By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Record-setting quarterback Jared Lorenzen is one of four former Highlands High School athletes who will be inducted into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at the Villa Hills Civic Club.
The induction ceremony that’s set to begin at 1 p.m. is free and open to the public. The guest speaker will be Randy Marsh, who was a Major League Baseball umpire from 1981 to 2009.
Lorenzen, who died in 2019 at the age of 38, was named was named Mr. Kentucky Football after leading Highlands to a perfect 15-0 record and the Class 3A state champions in 1998.
The 6-foot-4, 285-pound left-hander set Northern Kentucky records by passing for 3,392 yards and 45 touchdowns that season.
That was just the beginning of Lorenzen’s high-profile football career. He was a record-setting quarterback for the University of Kentucky and back-up quarterback on the New York Giants team that won the 2007 Super Bowl.
Lorenzen was also a starting forward on Highlands basketball teams that won three consecutive 9th Region championships in 1997-99. The Bluebirds made it to the state championship game in 1997 when he was a sophomore.
The other Highlands graduates selected for induction into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame are Tom Noe, Matthew Mason and Brittany Menninger-Frakes. Craig Risheberger, a 1970 graduate of Newport Catholic High School, competes the list.
Noe set a state record in the high jump by clearing 6-feet, 10.75 inches at the 1988 Class 2A state championship meet. The record was surpassed in the 1997 Class 3A state meet and Noe now shares the Class 2A state record with Tyler Bray of Lloyd.
Noe attended the University of Indianapolis and attained All-America status in the high jump in 1992. He was inducted into the university’s hall of fame in 2005.
Mason earned varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball at Highlands. In his senior year, he was quarterback on the school’s 1995 Class 3A state runner-up football team and named most valuable player on the 1996 baseball team that won the 9th Region championship.
Mason played two years of baseball at Eastern Kentucky University before transferring to Northern Kentucky University. He was named to the All-Ohio Valley Conference Team and All-South Region Team while at Eastern.
Menninger-Frakes was a state champion sprinter in track at Highlands. A 2004 graduate, she earned medals in the state championship meet four consecutive years and was named the team captain as a senior. She was a member of the 4×200-meter relay team that won the state title in 2002.
During his high school career at NewCath, Risheberger played on a 9th Region championship team in baseball and region runner-up teams in both basketball and baseball.
He was a pitcher and infielder on NewCath baseball teams that won the 9th Region title in 1968 and lost to Holmes in the 1969 region final. He had a career batting average of .350. In basketball, he averaged 24.7 points for the NewCath team that lost to Covington Catholic, 82-81, in the 1970 region final. He scored 75 points in three region tournament games that year and ended his career with 1,280 total points.
Risheberger attended Thomas More College and played on the basketball team that upset Xavier University, 65-64, in 1972. He scored 12 points in that historic win.