By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
They didn’t save the best for last at the sold-out Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors’ 40th annual Hall of Fame induction dinner.
They led with their big hitter, the Tom Potter Distinguished Service Award that went to the most popular man in the building at Receptions in Erlanger.
His name? Peter Collins. His game? Baseball. Since he “tried out in the seventh grade” and didn’t make it “and then Coach (Chris) Maxwell asked me to help out and the rest is history,” he said with a grin of the two who have been together for 27 years now. “The Dynamic Duo,” Pete calls them.
“I’ve been to Fenway Park and the new Yankee Stadium,” Pete said in accepting the award named for the man who did so much for student-athletes at Newport Central Catholic, “but nothing compares to stepping onto the field at Dixie Heights.”
Nothing compared to the four tables of the Collins family there with Pete starting with his parents and three sisters and two brothers.
“I’m glad I didn’t have to follow Peter,” said Gary Lemons, accepting for his late father, Virgil Lemons.
On this night, everybody followed Pete. As Coach Maxwell described his batboy turned manager turned assistant coach is “the most loved person in the DHHS community. His contributions can’t be measured in wins and losses but how he has opened the eyes of so many players and opponents what it means to give your all to something you love.”
But first came opening remarks from NKADA Past-President Ron Madrick, the former Holmes AD, who does deadpan humor with the best of them. And then longtime high school broadcaster here, Don Weber, as master of ceremonies.
The next award, and a new one, named in honor of the late Mel Webster, who died two years ago, came in the form of a scholarship in his name that went, maybe appropriately, to Bishop Brossart softball player Brooke Shewmaker, who will be attending Bellarmine with a Division I softball scholarship after a straight-A, summa cum laude high school academic career that saw her hit .585 and steal 102 bases as a senior.
Then came the largest class of inductees – 19 — on a night with the largest attendance ever, well over 300. Great accomplishment by Grady Brown in his second year succeeding Webster as director of the NKADAHOF. Of that 19 number, six were deceased.
In alphabetical order according to their school, they are:
Bellevue: The late Jim Cavana had one of the most interesting stories of the night. The state champion diver began competing for Bellevue High School as a fourth grader at the age of eight, won eight of nine state diving championships he competed in, earned a scholarship to Florida State and a place in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” and once dove off the Central Bridge into the Ohio River just for the heck of it. His son, “Little Jimmy,” accepting the Hall of Fame honors his grandfather received two years ago, said his dad was “a man’s man” who told him “I don’t want any recognition, I did what I loved.”
Bishop Brossart: Earl Greis made the move from Campbell County where he didn’t make the team to become the first all-state basketball player at St. Mary High, now Bishop Brossart. Husband, father and grandfather, as well as fan, is how his daughter, Julie, described her friendly dad.
Campbell County: Greg Menetry Jr. grew up in a sports family and joked how when the call came that Greg Menetery had made the Hall of Fame, he had to inform his dad that it was for him, the younger Greg. After gaining more than 4,700 yards at Campbell County only to have his team fall to Shaun Alexander’s Boone County, he started for four years at Georgetown College.
Conner: The Hebron school had three inductees led by recently retired baseball coach Brad Arlinghaus, who racked up 327 wins in his 17 seasons. He thanked the leaders at Conner for giving him the opportunity to take over baseball at the age of 23. And now, he realizes “that the thing I’ll miss most is seeing my dad in the dugout.”
• Tim Shields made his name at Conner, Villa Madonna and Dixie Heights in baseball and girls’ basketball and then in the college ranks at Thomas More in women’s basketball, where he was a part of three national championship teams. But he credited Conner’s Bill Warfield for getting him into coaching the seventh-grade team and then he stayed with it for 51 years. He joked that “two of my players are here tonight and they’re still talking to me,” then identified them as his daughter and a coach who hired him as an assistant.
• Trevor Stellman overcame the stigma of playing for his dad at Conner by leading the Cougars to two perfect regular seasons at quarterback and then went on to Thomas More where he started for three years and coached another 12, winning five league championships before stepping down to have more time to be a dad to his three children. It’s what he liked best about playing for his father, Tom. “When the game was over, he became my dad,” leaving the coach part behind.
