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 Thursday and Friday. We will then provide focused coverage of local teams throughout the regular season and into the playoffs.
By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
By the time Aba Selm was 11, “I was a baseball player,” he recalls. Although his dad was figuring out his sports future differently. “He thought I was going to be too big for baseball,” Aba says. Football would be the way to go.
By the time he was 13, and a 6-foot-3, 260-pounder in freshman preseason practice at Simon Kenton, he got a tap on the shoulder from the varsity coaches one day.
“Come with us,” he recalls his surprise at hearing words telling him, “You’re on the varsity now.”
Which is where the now 6-4 ½, 295-pounder remains (that’s his official weight according to the national recruiting services although he’s slimmed down some this preseason to 285 or so), with his Pioneer teammates.
Aba is also the No. 1 offensive line prospect in Kentucky, committed to UK’s Wildcats after visits to programs like Penn State and Purdue before deciding that he’s finished with recruiting. “I’m done taking visits,” he says with his ever-present upbeat grin. It’s UK all the way.
So much so that he’s “graduating early . . . I’ll be on campus in January.” Just in time for offseason weightlifting and spring football.
But first, there’s the little matter of the Class 6A football season, with the Pioneers having their eyes on making it further into the playoffs than Week 2.
Although that’s not something “I think about,” he says of the next phase in his football life. “I’m just focusing on this season.”
The focus for Aba (that’s a nickname, his full name is Hamadoun, after his African grandfather) is his footwork. “Just to get better at everything, but footwork’s on top. Recognizing different fronts and executing my steps correctly.”
“We’ve been watching him for four years now,” coach Roy Lucas says. “Picked him out as a freshman. He can be dominant, as expected. He’s that good.”
How good his Pioneers will be is the question. A question that might not take long to answer the way Lucas has his guys scheduled.
“I like that it’s challenging and competitive,” Lucas says of his 2023 schedule. “You’ve got to play teams like that to be ready (for Class 6A). But I’m not necessarily in love with our first four games.”
That would be the opener against an improved, and now re-classified 5A Kenton County rival Dixie Heights, followed by Class 4A powers Woodford County and Covington Catholic and then 2A defending state champ Beechwood.
And he’ll be doing it with a new quarterback, sophomore Tucker Ober, after four-year starter Chase Crone moved on to Thomas More. “I think he’ll be real good,” Lucas says, “but real good when? He’s a tough kid.”
Ober did handle himself well in his lone start at Beechwood and in seven games, accumulated 360 yards of offense, running for two touchdowns and throwing for two more.
The return of running backs Kaleb Bleier (a senior with 647 yards gained) and junior Durell Turner, who rocketed for a 75-yard TD on his first carry in Friday’s game scrimmage against South Oldham, has the Pioneers in solid shape there, running behind Selm and his similarly sized senior sidekick, Jake Putthoff.
Three-year starter at wide receiver, Nathan Kitchens returns, one of four returnees on offense.
But on defense, seven starters return, Lucas says, led by seniors Mark Ober and Luke Schieber. And even though Simon Kenton survived a bunch of shootouts, winning in games where it gave up 40, 34 and 31 points, it also lost games where it allowed 34, 30, 38 and in the Class 6A playoffs second round, 51 to Louisville Trinity after a strong first half.
“I wish I had the answer for that,” Lucas says of the secret of competing against the Louisville 6A schools in a class where Northern Kentucky has never won a state title.
“We’ve got good numbers for a Northern Kentucky school,” he says of his 76-man varsity roster. “But those schools like Trinity and St. X have as many players in one class as we have in two.”
But that’s for down the road. “Our philosophy is that we’re just trying to get better every week, not about this team or that.”
Getting better this season will depend on a defense with those returning starters. And a familiarity with last year’s new 4-3 front that they were learning under some tough circumstances.
“We were playing some really good teams,” Lucas says. His hope is that has made for some quick learning as they go into this season.
It’s a season with only four of the 10 games at home – but two of the three in the district – against newcomer Great Crossing out of Georgetown and Campbell County with a road game at Ryle. There are non-district games at Woodford County in Versailles, Paul Dunbar in Lexington and Ashland Blazer.
“We’ve got a tough schedule,” Selm says, looking forward to his last high school challenge.
SIMON KENTON PIONEERS
2021 SEASON: 8-4 record, lost in second round of Class 6A playoffs.
DISTRICT: Class 6A, District 6 with Campbell County, Great Crossing, Ryle.
HEAD COACH: Roy Lucas Jr. (75-92 in 15 seasons overall, 18-35 in five seasons at Simon Kenton).
2022 SCHEDULE
Aug. 18 – DIXIE HEIGHTS, 7 p.m.
Aug. 25 – at Woodford County, 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 1 – COVINGTON CATHOLIC, 7 p.m.
Sept. 8 – at Beechwood, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 15 – at Conner, 7 p.m.
Sept. 22 – at Lexington Dunbar, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 6 – GREAT CROSSING, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 13 – CAMPBELL COUNTY, 7 p.m.
Oct. 20 – at Ryle, 7 p.m.
Oct. 27 – at Ashland Blazer, 7:30 p.m.
OTHER 2023 PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEWS