintendent of Benton-Carroll-Salem Local School District.

On Friday, Parmigian spent the day with Myosky’s fellow students and his teachers at Penta Career Center.

Myosky enjoyed outdoor activities outside of school as well, especially hunting, his friends said. Myosky shared numerous hunting and fishing photos on his Facebook page.

Parmigian announced Myosky’s death in a post on the school district’s Facebook page Thursday evening.

“This is a loss that cannot be weighed,” the superintendent said in the post.

According to the Ohio Highway Patrol, the fatal two-vehicle crash occurred around 10:52 a.m. Thursday on the access road that leads into the Little Portage Wildlife Area in Bay Township.

The access road entrance begins north of where Darr-Hopfinger Road and Mulcahy Road meet.

Myosky was driving a 2002 Ford Explorer with a passenger, LaVone Silverwood, 16, and was traveling south, side-by-side with a 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo driven by Carl Sines, 16, on the wildlife area’s narrow and snow-covered access road.

Silverwood and Sines are also both students at Oak Harbor High School and Penta Career Center.

According to the highway patrol, Sines’ vehicle slid off the right side of the road and Myosky’s Explorer traveled a few feet further, sliding off the left side of the road overturning in a creek.

Myosky was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency personnel and was transported to Gerner-Wolf-Walker Funeral Home in Port Clinton.

Silverwood and Sines both suffered minor injuries. Silverwood had to be extracted from the vehicle and was flown to ProMedica Children’s Hospital in Toledo.

The Sandusky Ohio Highway Patrol Post was assisted at the scene by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, Bay Township Fire Department, Erie Township Fire Department, Port Clinton Fire Department, North Central EMS, Mid County EMS, ProMedica, Greer Automotive/Towing and Ken’s Towing.

Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation, according to the highway patrol.

The students had the day off from school Thursday due to the snow.

“It’s a tragic situation all the way around,” said Ron Matter, superintendent of Penta Career Center.

Funeral arrangements are pending, according to the funeral home.

jstinchcom@gannett.com

419-680-4897

Twitter: @JonDBN