Highlands: Stephanie Ripberger said that when she went to Highlands, while “all the boys wanted to be like Mike, I wanted to be like (Kentucky Miss Basketball and later Highlands coach) Jaime (Walz). “The basketball was my Barbie Doll,” she said of growing up as a basketball player. She would earn a scholarship to Wofford despite a season-ending ACL tear as a senior.
• Joseph Shaw Ross was an all-state two-sport star at Highlands and then on to Air Force Academy where, as the lone Kentuckian selected his senior year of high school, played football as a running back while getting to the Gator Bowl for the Falcons and then winning an NCAA relay championship before going on to become a fighter pilot flying an F4D in the Vietnam War. On Aug. 1, 1968, his plane was shot down over North Vietnam and Ross and his plane were never found. He is memorialized with a plaque over I-471 at Highland Avenue in Fort Thomas, on the Vietnam Memorials in both Washington and Florence and in the Court of the Missing at the National Cemetery of the Pacific.
Holmes: Virgil Lemons, mentioned above, grew up on the hard courts of Covington playing against the likes of future NBA players Tom Thacker and George Stone. He would play basketball in the Air Force and left his son with these principles for playing the game: “Play hard, play the game the right way, be a good teammate, be respectful.”
• David Henley, the son of a coach from Carlisle County, had it going in his 13 seasons at Holmes, finally winning a rare (until that time) state title for Northern Kentucky with a double-overtime victory over Louisville Central for a 36-2 season. “So many of you were so good to us,” Henley said of his time in Northern Kentucky. “We had such great memories and such good friends.”
Ludlow: What didn’t the late Mike Caple do for sports in his hometown where he starred in football, basketball and baseball while diving for the Ludlow Swim Club and then continued his family’s one-of-a-kind sporting tradition from uncles (Clarence and Charlie) and aunt (Dorothy) and dad (Harold) and brothers (Denny and Danny) and son (also Mike), his family brought back to life the Ludlow Youth Football League while he also served on the city council and school board. “We miss him every day,” his daughter Meredith said of Mike, who died much too early in 1994.
Newport Central Catholic: Good thing that Lisa Brewer technically played for two schools – Our Lady of Providence and then for the first consolidated class at Newport Central Catholic in 1984 so that all her awards and records in softball and basketball over four years could be spread out a bit starting with a NewCath state softball title in 1984. A walk-on at NKU who earned a scholarship for her final three years, Brewer coached at Beechwood, Scott and NKU before retiring this year.
• Steve Mason played three sports back in the day when NewCath played in the tough GCL and then with his nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball, moved on to Indiana to play football (quarterback and defensive back) in the Big Ten. “I fell in love with sports at a young age, in the fourth grade,” Steve said, and now he gets to join son, Matt, inducted in 2019.
Ryle: What hasn’t Jenna Crittendon done? After starting in basketball for five years at Ryle – two of them as an all-stater, and four years at Xavier, leaving with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice, she’s gone on to become a deputy and SWAT Team member in the Boone County sheriff’s office, an assistant basketball coach at the University of Charleston and now, a ladder truck driver with the Spartanburg, S.C., Fire Department, on her way to a promotion to sergeant. And she’s part of, as she calls it, “a dad-daughter duo” with her father, Mike “Steve” Crittendon, from Bellevue.
Simon Kenton: John Finn made his way from Farmingdale, New York, to Northern Kentucky where he coached baseball for 34 years (and football as well for a big part of that) while building the Pioneers into a highly respected program that began without a home field when he started. “We had our ups and downs,” John said of his time with his AD, the late Joe Stark, who gave him the chance to run his program, “but most of the time it was up.”
• The late Dave Obel pitched a no-hitter as a freshman at Simon Kenton, scored 1,000 points with 1,000 rebounds in basketball, then played at Brewton-Parker Junior College and was drafted by the Dodgers. His wife Shirley said she wasn’t around for his high school accomplishments but was “here for his hole-in-one.”
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.