Just some quick thoughts with the start of high school football practice this week – and the release of the state schedule on the KHSAA’s excellent website. It’s the best site in the nation that we’ve seen – and should be a must for all high school sports fans. Check in at Kentucky High School Athletic Association for up-to-date scores, rosters, records, history, school info and so much more on all KHSAA sports.
But today we’re talking Northern Kentucky high school football a little more than a month away. Here goes:
• NOWHERE IN KENTUCKY IS THERE SO MUCH INTER-CLASS COMPETITION: It’s just the norm here and has pretty much always been. In a sport with six classes, it’s not unusual to see schedules where teams like Beechwood, Campbell County, Covington Holmes, Newport Central Catholic, Covington Catholic and others line up against rivals from at least four separate classes. You just don’t see that everywhere.
• SEEING MORE OHIO TEAMS HERE: With defending state champion Beechwood opening up at Cincinnati McNicholas and Ludlow debuting its new turf against Lockland, it’s more and more common to see Buckeye opponents. Holy Cross faces off against Cincinnati’s Dohn Community and Prep Academy as well as Middletown Christian. Campbell County plays Harrison. Dixie Heights plays Hughes. And Bellevue plays Cincinnati’s Gamble Montessori and Riverview East Academy.
• A CHANCE TO WIN AT ALL SIX LEVELS: With Lloyd Memorial jumping up to 3A from 2A and CovCath dropping down from 5A to 4A, Northern Kentucky has a chance to win more state titles. No more will CovCath and Highlands cancel one or the other in the postseason. They’ll play in the regular season keeping a great rivalry going, but then Highlands can move on in 5A with CovCath going on to a whole new world in 4A where it’s one of two Northern Kentucky teams, with Holmes, in a five-team district with Harrison County, Grant County and Mason County. Good to see CovCath and Holmes playing while it’s a whole new world for Lloyd’s Juggs as the lone Northern Kentucky team in a 3A district with Bourbon County, Lexington Catholic and Pendleton County.
• HOW WILL BEECHWOOD’S TWO-DIFFERENT-WORLDS SCHEDULE PLAY OUT? The Class 2A Tigers of new coach Jay Volker open at a tough Cincinnati McNick and then face 6A Campbell County and Simon Kenton, 5A Dixie Heights and 4A CovCath before a much less challenging back half of the schedule against 2A Bracken County, Carroll County, Gallatin County, Owen County and Walton-Verona.
• BACK IN THE LOCAL FOLD: With two nearly full Class A districts here, Bishop Brossart and Holy Cross get to play almost their entire district schedules close by with Trimble County as the fourth team with Ludlow, Brossart and Holy Cross while the Campbell County river city schools – Bellevue, Dayton, Newport and NewCath have their own district with Newport and Holy Cross dropping down from 2A.
• NUMBERS GAME FAVORS SOME, OTHERS NOT SO MUCH: With Scott moving up to 5A here, the Northern Kentucky six-team district is one of the handful of six-team districts in the state with Boone County, Conner, Cooper, Dixie Heights, Highlands and Scott. Going the other way is the 6A district here with Campbell County, Ryle and Simon Kenton needing Great Crossing out of Scott County for a four-team district.
• GOOD TO SEE LOUISVILLE ST. X SCHEDULED: Smart move by Ryle to have the Louisville power on the schedule. They’ll play Sept. 29 in Union and the local 6A teams need to compete against the guys they’re going to have to beat for a first-ever breakthrough in the state’s largest-school class. Simon Kenton is taking on 5A power Woodford County. And while Campbell County stays closer to home, the Camels do face out-of-class Beechwood, Cooper, Highlands, NewCath and CovCath.
• NEWPORT BACK HOME: Looks like with the tearing down of the condemned Newport Stadium stands and the work on the venue this summer, the Wildcats are scheduled for just a pair of home games – Lloyd on Sept. 22 and Bellevue on Oct. 13. NewCath, meanwhile, after playing out of town a year ago for its home games, will host its four home games – Walton-Verona, Scott, Newport and Dayton – all at Covington Catholic again.
• STILL SEEING DOWNSTATE TEAMS: Despite more teams here looking to Ohio or staying completely at home in Northern Kentucky before district play, we’re still seeing a decent number of downstate opponents. Cooper, for example, opens at Bardstown, then gets Lexington Henry Clay at home and then Great Crossing out of Scott County Sept. 15. Walton-Verona gets Kentucky Country Day. Bishop Brossart goes back-to-back weeks at Pineville and Nicholas County. Boone County has Paul Laurence Dunbar at home while Scott hosts North Bullitt. Holy Cross, in addition to the three Southwest Ohio schools, opens with Lexington Sayre and also hosts Morgan County. Highlands is on the road twice out of town – opening at Lexington Catholic and then at Raceland Sept. 15, a week before NewCath travels upriver to the Class A power. Lloyd picks up Bethlehem at home while Ludlow hosts Lexington Sayre and travels to Paris. Bellevue will be bussing it to Eminence, Trimble County and Jackson County. Newport opens with Henry County while Dayton has Marion County on the road, Trimble County at home. And finally, Simon Kenton has a second trip to Central Kentucky for a Sept. 22 date at Dunbar.
First kickoffs are Friday, Aug. 18. See you there.
Dan Weber writes a sports column for the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Contact him at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @dweber3440.