Dan Weber’s Just Sayin’: New at TMU softball this weekend, honors still coming for top NKy hoopsters


Joining the Thomas More baseball team’s minor league spring stadium with a state-of-the-art complex of its own, the Saints softball program will debut an extensively renovated facility with a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday at 9 a.m. A noon Great Midwest Athletic Conference doubleheader against Ursuline College will follow at noon.

The softball complex, off Thomas More Parkway at the southern end of the campus, has replaced the outfield grass with artificial turf adding new side fencing as well as “four turfed batting cages, two turfed bullpens, a new scoreboard, netting along the third baseline, a new outfield fence and windscreen, a new backstop and netting, set bleachers and concrete walkways.”

But that’s not all as the TMU Softball Complex also adds a new, free-standing locker room and concessions building. These improvements, the TMU press release says, are part of the university’s “targeted enhancements of athletics facilities as a priority in its Strategic Plan – Lighting the Way.”

TWO HERE MAKE C-J’S 1ST-TEAM ALL-STATE

The Courier-Journal’s all-state teams have always been the standard in Kentucky so it matters when two Northern Kentucky athletes – one boy, one girl – were named to the Top 10 in voting by 118 high school basketball coaches in the state.

Taylen Kinney (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)

Newport sophomore Taylen Kinney and Cooper senior Logan Palmer, both 6-foot-1, highlight the local talent. The explosive Kinney, whose state tournament appearance this year was limited to a couple of minutes with a hamstring injury finished No. 7 in the boys’ voting. But with a list of offers from the likes of Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Xavier, probably would have been higher had he been healthy for his first-round Rupp Arena game. Kinney averaged 17.5 ppg with 4.0 rebounds on 41.4-percent shooting from three-point range.

Cooper’s Logan Palmer (File photo)

Palmer, who has signed with Evansville, helped lead her Jaguars to three straight Ninth Region titles and this year’s Sweet 16 semifinals while scoring 15.8 points a game with 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals, finished as Kentucky’s No. 9 player in the girls’ voting.

BOYS TOP 5 ALL-STATE: Kentucky’s top five boys: Mr. Basketball Travis Perry out of state champ Lyon County, a 28-6-ppg scorer, headed to UK, is No. 1; Harlan County’s 6-7 scorer Trent Noah, a 48-point scorer against Campbell County in the state quarterfinals (South Carolina) No. 2; Great Crossing’s 7-1 Malachi Moreno, a junior leading a team (including 6-5 junior wing Vince Dawson, the state’s No. 8 player, that should be in a coin-flip with Newport for No. 1 preseason. Moreno has been offered by the likes of Alabama, Baylor, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Purdue and Tennessee. No. 4 is Warren Central’s 6-5 senior Kade Unseld, signed with Western Kentucky. . No. 5 is Oldham County’s 6-6 Max Green, the state’s leading scorer at 32.1 ppg, who will play at Holy Cross.

GIRLS TOP 5 ALL-STATE: Sacred Heart’s 6-foot junior ZaKiyah Johnson, after leading the Valkyries to their fourth straight state title, topped the girls’ team and has offers from the likes of Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, South Carolina, Southern California, Tennessee, UCLA and UConn, among others, the C-J reports. No. 2 is Bethlehem’s 6-2 Leah Macy, who averaged 25.0 ppg. Next is 5-5 Pikeville senior Trinity Rowe, this year’s Kentucky Miss Basketball headed to Southern Mississippi. No. 4 is McCracken County’s 5-10 senior Claire Johnson (23.1 ppg) headed to Samford. Danville Christian’s 6-5 junior Grace Mbugua rounds out the top five after averaging 25.7 points and 15.4 rebounds a game.

COMING ATTRACTION

With dynamic senior-to-be point guard leader Yamil Rondon, moving from Cooper to Newport and transferring to the two-time defending champion Wildcats this spring, Coach Rod Snapp will have a still-young team with four Division I prospects — unlike any we’ve seen since those five straight regional champion Covington Catholic teams of Mote Hils in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Rondon will be joined by 6-7 junior-to-be James Turner and 6-8 sophomore-to-be Griffin Starks as well as Kinney not to mention sophomore-to-be Amontae Lowe, who stepped in for Kinney. It will be interesting to see how tall that group is in another year.

Caden Miller (File photo)

What a great opportunity to up even more what was already a specially challenging Newport schedule with top out-of-state opponents. And just a guess here, no need with this team’s talent and experience to rein in the half-court offense. Or maybe even to play a great deal of half-court at all. The more time the ball goes up, the better chance this Wildcats’ team should have to win.

MOVING ON . . . AND UP

CovCath’s Caden Miller, the 6-9 senior center who finished among the KHSAA leaders in both rebounds per game (10.5) and field goal percentage 67.8 (196 of 289), announced this week his next two destinations. He’ll first head to Atlanta and the Overtime Elite League as part of the yngdreamrz top team before moving on to North Carolina’s Moravian Prep program. “My next chapter,” Caden calls it, thanking “all of the college coaches who have expressed interest in me as I explore more recruitment options. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to play for this elite program!” Good move as Caden figures out exactly what the best position for him to play in college as he develops his Division I, low-post skill set.

Thomas More University’s new softball field

New batting cages, softball building at TMU (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
TMU’s renovated softball complex. (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
Getting ready for Saturday at Saints’ softball. (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.


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