By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Adam Begley will continue his involvement with the Cooper High School football program as head coach of the Jaguars.
Begley was selected to succeed Randy Borchers, the head coach who started the Cooper program in 2008. Over the last 12 seasons, Begley has coached at the middle school, freshman and varsity levels for the Jaguars.
An announcement released by the school on Friday said the new head coach “is known for his emphasis on discipline, accountability, and developing young men through the game of football.”
Begley is a fire and emergency services coordinator who devotes his free time to coaching.
He most recently served as the offensive line coach on Cooper teams that lost in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs last season after making back-to-back trips to the championship game in 2023 and 2024.
The team leaders in every offensive and defensive statistic last season were seniors. One of them was quarterback Cam O’Hara, a Western Kentucky University recruit who set Northern Kentucky career records in passing yards (11,227) and passing touchdowns (146) with the Jaguars.
The team will also be losing leading rusher Keagan Mayer, leading receiver Ryker Campbell and the top five tacklers on last year’s team to graduation.
Defending champs return to Region 6 girls tennis finals
The top-seeded singles player and and doubles team in the Region 9 girls tennis tournament are one win away from claiming their third consecutive titles.
In the singles semifinals on Friday, top-seed Kayla Johnson of Cooper won a 10-1 tiebreaker to get past Emma Ahlers of Beechwood, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0, and return to the title match that’s set for 4:30 p.m. Monday at Boone Woods Park.
Her opponent will be Natalie Elleman of Conner, who upset No. 2-seed Lilliana Berling of Notre Dame, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, in the other semifinal match.
The region doubles final at 4:30 p.m. Monday will have two-time champions Avery Love and Niveditha Salvaraju of Ryle going against Isabella Mcelwee and Malia Christiansen of Notre Dame.
In their semifinal matches, the Ryle partners defeated Aurora Sandfoss and Bethany Arnett of Conner, 6-2, 6-1, and the Notre Dame duo won a 10-6 tiebreaker against Cassidy Derry and Isabella Norvell of Dixie Heights to seal a 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 victory.
All of the Region 9 girls semifinalists will play in a semi-state tournament on May 20 at Lexington Sayre High School. The brackets will include singles and doubles semifinalists from Regions 10, 11, and 12.
Teammates land top seeds in Region 6 boys tennis
The Region 9 boys tennis tournament scheduled to begin Saturday morning will have the top seeds playing on their home courts at Covington Catholic.
CovCath junior Blake Hussey is the No. 1 seed in singles and his junior teammates Will Tribble and Jacob Kramer head the doubles bracket for the tournament. Last year, Hussey won region and state championships in doubles with a partner who graduated while Tribble and Kramer made it to the state semifinals.
The Colonels have swept the Region 9 boys singles and doubles titles five consecutive years. The string of doubles champions dates all the way back to 2007.
Villa Madonna senior Shayaan Ahmad is the No. 2 seed in singles. The other doubles team expected to make the finals is Neel Reddy and Andrew Dunaway of Beechwood.
TOP SEEDS FOR REGION 6 BOYS TENNIS TOURNAMENT
SINGLES
1 — Blake Hussey (CovCath), 2 — Shayaan Ahmad (Villa Madonna), 3 — Navneeth Selvaraju (Ryle), 4 — Dylan Fortner (Highlands), 5 — Donovan Harrington (Conner), Gideon Bement (CovCath), Sam Lyon (Beechwood), Tyler Arlinghaus (Holy Cross).
DOUBLES
1 — Will Tribble & Jacob Kramer (CovCath), 2 — Neel Reddy & Andrew Dunaway (Beechwood), 3 — Andrew Kramer & Drew Gray (Villa Madonna), 4 — Lukesh Muzumdar & Daniel Beasey (Highlands), 5 — Dylan Warner & Liam Bradley (CovCath), Ishaan Deshpande & Will Press (Ryle), Colin McClure & Luke McElheney (Dixie Heights), Bennett Ahler & Shiv Patel (Beechwood).