By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
With four golfers returning from last year’s Region 7 boys’ championship team, Ryle coach John Kells is looking forward to the 2016 high school golf season that officially begins on Friday.
The Raiders won their third consecutive regional team title last season with four sophomores in their five-player lineup. The team leader was Ryan Clements, who shot 2-under 70 at Boone Links to take medalist honors.
Clements spent the summer playing on junior golf tours and won two tournaments. He also placed eighth in the Northern Kentucky Men’s Amateur that included some of the area’s top golfers of all ages.
“He has had multiple under-par rounds and his ranking in the state and nationally is climbing,” Kells said of Clements. “According to the Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings, he is in the top 15 in the state among returning high school golfers and 206th in the country in his graduating class.”
The other returning golfers for Ryle are Justin Paoletti, Tim Alexander and Zach Catalano. The addition of Luke Herbst, who tied for seventh place in last year’s regional, makes the Raiders’ lineup even stronger. He transferred to Ryle from Heritage Academy along with his brothers, Logan and Lincoln Herbst.
Kells expects Covington Catholic and St. Henry to be the other top contenders in the regional once again this season. Both teams have golfers who were among the top finishers in last year’s tournament. Neal Schroer of CovCath placed second and St. Henry teammates Brian Duggan and Ethan Berling tied for third.
“It will be fun to watch all three teams battle it out all season long,” Kells said. “The great thing is that all three teams have good young men. They may be rivals, but they compete with class. It is fun to watch them play.”
The Ryle girls’ golf team is considered a top contender for the Region 6 title along with defending champion Notre Dame. The top returning golfers for Ryle are sisters Olivia and Brooklynn DiPaolo while Notre Dame has Abby Bricking and Lauren Bracken back in the lineup.
“I like our chances of being regional champs this season,” said Ryle girls’ golf coach Jeremy Thornton. “But Notre Dame is always talented, tough and determined and they are not just going to give us that title.”
Burnett returns to Beechwood football coaching staff
None of the high school football teams in Northern Kentucky have a new head coach this year, but one of the most respected assistant coaches in the area has made a career move.
Bob Burnett, an assistant coach at Cooper for the last six seasons, has returned to Beechwood, where he spent 15 years on the Tigers’ coaching staff from 1991 to 2005.
Burnett, 65, said the main reason for the switch was he owns a home adjacent to Beechwood High School so he’s able to walk to practice sessions and home games.
“I hated leaving (Cooper head coach) Randy (Borchers), but it’s just so convenient,” Burnett said. “Plus, my youngest daughter is going to be working (at Beechwood) this year and my grandkids will all be going there. I’ve got one going into the first grade already.”
Burnett has been a Northern Kentucky high school football coach for more than 30 years. He was head coach at Dixie Heights from 1978 to 1990 before joining the Beechwood staff as an assistant. He took charge of the program during the 2002 season while Beechwood head coach Mike Yeagle was on a leave of absence for medical reasons.
When he retired from teaching in 2006, Burnett left the Beechwood football program. But he continued coaching football as an assistant at Turpin High School in Ohio, Lloyd and Cooper.
The Northern Kentucky Football Coaches Association named Burnett the assistant coach of the year in 2014 when he served as the offensive line coach at Cooper. He said coaching linemen will be his responsibility on the Beechwood staff as well.
Soccerama 2016 scrimmage games set for Aug. 4-6
Northern Kentucky boys’ soccer teams will play 11 preseason scrimmage games over three days during Soccerama 2016 at Simon Kenton High School.
Two games are scheduled each evening on Thursday, Aug. 4 and Friday, Aug. 5. The other seven games will be played from morning until night on Saturday, Aug. 6. Admission each day will be $5 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens.
In one of the games on Aug. 6, defending state champion Covington Catholic will play Cooper at 6:30 p.m. Last season, CovCath defeated Cooper, 3-0, in the semifinals of the 9th Region playoffs and went on to become the first Northern Kentucky boys’ soccer team to win a state title.
But the Colonels lost nine starters to graduation and the newcomers in the lineup for the preseason scrimmage game will be facing one of the state’s top scorers in Cooper senior forward Adam Snow, who had 29 goals and 13 assists last year.
SOCCERAMA 2016 SCHEDULE
Thursday, Aug. 4
Dixie Heights vs. Newport Central Catholic, 6 p.m.
Highlands vs. Boone County, 7:45 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 5
Scott vs. Holy Cross, 6 p.m.
Ryle vs. Campbell County, 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 6
Walton-Verona vs. Holmes, 8:30 a.m.
Grant County vs. Calvary Christian, 10 a.m.
Villa Madonna vs. Carroll County, 11:30
Pendleton County vs. Beechwood, 1 p.m.
St. Henry vs. Conner, 5 p.m.
Covington Catholic vs. Cooper, 6:30 p.m.
Simon Kenton vs. Brossart, 8 p.m.