Now what? In our last look at high school football here in a year when heading into the semifinal weekend, the outlook was that Northern Kentucky had teams as good as – or better than – anybody left in four of Class 2A, 4A, 5A and 6A.
But then just one – Beechwood’s Tigers in Class 2A – won out in the end. What can we learn from that? What will it take?
Here are some general observations.
Looking at the championship games, Beechwood had the kind of team speed that favored Owensboro Catholic did not. And could not stop.
Cooper and Ryle, with all their top-end offensive weapons, did not have that kind of team speed.
It’s been something of a consistent through the years from my own time as a high school coach here decades ago. When Northern Kentucky teams run into that last best team standing – from Louisville Trinity or St. Xavier in Class 6A or from places like Bowling Green in 5A or Paducah or Boyle County in Class 4A – they have to be able to compete when it comes to team speed and quickness with defensive linemen able to run down backs and wide receivers.
There’s also a difference in offensive execution up front in pass protection and the run game and team pursuit. And the fundamentals of blocking and tackling. That was obvious in the Class 6A and 5A championship games when Cooper and Ryle just could not run the ball consistently against Bowling Green and Trinity the way Beechwood could against Owensboro Catholic. Again, we’re talking only about the one best non-Northern Kentucky team in each class.
The other big difference seems to be how Northern Kentucky football teams often feature athletes who star in basketball and/or baseball. That’s not the case as much with the top downstate teams. They seem to focus on football.
That was the way Highlands did it when the Bluebirds were so dominant on their way to 23 state titles, second-most to Trinity of all time. Or the way Beechwood does now with its 18 state titles. The Tiger stars may also run track or play baseball and basketball, as three of them do, but mostly they’re here to play football. The Owensboro Catholic team Beechwood beat had four basketball players.
Not that that single-sport focus is necessarily a better way to go. Many college football coaches prefer athletes who play multiple sports. But that may not produce better programs than schools that focus on football the way 28-time state champion Trinity has, without a single basketball player on its 101-man roster this fall. Ryle had three including 6-foot-4 senior wide receiver Landon Lorms, whose 27- and 55-yard TD catches in the first quarter got the Raiders the early jump on Trinity.
Covington Catholic is another example. After pulling off the biggest upset in recent state playoff history in beating nationally ranked defending champion Boyle County in Danville in the quarterfinals, CovCath, because of losses to Ryle and Highlands in its first two games and a lower RPI than teams that did not play opponents like that, had to travel a second straight week for the semifinals to Franklin County and thanks to the inability to convert in the red zone, lost at the buzzer.
Then, just eight days later, CovCath football leader Cash Harney and receiver Donovan Bradshaw scored 21 and 20 points respectively in a win over Lexington Catholic. But they’re not alone. Other top football guys on the CovCath hoops roster are Dylan Gaiser, Tate Kruer and Oliver Link. It’s something of a tradition in Park Hills where Michael Mayer set the football-basketball standard on the way to Notre Dame stardom and the NFL.
On Cooper’s basketball team are Austin Alexander, Isaiah Johnson and Jaiden Combs, clearly the best receiving corps in Kentucky high school football, where they’re joined by Xavier Barbour, Isaac Brown, Ryker Campbell, Roman Combs, Drew Hartman and Cooper Czirr for a total of nine. Bowling Green, meanwhile, had just six basketball players.
So if you have more basketball players on your roster than the team you’re playing in the finals or semifinals, you’ve probably got a tougher day in store for you as it proved out last weekend.
Singling out a star from the state finals
One basketball/football guy who maybe didn’t get enough recognition last weekend was Beechwood’s James Cusick, who made it possible for the Tigers to jump on Owensboro Catholic early and stay on top of the Aces even if he didn’t score a touchdown. It was Cusick, series after series, third down after third down, who made the big catch – leaping or jumping or diving – that enabled the Tigers to keep the ball moving.
“They kept executing on third down and third down and third down,” Owensboro Catholic Coach Jason Morris said. The Tigers converted 10 of 14 third downs and the chief executioner was Cusick, who caught six passes for 113 yards with a longest of 36.
OC, meanwhile, finished five of 12 on third down. And that was a big reason why the guys from Ft. Mitchell came home a state championship after Friday’s 50-34 win over the previously unbeaten Aces.
Player, Coach of Year honors here
Named District Players of the Year and Coach of the Year from Northern Kentucky by the Kentucky Football Coaches Association and announced at the state championship games were: Class A, District Three – Kaleb Cole (Newport Central Catholic), Coach Steve Lickert (Newport Central Catholic); District Four – Dameyn Anness (Ludlow), Coach John (Woody) McMillen (Ludlow); Class 2A, District Five – Clay Hayden (Beechwood); Class 3A District Five – Kaleb Evans (Lloyd Memorial); Class 4A, District Five – Cash Harney (Covington Catholic); Class 5A, District Six – Wyatt Hatfield (Conner), Coach Randy Borchers (Cooper); Class 6A, District Six – Jacob Savage (Ryle), Coach Mike Engler (Ryle).
Lost in history
While we noted that only two Northern Kentucky teams had ever made the Class 6A state championship game – Simon Kenton in 2008 and Dixie Heights in 2012, both losing to Trinity – there was a time Kentucky had just four classes and the largest-school class was 4A and just two years before that Simon Kenton 6A game in 2008, Ryle’s Raiders sent a Bryson Warner-coached team to the 4A title game – also against Trinity in Louisville’s Cardinal Stadium – before losing, 41-7. Not close but in line with the two 6A losses that followed by a total of 95-14.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dweber3440.