By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
There were some uncertain moments during the tryouts, but Cooper basketball player Yamil Rondon managed to earn a spot on the Puerto Rico under-17 boys national team that will compete in the Centrobasket Championship set for July 26-30 in Belize.
Rondon was eligible for the team because both of his parents were born in Puerto Rico. He has spent most of the summer going through daily tryouts on the Caribbean island that is a United States commonwealth.
Cooper basketball player Yamil Rondon posted an autographed publicity photo after being named to Puerto Rico’s under-17 boys national team.
“I went from honestly being the 10th man and almost being cut to playing point guard in most of our scrimmages,” he said. “I just turned it around, and now we’ve got our team. We’re ready.”
The tournament field has teams from Belize, Panama, Jamaica and Puerto in one pool. The other pool includes Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Mexico.
After three days of pool play, the top two teams in each pool will face off in the semifinals on July 29. The championship game is set for July 30.
Videos and scoring summaries of the games will be posted on the Centrobasket Championship website.
Rondon, 16, said he won’t be in the Puerto Rican team’s starting lineup, but he knows what head coach Jorge Rincon wants him to do coming off the bench.
“Run the team, create for others, and he said sometimes I can score off the dribble,” Rondon said. “If I think I can take them (to the basket), I can go.”
Cooper made it to the championship game of the 9th Region tournament last March with Rondon as the team’s floor leader. His three-game totals included 55 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds. He was also 19-of-38 from the field with six 3-point goals and 11-of-15 at the foul line.
If he does well in his first international tournament, shifty the 5-foot-11, 140-pound point guard should attract some attention from college recruiters.
“I think it’s going to be great for me,” Rondon said. “Having this on my resume is going to be huge.”
Delay in stadium renovation changes Newport football schedule
An unforeseen delay in the renovation of Newport Stadium means the football team will be playing their games on the road for most of the upcoming season.
Tony Watts
“The company that will install our bleachers is currently installing new bleachers at Lloyd High School and they are still working there,” said Tony Watts, superintendent of Newport Independent Schools, in a press release. “So that is going to put us two months behind and our stadium won’t likely be ready until the end of October.”
Newport was unable to use its 86-year-old stadium last season after it failed a building inspection. The board of education voted in favor of demolishing the historic structure and replacing it with a new one.
The first game at the renovated stadium was scheduled for Sept. 22, but that will now be played at Lloyd. Newport will then play its three Class 1A district seeding games against Bellevue, Dayton and Newport Central Catholic on the road during the month of October.
If the Wildcats get a home game in the first round of the post-season playoffs, school officials hope the new stadium will be ready by then.
Realignment moves cross country, track teams to new classes
Four local high schools were moved to new classes in cross country and track in a statewide realignment that was approved by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association on Wednesday.
Maddie Strong
For the next two years, Scott and Highlands will compete in Class 3A, the division for high schools with the highest enrollments. Covington Catholic is moving down to Class 2A and will be joined by Lloyd, a team moving up from Class 1A.
Scott senior Maddie Strong, one of the top runners in Class 2A girls cross country, will be facing a higher level of competition in Class 3A. Last fall, she won the Class 2A state meet after placing fourth as a freshman and sophomore and third as an eighth-grader.
CovCath junior Will Sheets is another state champion distance runner who will be adjusting to a new class. Last year, he won the Class 3A boys state cross country meet and placed first in the boys 3,200-meter run at the Class 3A state track meet.
The top boys distance runner in Class 2A last year was Thomas Nelson sophomore Riku Sugie. He was the state champion in cross country and won the 1,600 and 3,200 runs at the state track meet.
