By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Tyler Fryman missed a few practice sessions with the Beechwood football team because he was selected to play in the Area Code Games, a showcase for the nation’s top high school baseball players in Long Beach, California.
After an evaluation session for college recruiters and major league scouts on the first day, eight regional teams competed in underclassmen games Aug. 2-5. Fryman was one of five outfielders on the White Sox team that included players from 12 states.
After going hitless in the team’s first two games, Fryman went 2-for-3 with a stolen base and run scored in the third game. In the final game, he was 1-for-2 with a double and run scored.
Fryman enters his junior year at Beechwood with college scholarship offers in both baseball and football. He made a verbal commitment with the University of Louisville baseball team in the early spring before attending college football camps where the speedy 6-foot-1, 180-pound defensive back and wide receiver got offers from Notre Dame, Louisville, Miami of Ohio and Toledo.
“I talked to a few colleges about trying to play both and they were pretty onboard with it,” Fryman said last week. “Definitely, the Louisville (football) coach was for it. I’d still have to talk to the Notre Dame coach about it though.”
An injury limited Fryman to six games last football season. He did play in the Class 2A state championship game and helped his Beeechwood team defeat Owensboro Catholic, 50-34, by making a team-high 10 tackles and scoring on a 35-yard run.
In baseball last spring, Fryman led the 25-11-1 Beechwood team in batting average (.436), RBI (36), doubles (19) home runs (4) and stolen bases (34).
After the season, he was selected to play in the Kentucky Baseball Coaches Association statewide sophomore showcase.
It’s become highly unlikely for college athletes to play more than one sport, but one former Northern Kentucky high school standout did it.
Frank Jacobs, a 1987 Newport Central Catholic graduate, played both football and baseball at Notre Dame. He was a tight end on the football team that won the 1989 national championship and was voted most valuable player on the 1991 baseball team.
Football still being played at historic stadium
For the last 90 years, Dayton High School football teams practiced and played home games at O.W. Davis Field that was built in the early 1930s as a federal government work project during the Great Depression.
It looked like the historic stadium would no longer be needed when the Greendevils began preseason practice on the synthetic turf field that’s part of an athletic complex nearing completion adjacent to the high school. But their old football field is still alive and kicking.
Newport Central Catholic’s football team is conducting practice sessions at O.W. Davis Field while construction on their school’s on-campus athletic complex is going on.
“We really appreciate them letting us do that,” said NewCath head coach Steve Lickert. “This is like a homecoming for me. My first job as head coach was at Dayton and my first-ever win was on Davis Field.”
Lickert became Dayton’s head coach in 2004. After an 0-2 start, the Greendevils defeated Owen County, 28-15, for his first career win. He enters the 2025 season with a 134-112 record in 21 seasons at three schools.
“It’s been cool being back there,” Lickert said of Davis Field. “It really does feel like home to me, and it’s close enough to (NewCath). Last year, we had to drive out to St. Joe’s (in Cold Spring) to practice. This is a really good fit for us.”
Former girls coach in charge of Bellevue boys team
The list of basketball coaches hired by Northern Kentucky teams since the end of last season was completed earlier this week when Tommy Sorrell was named boys head coach at Bellevue.
Sorrell was head coach of the Bellevue girls team the last 17 seasons and compiled a 247-243 record. Over the last four seasons, his teams had a 64-49 record and he became the winningest coach in the history of the Bellevue girls program.
Jim Hicks was head coach of the Bellevue boys basketball team the last 14 seasons. He resigned with a 160-251 record and remains the school’s athletic director.
Last season, the Bellevue boys won eight of their last 14 games and posted a 10-20 record with three juniors as the team leaders in scoring and rebounding.
Other boys basketball teams that will have new head coaches next season include Cooper (Justin Holthaus), St. Henry (Tim Sullivan) and Ludlow (Dan Sullivan). The teams with new girls head coaches include Cooper (Christian Prohaska), Notre Dame (George Stoll), Brossart (Aaron Stamm) and Ludlow (Justin Wade).