By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
When a coach gets to Highlands, the No. 5 winningest high school football program in America with 911 all-time victories, not to mention 23 state championships, he’d better know the drill.
Bob Sphire, who created a state championship program at Lexington Catholic, then went on to take North Gwinnett to a pair of state championship games in football crazy Georgia and headed up an arena team in Lexington, knows the drill in Ft. Thomas.
“The standard at Highlands never changes,” Bob says of his outlook for 2025, his fifth season at the Ft. Thomas school. “We know the task at hand and the path before us. We scheduled the best of the best to prepare ourselves to play 15 weeks.”
Bob isn’t kidding. While other programs in Northern Kentucky, where state title contenders are spread out over four classes, have trouble keeping up the competition level the second half of the season once they get into district play, that’s not the case for the Bluebirds.
Sphire just laughs at the thought. With second-half-of-the-season games against archrival Covington Catholic, now in the same 4A district after Highlands moved down from 5A, not to mention a trip to Cincinnati Elder’s famed “Pit” and a regular-season-ending matchup with Scott County, it’s a schedule “made by design” to prepare the Bluebirds for another state title run.
But the first half isn’t any easier after scrimmages with Class 6A favorite Ryle and Louisville Male, then regular season games against Lexington’s Frederick Douglass and another state finalist from a year ago, a Class 5A Cooper team that beat the Bluebirds twice, perennial state power Boyle County, and Ryle in the regular season again, there’s no time to take off.
“It’s better to play teams where you have to play them full speed all the way,” Sphire says, “although that can be a mixed bag when you play the schedule we play. It can play out both ways when it comes to injuries, it’s something of a mixed bag.”
That’s the challenge.
But it’s also the best way in Kentucky, to play the full 15 weeks and make it to UK’s Kroger Field in December for the state championship game. Sphire says this schedule can make that possible.
But getting to a state championship game is something that hasn’t happened for Highlands since 2014. And the complicating factor now: the return of longtime archrival CovCath as a district opponent, intensifying the two programs’ nearly six-decade rivalry.
With nine starters back (six on offense, three on defense) from last year’s 11-3 team, Sphire is upbeat about the Bluebirds’ prospects. Returning starting quarterback Rio Litmer (193 of 281 passing for 199.4 yards a game, 33 TD against eight interceptions) will run the offense behind a veteran, all-senior line, four of whom are headed to play in college.
Louisville commit Max Merz (6-foot-3½, 305 pounds) leads the way while Mason Howard (6-5, 310-pounds) has multiple D-1 offers. Brody Cook and Russell Ali are also headed for college level play. Rounding out the O-line is Weston Higgason.
The secret to Highlands’ offensive success will be Litmer’s ability to “distribute the ball to a multitude of weapons,” Sphire says.
One of them is junior Tayden Lorenzen, a 6-3, 235-pound tight end/linebacker who caught 31 passes for 363 yards and eight TD with another 190 yards rushing.
The son of the famed “Hefty Lefty” Jared Lorenzen, Tayden has a Miami of Ohio offer and leads the list of a half-dozen receiving threats for the Bluebirds, who averaged 226 yards passing and 155 yards rushing last season.
Leading another half-dozen candidates to carry the ball is junior Gabe Williams (344 yards, four TD as a sophomore) with the graduation of Jack White and Deven James and a combined 1,071 rushing yards.
The three returning starters on defense are Williams (51 tackles), Isaac Niemann (57 tackles) and Ryan Dunn (36 tackles). Niemann, coming back from ACL surgery, has been cleared for 10 snaps each of the first two games and Sphire is encouraged about his return.
Getting new-look special teams squared away is the biggest challenge for the Birds right now
HIGHLANDS BLUEBIRDS
2024 SEASON: 11-3 record, lost in semifinals of Class 5A playoffs.
STARTERS RETURNING: 6 offense, 3 defense.
DISTRICT: Class 4A, District 5 with Covington Catholic, Harrison County and Mason County
HEAD COACH: Bob Spire (37-14 in four seasons at Highlands, 316-117 in 36 seasons overall).
2025 SCHEDULE
Aug. 22 – FREDERICK DOUGLASS, 7 p.m.
Aug. 29 – at Cooper, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 5 – CAMPBELL COUNTY, 7 p.m.
Sept. 12 – at Boyle County, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 19 – RYLE, 7 p.m.
Sept. 26 – at Harrison County, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 3 – COVINGTON CATHOLIC, 7 p.m.
Oct. 10 – at Cincinnati Elder, 7 p.m.
Oct. 17 – at Mason County, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 24 – SCOTT COUNTY, 7:30 p.m.