By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
They spend countless hours building the strength they need to man the front lines for their high school football teams, but offensive and defensive linemen don’t get much attention for all the grunt work they do.
Last Saturday, the Ryle coaching staff gave those power players a chance to strut their stuff by competing in a Lineman Challenge, a series of events that test physical strength and endurance.
“Here you have these unsung heroes who lift all winter and they don’t get to show it off,” said Ryle head coach Mike Engler. “This is just a competition where they get to do something and have a little fun.”
Players from several high school football teams took part in the Lineman Challenge at Ryle. The events were timed and points were awarded for the top six places in each one. At the end of day, awards were given to the individual and team that scored the most points.
The individual events included 185-pound bench press repetitions, carrying a 200-pound trap bar for 50 yards, tossing car tires over a goal post crossbar, pulling in a weight sled and flipping a huge tractor tire. Two of the team events were tug-of-war and pushing a pickup truck uphill.
Tyler Robinson, a senior defensive end at Highlands, had never participated in a Lineman Challenge before Saturday and he thoroughly enjoyed the events. “It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun,” he said. “It shows our skills and how much endurance we have.”
Mark Dill, an assistant coach at Highlands, used the competition as a bonding experience for his team’s linemen.
“We tried to spilt our groups up so we had some offensive and some defensive guys in each group and they got to work together,” Dill said. “It really gets their competitive juices flowing a little bit and everybody looks like they’re having fun with it.”
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High school golf season officially begins Friday and several local teams are hosting invitational tournaments next week.
Eleven of the 15 local state qualifiers in boys’ golf last season graduated. The returning state qualifiers are Ryle senior Austin Zapp, Covington Catholic junior Griffin Flesch, Beechwood junior Adam Redfield and Holy Cross senior Leighton Schrand.
On the girls’ side, Notre Dame has seniors Amy Pugliano and Erin Durstock and junior Abby Bricking back from last year’s team that won the Region 6 championship and placed 11th in the state tournament. Pugliano shot the low score in the girls’ division at the Northern Kentucky 7-Up Junior Tour Championship last week.
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Beechwood will field a boys’ varsity soccer team for the first time at Soccerama 2015, a series of pre-season games organized by Northern Kentucky coaches on Aug. 6-8 at Ryle High School.
Twelve games are on the three-day Soccerama schedule with Beechwood making its varsity debut against Pendleton County at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8. Scott, last year’s state runner-up, will play Newport Central Catholic at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7.
Admission will be $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and $2 for students. Here is the complete schedule:
2015 Boys Soccerama at Ryle High School
Thursday, Aug. 6
Walton-Verona vs. Holy Cross, 4:45 p.m.
Conner vs. Simon Kenton, 6:30 p.m.
Boone County vs. Grant County, 8:15 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 7
Covington Latin vs. Calvary Christian, 4:45 p.m.
Newport Central Catholic vs. Scott, 6:30 p.m.
Ryle vs. St. Henry, 8:15 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 8
Gallatin County vs. Holmes, 8:30 a.m.
Beechwood vs. Pendleton County, 10:15 a.m.
Villa Madonna vs. Carroll County, noon
Campbell County vs. Dixie Heights, 4:30 p.m.
Highlands vs. Cooper, 6:15 p.m.
Brossart vs. Covington Catholic, 8 p.m.