The NKyTribune is featuring players on each of the 21 high school football teams in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties leading up to the first games of the 2023 season on Friday, Aug. 18. We will then provide focused coverage of local teams throughout the regular season and into the playoffs.
By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Slimmed down and preparing for his final football season in Fort Thomas, Highlands senior Brody Benke is a shadow of his former 235-pound self.
Well, maybe not exactly a shadow since he’ll be carrying a trim 223 pounds on his rangy 6-foot-4 frame, but that should help the three-sport star transition to his much-expanded three-position role this fall.
Hold on, you say. Do you mean to tell us that Northern Kentucky’s leader in passing yardage (2,170 yards) and passing TDs (24) last fall will now also be a receiver and running back?
And that all of these switches will be preparing him for what almost certainly will eventually be his college position – tight end?
“With his frame, he’ll easily be able to carry 255 pounds someday,” Highlands coach Bob Sphire said of Benke. Just not this day, not this season.
“Let’s say he’s responsible for 30 touchdowns this year,” is the way Sphire explains Benke’s new role hypothetically. “I’d think 10 of those would be passing the ball, 10 catching it and 10 running it.”
“Those would be designed quarterback runs,” Benke says, not backing off at that 30-TD number. “It’s really special that they think I have the ability to do that.”
Which is why for the physical rebounder in basketball and the hard-throwing right-hander in baseball, “Football is by far my favorite sport,” he says. “I’ve just always had a love for the game. There are the competitive values, the brotherhood … and putting it all together.”
Speaking of putting it all together, if Benke is catching it and running it, who’s throwing it? Doesn’t that piece of the puzzle have to be in place before making these moves?
Well, that complementary piece would be talented sophomore Rio Litmer, a 5-foot-11, 175-pounder who will give Highlands the kind of 1-2 punch that a national champion Florida team had with the quarterback duo of a powerful Tim Tebow and an elusive Chris Leak, Sphire says.
Litmer is a fast-rising newcomer who played in three varsity games last season as a freshman, completing two of three passes. But he’s visited and taken part in offseason quarterback camps at Georgia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Louisville, Cincinnati and UK.
And now he’s on the fast track, as are the Bluebirds, they hope.
As for Benke, the three schools most interested in him right now are Toledo, Wofford and Alabama-Birmingham. “That’s crazy,” says Sphire, who has coached the likes of Alabama and Clemson national champions’ starters during his time at Georgia powerhouse North Gwinnett, while also tutoring the Bengals’ C.J. Uzomah and the team’s second pick in this draft, DJ Turner, out of Michigan.
“He’d have a ton of offers if he were at North Gwinnett,” Sphire says if Benke were playing in the Georgia football hotbed where Sphire coached for 15 years. Although because of the transfer portal and immediate eligibility for transfers, everything in football recruiting has changed.
Sphire talks of how recruiters who come by say that in the past while they “might sign 25 freshmen to scholarships, now it’s just eight or nine” as they wait to see what kinds of veteran players they can get to transfer.
“The process is so changed, and it’s difficult on these kids,” Sphire said. “They have to be patient. They may have to go to a junior college or a lower-level school and then move up.”
Which is exactly what Highlands plans to do in Sphire’s third season, but only second offseason. Move on up.
Sphire says they had it going last year in a nine-game win streak starting Week 3 before falling to a tough Scott County team, 29-23, in the second round of the playoffs. “We had our chances,” Sphire says.
Now they have another chance. And with a Highlands team that you might not recognize.
“When I got here, we had one player over 250 pounds,” Sphire says. “Now we have 11 or 12.” And while you can work at the weight and strength part of that, you can’t teach height. And yet there they are, one rangy lineman after another. Take away talented center, Gabe Fassler, who is just 230 pounds “and we probably average 280 on the line,” Sphire says.
The same goes for defense. Lots of big guys, but the anchor looks like it will be 5-10, 205-pound end Carson Shelton.
Sphire says that longtime observers of Highlands football tell him “this might be our biggest team ever.” And hopefully with the depth to match. There are nine offensive linemen and a dozen on defense “we can roll in,” Sphire says from a 101-man squad counting the freshmen — and they plan to.
How that affects consistency early in the season is the question. But there’s no question the direction Sphire has the program going. “We work a lot more on ground-based strength,” he says than Highlands’ teams in the past. Not that it’s better, just different.
Maybe not so wide-open, but “it’s a fun system for a big guy,” Sphire says of the multiple screens that have linemen running out in space ahead of the receiver, who in this case could also be a big guy — Benke.
Senior running back Cam Geisler, who gained 641 yards on 106 carries with 13 touchdowns to lead the Bluebirds on the ground, also returns.
HIGHLANDS BLUEBIRDS
2022 SEASON: 9-3 record, lost in second round of Class 5A playoffs.
DISTRICT: Class 5A, District 6 with Boone County, Conner, Cooper, Dixie Heights, Scott.
HEAD COACH: Bob Sphire (293-112 in 34 seasons overall, 14-9 in two seasons at Highlands).
2023 SCHEDULE
Aug. 18 – at Lexington Catholic, 8 p.m.
Aug. 25 – COVINGTON CATHOLIC, 7 p.m.
Sept. 1 – CAMPBELL COUNTY, 7 p.m.
Sept. 8 – RYLE, 7 p.m.
Sept. 15 – at Raceland, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 22 – at Cooper, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 29 – at Dixie Heights, 7 p.m.
Oct. 6 – BOONE COUNTY, 7 p.m.
Oct. 13 – CONNER, 7 p.m.
Oct. 20 – at Scott, 7 p.m.
OTHER 2023 PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEWS