Nowhere in Kentucky are small schools as big a deal and as important a part of the sporting culture as they are in Northern Kentucky. Nowhere else are there as many small schools that matter so much.
February’s induction into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame made that as clear as could be with five of the six new Hall of Famers calling small schools – sometimes more than one – their home.
Here they are:
• Bellevue’s Rob Hart grew up with some of the top athletes in Northern Kentucky history who were winning National Knothole Baseball Championships – three in all – from the time Rob was 10 and playing for legendary coach, the cigar-smoking Yankees scout Red Brown. But it was tennis, where Rob had the good fortune to play for another legend, Roger Klein, that gave him the sport he still plays today with his Eastern Hills Tennis Club winning 10 Greater Cincinnati Indoor championships. Rob, the 2024 Ohio Valley Masters champ, has a word of advice if you “encounter an old guy” on your next trip to the courts. “Beware,” Rob says, “there’s a reason he’s still playing.”
Father of Beechwood basketball coach Ross Hart, Rob is the official scorekeeper for the Tigers, but he also excelled in softball where he played for major men’s champs like Sorrento’s. All of which gave him the talking points for his words of acceptance that what an honor it was to be in the same lineup with Campbell County’s Myron Reinhardt, the first man inducted into the ASA National Slowpitch Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
But his Knothole teammates – HOF athletes like Ken Noll, Kent Vories, Steve Mason and Tim Racke – prepared him well for this moment.
• Erik Goetz was speaking to his “Holy Cross and Beechwood families,” he said. Holy Cross, where he played, and Beechwood, where he coached – to thank for his presence here. As Jeff Trame introduced Erik, his Holy Cross accomplishments as a four-year fearless, heady starting point guard — seem almost too good to be true – like leading the Indians to the Sweet 16 semifinals as a sophomore or his 128-84 record as a coach there and winning the State All “A” Classic with a 28-3 team. And then on to Beechwood where he retired as the winningest coach in Tiger history, coming up just short of beating Covington Catholic three times in the same season.
“I’m proud to be a small acorn that dropped off that Kenney Shields’ tree,” Erik said of the start so many youngsters got playing ball at the Covington Turners and all the great adult coaching they got there. But that wasn’t all. “I’ve got an awesome, awesome family,” Erik said of a “superfan mom” and a dad who was his first coach and “a fiancé who wants me to get back into coaching.”
• Holy Cross’ Dave Muck had a great motivator, he recalled of the day the Taylor Mill Knothole seventh-grader struck out four times in a game. That never left him, the two-sport star – baseball and basketball – noted of a senior high school season where “my only goal as a contact hitter was to never strike out.” And he didn’t. Not once.
He also thanked his legendary coaches at Holy Cross like George Schneider in basketball, where he started three years and won a Ninth Region championship as a senior and scored 39 points in two games at the Sweet 16 before earning a scholarship to Christian Brothers. And then came Tony Bezold in baseball, where he hit above .320 for all three varsity seasons. Also special thanks to his wife of 51 years, Cathy, their three children and eight grandchildren.
• Beechwood’s Chris Curley is batting cleanup in the Curley family lineup as the fourth Curley – with his dad, Bill; his grandfather, Paul; and his great-uncle, Bob – to be inducted into the NKSHOF. With two of those having played pro baseball, it’s no secret which sport the football/baseball Beechwood athlete would land on. As Northern Kentucky Player of the Year in 2005 and 2006 in baseball, Chris was part of the two longest winning streak for the Ft. Mitchell school before heading off to Campbellsville where he earned All-American honors in 2009 with single-season and career records for home runs.
But that was just the warmup for an eight-year pro baseball career for the Braves, the White Sox, the Angels and the Marlins organizations where he was named Carolina League MVP in 2013. For the last 15 years, Chris has run a hitting academy — Curley Hitting on the 3-L Highway — with personal coaching for more than 150 athletes from the age of 10 on up to pro players. He’s also part of the community outreach program for the Florence Y’alls.
Chris thanked his dad for talking him into trying out for the Braves and making it a career and how “my biggest honor” was joining all those other Curleys in the Hall of Fame.
• Beechwood’s Brandon Slusher liked it so much in Ft. Mitchell that the kid who grew up in Villa Hills is still there, more than 25 years after his parents decided for him that’s where he was going. And still doing sports as Beechwood’s head trainer and assistant athletic director. But first, there’s this further family connection.
“Everybody knows Grandpa Wayne,” was Brandon’s opening line. That’s because from Knothole baseball on to Covington Holmes and the University of Michigan where his 1962 Wolverines won an NCAA championship to all his years coaching youth sports, Wayne Slusher has led the Slusher family sports charge.
Brandon followed perfectly, as a two-way football starter for Beechwood’s 2004 state football champs and a four-year starting pitcher with a 20-1 career record and a starter for the school’s winningest team and first-ever Ninth Region champion. A shoulder injury after a freshman season at Georgetown College where he was 7-2 with a record low freshman ERA got him back to NKU where Brandon played on back-to-back Horizon League champs with a 9-5 record in 21 starts.
“Growing up, we played ‘em all,” Brandon said of his opportunity to play all sports, “and my kids will go to Beechwood and play ‘em all.” Which, after all, is the beauty of going to a small school.
• Covington Catholic’s Chad Wachs grew up imagining in his mind’s eye when he was practicing basketball that “if I made this next free throw, I’d be able to play . . .” at St. Augustine, or at CovCath, or maybe even at UK . . .” and on and on. But what he didn’t think, he said, after making it to two of those and then a four-year college career at Thomas More, “that it would get me to the Hall of Fame.”
After three years as a CovCath starter, and senior captain, Chad headed off to Thomas More, where he was a four-year starter winning college district first-team honors and TMU’s Bob Breinich Award in a career that had him as a team leader, or near-leader, in points, rebounds, blocks, assists and steals every season with 16 career double-doubles and 932 points.
“Basketball isn’t exactly life but it’s been a big part of mine,” Chad said, paying tribute to his coach, now TMU VP for Athletics, Terry Connor. “Thanks, especially, to my wife, Taylor, and my three kids,” he said, as they’re almost certainly learning to visualize their own futures with Dad as coach.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.