By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
He was voted the top senior player in 10th Region boys basketball last season and his versatility was evident in the statistics he posted. But Campbell County guard Garyn Jackson did not get an offer he liked from a college team and has enrolled at Northern Kentucky University.
“He had offers but decided to do the student thing and wanted to stay in Northern Kentucky,” Campbell County coach Brent Sowder said. “I think he’d be open to walking on (to the basketball team) at NKU.”
Jackson did a little bit of everything to lead the Camels to a 22-10 record last season. The 6-foot-2 senior guard averaged 16.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. He also shot 62.9 percent from the field, which ranked eighth in the final statewide statistics.
Those statistics are why Jackson was voted 10th Region Player of the Year among seniors by members of the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches. That also made him a candidate for Mr. Kentucky Basketball.
“He’s just so basketball smart,” Sowder said during the season. “We told him, ‘You’re going to be the man out there,’ so he knew what was going to be required. At the end of the day, he just wants to put a ‘W’ on the board, so whatever it takes, he’s going to do it.”
Jackson began playing varsity basketball as freshman. He finished his four-year varsity career with 1,248 points, 602 assists, 561 rebounds and 267 steals. He posted a triple-double in points, rebounds and assists twice last season.
In last year’s 10th Region championship game, Jackson made a 3-point shot as time expired to give Campbell County a 63-62 win over Harrison County in overtime. He was also a double-figure scorer in both of his team’s state tournament games.
“He’s a generational player at Campbell County,” coach Sowder said. “We sure will miss him.”
Brossart hires veteran to coach girls basketball
Aaron Stamm will be taking his high school basketball coaching career in a new direction once again as head coach of the Bishop Brossart girls program. He was hired to replace Steve Brown, who resigned after three seasons.
Stamm spent the last three seasons as the boys head basketball coach at Ludlow. Before that, he was girls head coach at Ludlow from 2004-2010, girls head coach at Conner from 2010-2019 and returned to Ludlow as the girls head coach from 2019-2022.
In his 18 combined seasons as a girls head coach, Stamm’s teams won 354 games. He picked up 53 wins as a boys head coach over the last three seasons to lift his career victory total to 407.
“With over two decades of coaching experience in Northern Kentucky, Coach Stamm brings a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record of success to the Mustangs,” Brossart school officials said in a media release on Monday.
During the nine seasons he spent as Conner, the girls won 118 games and made five 9th Region tournament appearances. His last team there posted a 23-3 record and was ranked No. 1 in the state going into the 2019 playoffs.
In his last three seasons as Ludlow girls coach, his teams posted records of 25-8, 19-9 and 25-11 and made it to the 9th Region tournament each year.
Brossart competes in the 10th Region. Last season, the girls team won the 10th Region All “A” Classic and made it to the state tournament semifinals. In the post-season playoffs, the Mustangs won the 37th District title and made to the 10th Region final.
Five of the top nine scorers on that 28-6 team were underclassmen. One of them is Kylie Smith, who finished with team-high totals of 14.6 points and 6.4 rebounds and shot 51.9 percent from the field.
Notre Dame grad returns to national volleyball team
Notre Dame graduate Morgan Hentz is a libero on the U.S. women’s national team that will play four matches during the second round of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) that begins Friday in Belgrade, Serbia.
This is the second year that Hentz has been a member of the national team that had a 1-3 record in VNL first-round matches that were played June 4-8 in Brazil. The U.S. team’s opponents in the second round include Serbia, Poland, Netherlands and France.
Last month, Hentz was named Libero of the Year in the Pro Volleyball Federation for the second consecutive season. She is one of two liberos who made the U.S. national team roster for the 2025 VNL, one of the premier international tournaments that includes 18 teams from all parts of the world.
Her impressive resume also includes being named 2015 Player of the Year in Kentucky high school volleyball after her senior season at Notre Dame. She was recruited by Stanford University and played on three NCAA Division I championship teams there to earn first-team All-America honors.