By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Former St. Henry boys basketball coach Dave Faust will receive the John Wooden Legacy Award on Friday afternoon between the first two games of the quarterfinal session of the boys state tournament at Rupp Arena.
The annual award, presented by the National High School Basketball Coaches Association in cooperation with the Wooden family, recognizes high school basketball coaches in every state who achieved excellence on the court, in the classroom and in the community.
The criteria are rooted in the ideals of education, longevity, character, service and excellence that characterized Wooden, who started his Hall of Fame coaching career at Dayton High School.
“I’m very humbled by this,” said Faust. “I lived in Dayton and probably read every book by (Wooden) about coaching.”
After spending 43 years as a teacher and coach, Faust retired after the 2024-25 season.
He was hired as St. Henry’s head basketball coach in 1991 and remained at the co-ed diocesan school. That’s where he compiled a 482-425 record in 33 seasons that set a 9th Region record for most career wins.
St. Henry’s gym floor has “Dave Faust Court” painted on it as a tribute to the coach who guided the Crusaders to their first and only 9th Region boys basketball championship in 2003. St. Henry also won 10 9th Region All “A” Classic titles and three Kentucky All “A” Classic state championships under Faust.
Former teammates could be rivals in NCAA playoffs
The two leading scorers on the Ryle girls basketball team that won the 2019 state championship could be going against each other in the second round of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament that starts this weekend.
Maddie Scherr is a graduate student guard on the Texas Christian University team. Lauren Schwartz-Wilson is a second-year assistant coach on the University of Washington staff.
If both of those teams win first-round games on Friday, they will face each other on Sunday in Sacramento. The first-round matchups are No. 3-seed TCU vs. No. 14 UC San Diego and No. 6 Washington vs. No. 11 South Dakota State.
On Ryle’s state championship team, Wilson was a senior guard who averaged 19.2 points and Scherr was a junior guard who averaged 15.1. Scherr received the state tournament’s most valuable player award and she was named Miss Kentucky Basketball after her senior season.
Scherr is averaging 5.3 points, 3.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds as a graduate student on the TCU team. She started the first 18 games before being sidelined by a back injury on Feb. 1 and has not played in the last 11 games.
Wilson is a former Washington player who had 900 points, 224 rebounds and 317 assists in three seasons with the Huskies before joining the coaching staff.
Beechwood ranked No. 1 in preseason baseball poll
High school baseball season is scheduled to start this week, but the return of winter-like weather has kept most teams from taking the field.
Beechwood was ranked No. 1 in the Northern Kentucky Baseball Coaches Association preseason poll. The Tigers have several players returning from last year’s 9th Region runner-up team, including junior Tyler Fryman. He was named region Player of the Year after hitting .436 (51 of 117) with 36 RBI as a sophomore.
The other top 10 teams in the coaches poll were Campbell County, Highlands, Covington Catholic, Simon Kenton, Ryle, Dixie Heights, Conner, Walton-Verona and Cooper.
Highlands won the 9th Region championship last season and finished with a 27-8-1 record. The other local teams that had 20 or more wins were Beechwood (25-11-1), Campbell County (25-11-1), Ryle (24-12-1), Covington Catholic (21-12), Dixie Heights (21-17) and Walton-Verona (20-15).
CovCath enters this season with a new head coach for the first time in 48 years. John Michels is taking over for Bill Krumpelbeck, who compiled a 1,149-485 record during his Hall of Fame career.