By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
Eleven high school basketball teams in Northern Kentucky will have a new head coach next season, but five of the teams are still waiting for someone to be appointed to the position.
Notre Dame, Boone County and Dayton have not yet named new coaches for their girls’ basketball teams while Conner and Ludlow are still in the process of finding new boys’ head coaches.
With summer team camps getting underway, those five schools need to find someone to put in charge on an interim basis. At Conner, former head coach Jim Hicks agreed to do it until his replacement is hired.
Hicks resigned as Conner’s head coach after 13 years to become the school’s athletic director. He said it was a difficult decision to make, partly because his son, Jared, will be a freshman in the Cougars program.
“I’d coached other people’s kids for so long that I was really looking forward to coaching my own,” Hicks said. “But this is an opportunity that doesn’t come up very often so when it was there I had to take it.”
Conner won the 33rd District title and made it to the semifinals of the 9th Region tournament in Hicks’ final season as head coach. It was the seventh time in his 13 seasons that the Cougars made it to the second round of the playoffs.
“I thanked the (players) for sending me out with a bang,” Hicks said. “I also told them, ‘Regardless of who takes the helm the cupboard’s not bare and you’ll still have a lot of success.’”
Randy Wofford resigned as boys’ head coach at Ludlow to spend more time with his family. He was in charge of the boys’ program for three years and was named NKAC Division III Coach of the Year last season.
Boone County is looking for a new girls’ head basketball coach to replace Jessica Wendeln, who resigned after just one season. The other girls’ coaches who stepped down and need to be replaced are Wyatt Foust at Notre Dame and Bev Smith at Dayton.
The new names already on the list of girls’ head coaches include Chris Gramke at Beechwood, Kevin Bundy at Brossart, Joel Steczynski at Dixie Heights and Davey Johnson at Newport. On the boys’ side, Newport Central Catholic hired Ken Collopy and Scott hired Steve Frommeyer as new head coaches.
N. Ky. athletes among nominees for LaRosa’s MVP of the Year
Two recent graduates of Notre Dame Academy are among the finalists for this year’s LaRosa’s Female MVP of the Year that will be presented on Sunday, June 26 during a live telecast from the CET studio in Cincinnati.
The nominees are Morgan Hentz, who was named Gatorade Player of the Year in volleyball, and Madeleine Vonderhaar, a swimmer who qualified for the state meet in four events and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
One of the nominees for the LaRosa’s Male MVP of the Year is swimmer Brendan Meyer of Covington Catholic. He is a seven-time Kentucky high school champion who also qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
A committee selects six female finalists and six male finalists for the LaRosa’s MVP of the Year awards. The other candidates for this year’s awards are from high schools in Cincinnati and Southeastern Ohio. All of the finalists will be recognized during the locally televised awards ceremony.
All three nominees from Northern Kentucky were recruited by major colleges. Hentz accepted a scholarship from Stanford University and Vonderhaar will attend the University of Virginia. Meyer is headed to the University of Arizona.
Six new members of the Buddy LaRosa’s High School Hall of Fame will also be inducted during the June 26 ceremony. One of them is Highlands graduate Jared Lorenzen, a quarterback on two state championship football teams who also played on a state runner-up basketball team.
More information about the awards presentation and induction ceremony is available on the LaRosa’s MVP website.
Football all-star game quarterbacks among scholarship recipients
Two of the offensive standouts in the Northern Kentucky East-West Senior All-Stars football game last week were among the 20 players who received $500 to be used for their college education.
Hamilton Scott of Holy Cross was a quarterback for the West team and Desean Brumfield of Holmes was a quarterback for the East team. They both threw a touchdown pass and ran for a touchdown during the all-star game at Dixie Heights.
The $500 checks Scott and Brumfield received during halftime of the game were awarded by the Northern Kentucky Football Coaches Association and made possible by St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
Each football team got to select one player for a $500 scholarship check as a reward for their commitment to the program, character and leadership qualities. The other recipients were:
Grant Lange (Beechwood), Tyler Noonchester (Bellevue), Dylon Bishop (Boone County), Frank Cetrulo (Brossart), Jimmy Garland (Campbell County), Sam Driggers (Conner), Seth Keller (Cooper), Chris Reisiger (CovCath), Harvest Gifford (Dayton), Ethan Schulte (Dixie Heights), Tanner Groneck (Highlands), Jakob Turner (Lloyd), Trent Ledbetter (Ludlow), John Harris (NewCath), Kenny Mardis (Newport), Jaret Pogliano (Ryle), Deondre Pleasant (Scott), Blake Powell (Simon Kenton).