By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
The next chapter of Northern Kentucky High School football is less than three weeks away. Which is when we’ll begin to know the answers to many of our questions about how the fall of 2023 will play out.
What questions, you ask.
Here are 10 of them:
• What happens at Beechwood with new coach Jay Volker stepping in for Noel Rash after the coaching legend’s retirement after winning six state championships in the last seven seasons — three each in Class A and 2A? Even without the retirement of the uber-respected – and successful – Rash who won eight state titles in his teams’ nine appearances from 2007 through 2022, the Fort Mitchell school would be the top story. But with Cincinnati Elder alum Volker, only the fourth head coach in the last 51 years for the Tigers, stepping in this spring, the Beechwood story is even more newsworthy.
• How does Scott handle the sudden departure of new head coach Jake Owens before he’d coached a single game with his replacement Steve Hensley stepping in just 22 days before the opener? It hasn’t been easy sailing in football for Scott’s Eagles much of the time but losing a head coach who had yet to coach a game three weeks before the opener is a real kick in the pants. The Eagles have gotten a veteran in Hensley to step in and this could be an opportunity for the folks out Taylor Mill way to pull together – what other choice do they have? – and make the best of a tough deal.
• How do the pair of highly touted SEC commits – two-way 6-foot-4, 295-pound lineman Aba Selm of Simon Kenton and 6-4, 235-pound tight end/linebacker Willie Rodriguez of Covington Catholic, both headed to UK, fare? It’s been a while since Northern Kentucky has had a pair of Power Five prospects, much less ones headed to the SEC, in the same season. Should be fun to watch these two develop. You’ll get an early chance as their teams face off Sept. 1 at CovCath.
• What about Lloyd Memorial, moving up to Class 3A as the lone Northern Kentucky team there, how does that work out for the Juggernauts? Well, it worked once, back in 1976 when that Lloyd team, in Class 3A, won the second of the school’s two state football titles with the other in Class A in 1965. And now back in 3A, Lloyd has an interesting schedule mix in classes above and below, but gets the district game that matters most – against a Lexington Catholic team coming off a 10-3 season, with a veteran team right there on the new turf in Erlanger Oct. 13.
• Does Bishop Brossart, coming back to a Northern Kentucky Class A district, benefit from the move? The Mustangs have to. Getting into a Class A district with Ludlow and Holy Cross has to benefit Brossart in every way – from fan and rivalry interest to scouting. No more need to head south from Alexandria to Paris, Bracken County and Nicholas County.
• Could this be the year Northern Kentucky finally becomes competitive in Class 6A? You wouldn’t want to put your money on that. Since the inception of Class 6A in 2007, Northern Kentucky is zero for 16 and no matter what the classes were called, from the three-division setup to the current six, no big school – or formerly big – school here has won a state title. The two teams who made it to the 6A finals in that time, Dixie Heights in 2014 and Simon Kenton in 2008, lost by a combined score of 95-14.
• Does the drop down to Class 4A benefit CovCath? You would surely think so. The last of CovCath’s eight state titles came in 2017 and 2019 in Class 5A, where the Colonels battled Highlands for the right to move on. They’ll certainly have a shot this time around although state powers Corbin and Boyle County always seem to be there at the end. But in the district, CovCath gets back to a local rivalry game with Holmes and then hits the county circuit – Mason, Grant and Harrison County.
• Will this be the season that Highlands, separated from CovCath for the first time, gets back to looking like those Highlands’ programs of old? Well, the folks in Fort Thomas certainly seem to have found the right coach in Bob Sphire, which is the place to start. And with CovCath dropping down to 4A, the Birds will have a clearer path to go deeper into the playoffs from the Boone County-heavy 5A district with Conner, Cooper and Boone County as well as Dixie Heights and Scott. The question for Highlands is do the Birds have that old-time Highlands’ talent that won them a second-best-in-the-state 23 football titles.
• Is there a future – or even a positive present outlook – for the urban programs at river city schools like Covington Holmes, Newport, Dayton, Bellevue and Ludlow? Good question. What was once the state’s fabled Class A district, with Beechwood, Ludlow, Dayton, Bellevue and Lloyd having all won Class A titles with newcomer Holy Cross a 2A titlist, tough times have come along with dropping demographics. Two-time titlist Bellevue didn’t have enough players to finish out the season and along with neighbor Dayton, are the two programs here still playing on grass. Could they possibly go together to build a shared field? They could not, is the answer you hear from longtime football folks here. “Not in my lifetime,” one told us. Newport, now in Class A with Holmes in 3A, have both had much more success over the past half-century in basketball. As for NewCath, also in Class A with its Campbell County neighbors, has some serious talent but is also in a serious battle to keep enrollment up. Will they, can they? Don’t sell the small schools short has always been the smart way to go.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @dweber3440.