By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Beechwood will field a boys’ varsity soccer team for the first time this coming school year and coach Zach Rechtin expects to have 40 players on hand for the first pre-season practice session next week.
Beechwood has been a perennial power in Class A football for decades and previous efforts to get a boys’ soccer program started at the school had failed. But Rechtin expects the new sport to have a positive impact on the Fort Mitchell school.
“I respect and appreciate the sports traditions at Beechwood and I want (the teams) to be able to coexist in a positive way and support each other,” Rechtin said. “There’s going to be kids who aren’t soccer players and kids who aren’t football players. I think we can work together and do some cool stuff, spread our options out and make things leaner and stronger.”
Rechtin played high school soccer at Newport Central Catholic and was an assistant coach there for one season. He now coordinates wellness programs for the Beechwood Independent School District. He has a stepson who attends the high school and two sons who attend the elementary school.
Rechtin’s return to high school coaching began last year when Beechwood had boys’ soccer teams competing on the junior varsity and freshman levels. The junior varsity team played nine matches and finished with a 7-0-2 record. The players on that team will be the nucleus of the Tigers’ first varsity team along with a few newcomers. They will play a full varsity schedule and be eligible for both the All “A” Classic and post-season playoffs.
“We’re going to take our lumps, but I think we’ll also surprise some people,” Rechtin said. “This will be a good experience for everybody. It’s all part of growing up and I think they’ll come out better on the other end of it.”
The Tigers will play all of their games on the road this season. Rechtin said the football field at Beechwood is too narrow for soccer, but it could be expanded the in the near future when the synthetic turf is replaced. He’s just not sure if he’ll still be coaching the soccer team if and when that takes place.
“It’s been a lot of fun so far, but I’ve said all along after this first couple years I’d want them to open it up and do a search to get the best person to coach these boys, even if it’s not me,” Rechtin said. “I’m always going to want what’s best for the kids. I’m not in it for me.”
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When Vicki Wofford resigned as Ludlow girls’ basketball coach, it was shocking news. Last season, the Panthers won the Divison III conference championship and finished with a winning record for the first time in six years with her in charge of the program.
But Wofford had a good reason for stepping down. She wants to watch her youngest daughter, Tori, continue her basketball career at St. Catherine College in Springfield, Ky., next season.
“It was a rough few weeks prior to my resignation,” Wofford said, “because I love the girls (on the team) and I love coaching, but I don’t want to miss (Tori) play.”
The coach’s daughter was one of three seniors on the Ludlow team that posted a 15-14 record last season. Tori Wofford averaged 16.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.6 steals as the Panthers’ point guard. She was voted Division III Player of the Year by local coaches.
Coach Wofford said she made the decision to resign in early June, but she wanted to conduct summer team camps with Ludlow’s returning players before she broke the news to them. She will continue to work as the school’s financial analyst and her husband, Randy, will remain the Ludlow boys’ varsity coach. His team also won a Division III conference title last season.
Another member of the Wofford family plans to apply for the girls’ head coaching position. Kassie Wofford, the oldest daughter of Randy and Vicki, was the Ludlow girls’ junior varsity coach the last two seasons and knows the talent the team has returning.
“Obviously, I want to see them succeed and I hope whoever does get the program that they will continue in that direction,” Vicki Wofford said. “The girls have a lot of potential and they’ve been working really hard.”
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Representatives of BB&T Arena and Northern Kentucky University are working on a contract with a local business that’s interested in sponsoring the Kentucky girls’ state high school basketball tournament for the next two years.
The arena in Highland Heights was selected as the site for the 2016 and 2017 girls’ state tournaments by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. The five-day tournament was played at Diddle Arena on the Western Kentucky University campus for the last 15 years, but that contract was not renewed after 2015.
Houchens Industries was the state tournament’s corporate sponsor when it was played at Dibble Arena. Staff members at BB&T Arena will not divulge the local business that’s interested in sponsoring the 2016 and 2017 tournments until a contract is finalized.
Following the two-year period at BB&T Arena, the KHSAA Board of Control will evaluate the state tournament’s success there and determine a direction for the future. The total attendance at the 2015 girls’ state tournament was 38,489, based on attendance figures posted on KHSAA box scores following each session. The local arena’s goal would undoubtedly be to surpass that total.