By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Roy Lucas Sr. received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Football Foundation in 2001 for the 37 years he had spent coaching high school and college football at that time.
“Coaching for 37 years is an honor in itself, just being associated with kids that long,” he said in a newspaper article that was written when he received the prestigious award.
Lucas, who passed away last week at the age of 77, certainly left his mark on Northern Kentucky high school football. He got his first head coaching job at Lloyd in 1966 and returned to the area 28 years later to rebuild the Newport program.
Newport finished 0-10 in 1994, the year before Lucas was hired as head coach at the age of 53. He took the next five teams to the playoffs and compiled a 49-25 record in six seasons.
His best year with the Wildcats was 1996 when they made it to the Class AA regional finals and Lucas was named Coach of the Year in Northern Kentucky.
During his career, Lucas had coaching stints at five high schools and two colleges. He preferred coaching on the high school level because of the impact he was able to have on young lives.
“I always came back to high school coaching because you have the opportunity to make men out of young boys through the greatest game ever played,” he said.
Lucas has two sons who are Kentucky high school football coaches. Roy Jr. is an assistant coach at Simon Kenton and his older brother, Jerry, is head coach at Martha Layne Collins in Shelby County.
When their dad died on Aug. 26, Jerry posted this on Twitter: “My dad / hero / high school football coach / mentor / friend and Godly, Christian man who positively impacted more lives than anyone I know, passed away today. I just wanted to say, ‘“I love you, coach!’”
The older brother of Roy Lucas Sr. is also named Jerry. He played basketball for Ohio State University and several NBA teams before being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Dayton football team ends 16-game losing streak under new coach
Dayton’s football team snapped a 16-game losing streak with a 36-12 win over Bellevue on Friday in Jesse Herbst’s second game as head coach of the Greendevils.
“Fortunately, we ran out of water in the coolers near the end of the game, so I got an ice bath over the head in the closing minutes,” Herbst said.
Dayton junior running back Jordan Marksberry caught a 48-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Nolan Brooks to give Dayton a 14-12 halftime lead against its long-time rival. In the second half, Marksberry, junior Trey Matthews and senior Austin Connley each scored a rushing touchdown for the Greendevils, who finished with a 328-171 advantage in total yards.
Dayton (1-1) had not won a game since Sept. 15, 2017. Last year’s team was 0-9 and had to forfeit the last three games because they didn’t have enough players ready to compete on the varsity level.
“Feels great to get one in the win column early. The kids, school and community really needed it,” Herbst said. “This week is our bye week, so we get to focus only on us — moving forward and getting better at what we do everyday, on and off the field.”
Scott basketball player attracting Division I scholarship offers
Scott basketball player Mya Meredith has received college scholarship offers from eight Division I programs in five states, and there could be more to come.
The 5-foot-10 junior, who averaged 25.2 points and 8 rebounds per game last season, received her latest offers from Syracuse University in New York and Morehead State in Kentucky, according to her recent posts on Twitter.
Her list of scholarship offers also includes Florida International, Indiana State, Middle Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and Northern Kentucky.
Meredith was voted second-team all-state by Kentucky high school basketball coaches after leading Scott to a 23-11 record last season. The team was runner-up in the first Kentucky 2A Championship tournament and made it to the semifinals of the 10th Region post-season playoffs.