As we head into high school district play in both softball and baseball with the regular season ending this weekend, we’re looking back at a year in both sports that has left Northern Kentucky with no obvious challenger for state titles, unlike in recent years.
In the final softball rankings from the state’s coaches, only one Northern Kentucky team appears among the Top 25 – and they’re way down at No. 19 where the 25-6 Highlands’ Bluebirds are ranked. No one else here made the list.
Coaches’ final Top 25 softball poll: 1. South Warren, 2. Assumption, 3. Greenwood, 4. McCracken County, 5. Henderson County, 6. Daviess County, 7. Scott County, 8. Male, 9. Harrison County, 10. Lafayette, 11. Oldham County, 12. Bullitt East, 13. Madison Central, 14. Anderson County, 15. Allen County-Scottsville, 16. North Laurel, 17. Livingston Central, 18. Ballard, 19. Highlands, 20. LaRue County, 21. Rowan County, 22. Frederick Douglass, 23. Montgomery County, 24. Meade County, 25. Barren County.
Baseball, with three Louisville schools ranked 1-2-3 by Prep Baseball Kentucky in St. Xavier, Trinity and Ballard, has just one Top 25 local team as well in No. 16 Ryle (23-10-1) although they do list another 28 “teams to watch” including Beechwood (21-10-1), Campbell County (23-10-1) and Covington Catholic (19-10).
Prep Baseball Kentucky Top 25. 1. St. Xavier, 2) Trinity, 3) Ballard, 4) McCracken County, 5) Sayre, 6) Pleasure Ridge Park, 7) Taylor County, 8) South Warren, 9) Whitley County, 10) Greenwood, 11) Madison Central, 12) Lexington Catholic, 13) Lyon County, 14) Larue County, 15) Boyd County, 16) Ryle, 17) Owensboro Catholic, 18) Harrison County, 19) Bowling Green, 20) Paducah Tilghman, 21) Adair County, 22) Boyle County, 23) Barren County, 24) Great Crossing, 25) Bullitt East.
Teams to watch: Beechwood, Breckinridge County. Caldwell County, Campbell County, Collins, Corbin, Covington Catholic, Danville, Elizabethtown, Frederick Douglass, George Rogers Clark, Hazard, Henry Clay, Johnson Central, Logan County, North Bullitt, North Oldham, Owensboro, Paintsville, Pulaski County, Raceland, Russell County, Scott County, South Laurel, Spencer County, St. Mary, University Heights, Woodford County.
3 NKy QB’s among state’s top 12 going into 2025
Cooper’s Cam O’Hara, Ryle’s Nathan Verax and Highlands’ Rio Litmer are three of Kentucky’s top 12 quarterbacks going into the 2025 season according to an SI.com poll asking fans to see who’s their top pick in the state for next fall.
O’Hara, coming off a 5A championship game appearance last season, threw for 3,617 yards and 52 touchdowns while rushing for 186 yards and four TD. Verax threw for 2,374 yards and 30 TD, rushing for 599 yards and another seven TD in 6A. Litmer threw for 2,796 yards and 33 TD while completing 68 percent of his passes, also in 5A.
The other nine nominated QB’s: Zane Johnson, Trinity; Kade Goodin, Collins; Max Johnson, Apollo; Cameron Bischoff, DeSales; Maddox O’Neal, McCracken County; Gunner Holbrook, Letcher Central; Jeremiah Clark, Great Crossing; Mason Trimble, St. Xavier and Colin Daniels, North Oldham.
Voting continues through June 1 at this site: best high school quarterbacks in Kentucky.
Another trio of athletes for our best of NKy
We knew we couldn’t get everybody in our listing of the first three dozen athletes that mark the best of Northern Kentucky sports earlier this week. And that was correct. Here are three more who definitely deserve a spot there.
BOB BARTON: The Holmes two-sport star looked all set to head off to UK basketball and become a sharp-shooting guard for Adolph Rupp until the San Francisco Giants stepped in and made the catcher a 1959 “bonus baby” that led to a decade-long MLB career that saw Barton also play for the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds before opening an insurance agency in Southern California. Barton was one of two Northern Kentucky “bonus babies” that year with Lloyd Memorial’s Jeoff Long, who would switch from fire-balling pitcher to power-hitting first baseman but after hitting 30 home runs for the AAA Tulsa Oilers, would see his MLB time limited to two seasons and 56 games with the Cardinals and White Sox after a serious knee injury.
JAMIE WALZ RICHEY: Now the Highlands’ girls’ basketball coach at her alma mater with more than 400 career victories, Richey was named Parade Magazine National Player of the Year and Kentucky’s Miss Basketball in 1996 after a then state-record 4,948 points in her career while recording best-ever totals in state tournament scoring and record numbers for three-pointers, assists and steals. She is married to Highlands’ golf coach Brian Richey and has been honored with induction into multiple halls of fame.
NATE DUSING: Northern Kentucky’s only Olympic medalist in the modern era, the former Covington Catholic and University of Texas Collegiate Swimmer of the Year for 2001 from Villa Hills won six KHSAA championships while earning a silver medal in the 4X200 relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and a bronze medal in the 4X100 at the Athens Games in 2004 and is a KHSAA Hall of Famer.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.