By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Three soccer players in Northern Kentucky will begin their senior season this week on watch lists for the High School All-American Games to be played on Dec. 3 in Raleigh, N.C.
Cooper forward Adam Snow is the only boys’ soccer player from Kentucky currently on the watch list that a committee of coaches will use to select 20 players for the West team and 20 players for the East team.
There are six players from Kentucky on the girls’ watch list, including Boone County senior midfielder Peyton Black and Simon Kenton senior forward/midfielder Abby Zoeller. They will also be considered for 20 roster spots on one of two teams.
According to the selection criteria on the High School All-American Games website, they’re looking for all-state players and team leaders who will likely receive college scholarship offers.
In Kentucky, one all-state soccer team is selected for Regions 1-8 and another is selected for Regions 9-16. Last season, Zoeller and Black were both first-team selections in girls and Lamb was a second-team selection in boys.
Zoeller had team-high totals of 31 goals and 26 assists for Simon Kenton last year and led her team to the 8th Region championship. Black scored 18 goals with 11 assists for her Boone County team that was 9th Region runner-up.
Snow was the leading scorer for the Cooper boys’ team with 29 goals and 13 assists last year. The Jaguars lost in the 9th Region semifinals to eventual state champion Covington Catholic.
Dayton names new boys’ head basketball coach
Brian Volpenhein filled the last head coaching vacancy in Northern Kentucky high school basketball when he was put in charge of the Dayton boys’ program.
Volpenhein, 25, spent the last two seasons coaching Dayton’s junior varsity team and serving as a varsity assistant. He was hired to replace Billy Rogg, who resigned as head coach in July.
The Greendevils finished last season with a 13-15 record and two of team’s top scorers – forward Draven Garcia and guard Sam Brewer — are among the returning players.
Volpenhein said the team’s reaction to him getting the job was very positive.
“They’re pretty excited,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of seniors in this group and they all kind of talked to me before hand and encouraged me to get it. They wanted to keep things going so they were excited and that was good to see.”
Volpenhein played high school basketball at Holy Cross. He was a practice player with the Xavier University women’s basketball team while he attended college and learned a lot about player development.
The young head coach got a chance to work with the Dayton players during summer teams camps. Now he must wait until Oct. 15 to begin organized practice sessions for the 2016-17 season.
“Me and Billy agreed on most things and he ran a pretty good ship, but we will change some things, sort of just procedural stuff,” Volpenhein said. “The way we play will be similar as far as being fast and being tough and those sorts of things.”
Eleven high school basketball teams in Northern Kentucky will have new head coaches next season. There were seven coaching changes in girls’ basketball and four in boys’ basketball.
Beechwood, St. Henry win regional golf titles
Beechwood won the 9th Region All “A” Classic girls’ golf tournament last week to qualify for the small-school state tournament to be played Sept. 10 at Woodson Bend in Somerset.
Beechwood’s winning score was 360, followed by Villa Madonna with a 377. Jenna Doumont of Villa Madonna was individual medalist with an 80. The next best scores were an 86 by Loren Eberle of Beechwood and an 89 by Liz Roch of St. Henry.
Doumont and Roch were individual qualifiers for the state tournament. Other members of the Beechwood team are Olivia Sletto, Tara-Lynne Skinner and Hannah Eberts.
St. Henry won the 9th Region All “A” Classic boys’ golf title earlier this month with a team that included Brian Duggan, Ethan Berling, Elliott Berling, Michael Sikra and Sam Connett. They also advance to the state tournament on Sept. 10 in Somerset.
The boys’ individual state qualifiers were regional medalist Nolan Schrand of Holy Cross and Brett Biehl of Newport Central Catholic.
Holmes, Holy Cross revise football schedules
The football stadium at Holmes High School won’t be used for games this season because the press box is reportedly considered unstable.
That forced the Holmes and Holy Cross football teams to move home games to other fields, including the season-opener against each other on Friday. That game will be played at 5:30 p.m. at Covington Catholic.
Here are the revised Holmes and Holy Cross football schedules with the new sites and times for their home games:
HOLMES BULLDOGS
Aug. 19 – vs. Holy Cross at CovCath, 5:30 p.m.
Aug. 26 – vs. Paris at Lloyd, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 2 – at Walton-Verona, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 9 – at Lloyd, 7 p.m.
Sept. 16 – at Bellevue, 7 p.m.
Sept. 23 – vs. Harrison County at Lloyd, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 7 – vs. Bourbon County at Boone County, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 14 – at Mason County, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 21 – at Scott, 7 p.m.
Oct. 27 – at Newport, 7 p.m.
HOLY CROSS INDIANS
Aug. 19 – vs. Holmes at CovCath, 5:30 p.m.
Aug. 27 – vs. Walton-Verona at Thomas More, 1 p.m.
Sept. 9 – at Taft (Ohio), 7 p.m.
Sept. 16 – at Scott, 7 p.m.
Sept. 23 – vs. Beechwood at CovCath, 7 p.m.
Sept. 30 – at Bardstown Bethlehem, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 7 – at Newport Central Catholic, 7 p.m.
Oct. 14 – at Newport, 7 p.m.
Oct. 22 – vs. Lloyd at Thomas More, 1 p.m.
Oct. 28 – at Bellevue, 7:30 p.m.