By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Last season’s leading scorer graduated in May, but the Newport boys basketball team has been playing so well in summer games there’s no reason to think they can’t be 9th Region champions once again next year.
After winning six straight games in the gold bracket at the Lawrenceburg Shootout in Indiana last weekend, the Wildcats won a pair of summer league games against Cincinnati St. Xavier and Covington Catholic on Tuesday.
Newport sophomore guard Taylen Kinney
“A lot of these guys they’re in the gym nonstop,” said Newport coach Rod Snapp. “They play hard, they want to win and they’re unselfish.”
The lone senior on Newport’s region championship team last season was Marquez Miller, who averaged 15.9 points and shot 59 percent from field to go along with 6.4 rebounds per game. He was recruited by Georgetown College.
The team’s four returning starters are 6-foot-9 forward James Turner and guards Taylon Kinney, Jabari Covington and DeShaun Anderson. The Wildcats added another experienced guard to the roster this spring when D.J. Jackson transferred from Cincinnati Taft.
“He’s a pass-first guy who plays super hard with high energy,” coach Snapp said of Jackson, a senior who averaged 8.2 points and 8.3 assists for Taft last season. “I mean, he’s a great addition.”
In the summer league games on Tuesday, Kinney scored 21 points against St. Xavier and 22 against CovCath. He was 13-of-27 from the field with five 3-point goals and 12-of-17 at the line in those two games.
The talented 6-foot sophomore has already received scholarship offers from a dozen Division I college programs, including Xavier, Cincinnati, Illinois, Texas A&M and Louisville. He could attract a few more this weekend when Newport plays in the Titans Shootout at Shelby County High School. It’s an NCAA-certified event that college coaches are allowed to attend.
“He’s having a great summer,” Snapp said of Kinney. “He works hard and just needs to keep doing what he’s doing. He knows there’s always room for improvement. He doesn’t just want to be good, he wants to be great. He always says that.”
Turner is the other Newport sophomore drawing attention from college recruiters. He received an offer from Kent State earlier this week.
Local softball coaches name Player of the Year in three divisions
Ella Steczynski, the lone senior on the Dixie Heights softball team that was 9th Region runner-up this season, was voted Division I Player of the Year by members of the Northern Kentucky Softball Coaches Association.
A three-year starter at shortstop, Steczynski batted .473 and scored a team-high 56 runs as the Colonels’ lead-off hitter this season. In three region tournament games, she was 5-for-11 at the plate and scored four runs.
Ella Steczynski
Kennedy Baioni of Highlands and Brooke Shewmaker of Brossart were co-winners of the Division II Player of the Year award. Both of them are seniors who have been on their team’s varsity roster since they were seventh-graders.
Baioni was the second leading hitter and a pitcher on the Highlands team that won the 9th Region championship this season. She posted a .434 batting average and 10-3 pitching record with 115 strikeouts.
Shewmaker was among the state’s leading hitters with a .585 average. She had 32 stolen bases and scored 46 runs. Over the last three seasons, she batted .547 (145 of 265).
Co-winners of Division III Player of the Year were Dayton junior Zoe Sparks and Villa Madonna freshman Emma Adams, who were also heavy hitters this spring. Their final batting averages were .551 for Sparks and .543 for Adams.
The only local player who received all-star honors was Baioni. She was a second-team selection on the Class 2A all-state team by the Kentucky Softball Coaches Association.
DIVISION I – FIRST-TEAM ALL-STARS
Ella Steczynski (Dixie Heights), Maddie Goddard (Ryle), Ava Scott (Cooper), Harper Kinman (Boone County), Tori Danneman (Notre Dame), Emilie Young (Simon Kenton), Josie Feeback (Campbell County), Avery Parsons (Ryle), Emily Schmeltz (Cooper), Landrey Dance (Simon Kenton).
Player of the Year — Ella Steczynski (Dixie Heights).
DIVISION II – FIRST-TEAM ALL-STARS
Brooke Shewmaker (Brossart), Kennedy Baioni (Highlands), Brianna Knochelman (Grant County), Kayley Bruener (Pendleton County), Kaitlyn Dixon (Highlands), Audrey Griffin (Scott), Kylie Rayburn (Grant County), Carly Cramer (Highlands), Morgan Kramer (Brossart), Mia Buemi (Newport Catholic), Lynden Noll (Beechwood).
Players of the Year — Brooke Shewmaker (Brossart), Kennedy Baioni (Highlands).
DIVISION III — FIRST-TEAM ALL-STARS
Zoe Sparks (Dayton), Emma Adams (Villa Madonna), Evie Orsua (Ludlow), Isabella Wittrock (Bellevue), Cam Kratzer (Villa Madonna), McKenzie Sullivan (Dayton), Greer Hayes (Bellevue), Oreanna Donaldson (Calvary Christian), Addy Wind (Ludlow), Keiara Nickell (Dayton), Paulina Long (Bellevue).
Players of the Year — Zoe Sparks (Dayton), Emma Adams (Villa Madonna).
Notre Dame graduate shines in first year as college student-athlete
Notre Dame Academy graduate Macie Feldman finished her freshman year at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland on the Dean’s List and was a starting guard on the women’s basketball team in 22 of 24 games.
Macie Feldman
Feldman was a four-year starter in both basketball and soccer at Notre Dame. Those two teams had a combined record of 162-43-8 for a 76.1 winning percentage with her in the varsity lineups.
She received Division I scholarship offers in both sports before deciding to attend Johns Hopkins, one of the elite medical research institutions in the world that enrolls a select number of students.
Feldman is majoring in neuroscience and made the Dean’s List that honors academic achievement with a grade-point average of 3.5 or above this semester.
Feldman averaged 4.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists as a freshman guard on the women’s basketball team that lost in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs and finished with a 21-7 record. She was the only freshman who started in more than five games for the Blue Jays.
