By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
This week, Dixie Heights boys head basketball coach Scott Code gets to spend time with his older brother, David, who returned home from Texas to celebrate Christmas with his family.
Scott sees his other older brother, Mike, nearly every day because he’s an assistant coach for the Colonels, who are off to a 7-2 start this season. Basketball is a bond those two brothers have shared for a long time.
“We talk pretty much every single night on the phone,” Scott said. “It’ll be about anything from practice, hashing out what we want to do the next day, or about what went right and what went wrong in a game. We’ll spend anywhere from a half hour to an hour on the phone.”
Scott is 52 years old and Mike is 56. Their father, Bill Code, was also a successful Northern Kentucky high school basketball coach. He took Lloyd teams to the 9th Region final in 1978 and 1983.
The brothers have coached together for years. It started in 2004 when Mike became head coach at Brossart and Scott was one of his assistants.
Mike went on to win 303 games in 16 seasons and the 2007 All “A” Classic state championship. When he stepped down after the 2019-20 season, Scott took over as head coach of the Mustangs for two years.
Basketball brought the brothers together again in 2024 when Scott became head coach at Dixie Heights and he asked Mike to join his staff.
“(Mike) had stepped away from basketball for a couple of years and I guess he was just willing to return the favor for all years that I was his assistant,” Scott said of getting reunited with his brother.
As a head coach, Scott had a 49-32 record in three seasons at Campbell County and 25-30 record in two seasons at Brossart. He’s currently 28-12 at Dixie Heights. When he notched his 100th career victory last week, he got to celebrate the milestone with his older brother and his son, Alex, a junior guard on the Dixie Heights team.
“I was on (Mike’s) staff when he was able to get his 100th and 200th career wins (at Brossart), so for him to be on staff for my 100th, that means a lot.” Scott said.
Like their father, the Code brothers demand a lot from their players. In their first season back together at Dixie Heights, the team posted a 21-10 record with Chase Holthaus and Jordan Catchen as the other assistants on the coaching staff.
“We just hold our players to high standards and more often than not the players will rise to the occasion,” Scott said.
“Some people think you can’t coach kids hard. We just don’t believe in that. It’s not always comfortable to get there, but ultimately they want to win and we’re helping them do that.”
Dixie Heights has a veteran floor leader in senior point guard Tyson Metzger. The other returning starters are 6-foot-6 junior center Hunter Seng and 6-foot-4 senior forward Max Rubemeyer, who had team-high averages of 17 points and 7.3 rebounds after the first six games.
Rubemeyer and two of his senior teammates — Hudson Morris and Elijah Givens — are also outstanding students who took part in the Governor’s Scholars Program.
“We like our guys,” Scott said. “They’re super smart and really just outstanding individuals. We just need to keep on growing as a team.”
The Colonels’ two losses came in close games against Campbell County, 60-56, and Danville Christian, 46-43. Those teams currently have a combined record of 12-2 and Danville Christian was the All “A” Classic state champion last season.
“Within a possession of two, we could potentially be undefeated,” Scott said. “But, quite frankly, we don’t deserve to be undefeated. We still have some room for growth. We know that this team can play better than what we’re playing right now, not in terms of win-loss record, but just some mistakes we’re making that we just need to rectify.”
Dixie Heights will return to action Saturday with a game against Breathitt County in the first round of the Railroad Classic at Estill County. That gives Scott a couple days to enjoy Christmas with his two brothers and the rest of the family.