By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Covington Catholic is the only baseball team ranked among the top 10 in the Northern Kentucky preseason coaches poll that will enter the month of April with a perfect record.
Voted No. 3 in the coaches poll, the Colonels won their first eight games, including a pair of victories over No. 5 Highlands, the runner-up in last year’s 9th Region tournament.
CovCath has mostly juniors on the roster. One of them is shortstop Jackson Reardon, who batted .667 (12 of 18) in the first six games without a strikeout. Last month, he made a verbal commitment with the University of Cincinnati baseball program.
CovCath’s 8-0 start pushed coach Bill Krumpelbeck’s career record to 1,105-469-3. He currently ranks third on the state’s career victories list and has a 70.0 winning percentage in 47 seasons at CovCath.
The top-ranked team in the Northern Kentucky preseason coaches poll was Ryle. The Raiders are off to a 4-4 start that includes one-run losses to Dixie Heights, Great Crossing and Cincinnati Moeller, last year’s Ohio Division I state champion.
Ryle opened the season with an 8-2 win over No. 2 Beechwood, the two-time defending 9th Region champions. The Tigers also won last year’s 9th Region All “A” Classic tournament and will defend that title this week.
The small-school tournament begins Monday with Villa Madonna at St. Henry. The winner of that game will visit Ludlow in one of four quarterfinal games on Tuesday. The other matchups that day are Dayton at Newport Central Catholic, Holy Cross at Bellevue and Beechwood at Newport.
The final three tournament games will be played at Thomas More Stadium in Florence. The semifinals are set for 5 and 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and the championship game will be 7 p.m. on Friday.
Here are the records for the top 10 teams in the Northern Kentucky coaches poll after games played on Saturday:
1 — Ryle (4-4), 2 — Beechwood (5-3), 3 — CovCath (8-0), 4 — Campbell County (2-4), 5 – Highlands (4-6), 6 — Simon Kenton (8-1), 7 — Dixie Heights (8-3), 8 — Conner (4-5), 9 — St. Henry (4-3), 10 — Cooper (4-5).
NewCath hiring girls head basketball coach for third straight year
Five high schools in the 9th Region are accepting applications for a new head basketball coach and Newport Central Catholic is going through the hiring process for the third consecutive year.
NewCath is looking to replace Dan Albrinck as girls head basketball coach. He was hired last year and guided the Thoroughbreds to a 19-12 record with three seniors, four juniors and five freshman on the roster.
One of the juniors was point guard Caroline Eaglin, the leading scorer in 9th Region girls basketball the last two seasons with averages of 21.9 and 24.8 points per game. She was one of five players named first-team All 9th Region by local coaches this past season.
The other girls basketball teams looking for new head coaches with their records from last season are Ludlow (17-14) and Beechwood (9-22). Ludlow finished first in the Division III conference standings and reached the finals of the NKAC Classic tournament under former head coach Blake Clary last season.
The two boys basketball teams hiring new head coaches and their records from last season are Conner (11-17) and Holmes (2-22). Matt Otte resigned as Conner’s head coach after his teams compiled a 131-95 record over the last eight seasons and reached the region tournament five times.
Notre Dame graduate played on Division III “Sweet 16” women’s team
Notre Dame graduate Macie Feldman was a starting guard on the Johns Hopkins University women’s basketball team that made it to the “Sweet 16” in the NCAA Division III tournament and finished with a 26-4 record, the most wins in program history.
The 5-foot-8 sophomore averaged 10.3 points and 8.3 rebounds and finished the season with team-high totals of 101 assists and 50 steals for the Blue Jays, who received an at-large berth in the Division III tournament bracket after finishing second in the Continental Conference tournament.
Johns Hopkins won its first two playoff games to reach the “Sweet 16” for the first time since 1998. In those two victories, Feldman scored 18 and 17 points and totaled 15 rebounds and five assists. The Blue Jays’ season ended with a 65-53 loss to Scranton. Feldman had eight points, nine rebounds and four assists in that game.
Feldman was a four-year starter in both basketball and soccer at Notre Dame. Those two teams had a combined record of 162-43-8 for a 76.1 winning percentage with her in the varsity lineups. She received Division I scholarship offers in both sports before deciding to attend Johns Hopkins, one of the elite medical research institutions in the world that enrolls a select number of students.