By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Mitchell Rylee, the leading scorer and second leading rebounder on Covington Catholic’s basketball team last season, has made a verbal commitment with Miami University in Ohio, an NCAA Division I program that competes in the Mid-America Conference.
The 6-foot-8, 200-pound center averaged 15.9 points and 8.2 rebounds in his first season at CovCath after transferring from Beechwood. He shot 68.7 percent from the field, which ranked 10th in statewide statistics on the khsaa.org website.
During the spring and summer, Rylee played in high-level tournaments with the Midwest Basketball Club and drew the attention of several college recruiters.
According to his Twitter posts, he received scholarship offers from two other NCAA Division I programs — Bellarmine and University of Tennessee-Martin — as well as Fairmont State, Trevecca Nazarene and Georgetown, which are all NCAA Division II members.
Rylee played two varsity seasons at Beechwood before transferring to CovCath. He will enter his senior season with career totals of 704 points and 449 rebounds. Over the last three seasons, he has made 303 of 457 field goal attempts for 66.3 percent.
Last season, Rylee was the second-leading vote-getter on the Division I all-star team selected by Northern Kentucky coaches. Simon Kenton senior guard Kelly Nice was voted Division I Player of the Year after finishing the regular season as the state’s leading scorer with a 30.9 average.
St. Henry, Brossart golf teams sweep All “A” Classic region titles
Golf teams from St. Henry and Brossart won All “A” Classic boys and girls region tournaments this week to qualify for the small-school state tournaments to be played Sept. 11 and 12 in Richmond, Ky.
St. Henry won the boys state championship last year and earned a return trip by shooting the low score in the 9th Region tournament on Monday at A.J. Jolly. The region’s individual state qualifiers were medalist Matthew Marlette of Villa Madonna and Will Stamm of Beechwood.
In the 9th Region girls tournament at Boone Links, St. Henry finished on top in the team standings and Grace Ramey of Beechwood was medalist. The other individual state qualifier was Brooke Callioni of Villa Madonna.
Brossart swept the boys and girls team titles in the 10th Region tournament on Tuesday at A.J. Jolly. Both medalists were also Brossart golfers. Brandon Bezold and Emma Laker posted the low scores on the leaderboard for the Mustangs.
Boone County football players invited to ceremony for new turf field
Boone County High School is offering free admission to former football players who want to attend a rededication ceremony for the new synthetic turf field that will take place Friday, Aug. 20 before the Rebels’ season-opening football game against Russell.
To request a complimentary ticket, former players should send an email to Boone County athletic director Lance Melching (lance.melching@boone.kyschools.us). The players will be honored on the field during the ceremony.
Natural grass fields at Boone County, Conner and Cooper high schools were replaced with synthetic turf as part of a multi-million dollar project financed by the Boone County Board of Education. Money was also spent to upgrade the synthetic turf at Ryle High School.
Highlands graduate remains undefeated as minor league pitcher
Highlands graduate Drew Rom remained undefeated on the mound in minor league baseball this season after getting the win in a Class AA game on Thursday night.
The left-hander has a 10-0 record pitching for two teams in the Baltimore Orioles organization. After getting eight wins with the Aberdeen IronBirds in the High-A division, he was moved up to the Bowie BaySox in Class AA and won two of his first three starts with one no-decision.
On Thursday, Rom gave up four earned runs in five innings during Bowie’s 8-6 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels. In three games with the BaySox, he has given up seven runs in 15 innings for a 4.20 ERA with 16 strikeouts and five walks.