By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
One of the leading scorers in 9th Region boys’ basketball the last two seasons found the ideal place to continue his playing career close to home.
St. Henry senior guard Adam Goetz has made a commitment with Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati, a team that made its first appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs last season.
Goetz said the small college team’s recent success under coach Toby Carrigan wasn’t the only reason he decided to join the Lions’ program
“Ultimately, it came down to it’s somewhere I can play and my parents can watch me,” Goetz said. “And it’s somewhere I know I can get better every day with a great coach like coach Carrigan.”
Goetz averaged 14.4 points as a junior and 18.6 points as a senior for St. Henry. The 6-foot point guard scored more than 1,000 points during his three-year varsity career. He was named to the Northern Kentucky Division II All-Conference Team by local coaches the last two seasons.
Mount Saint Joseph began recruiting Goetz last summer after coaches saw him playing on an AAU select team. He could be seeing playing time as a freshman since the Lions are losing three senior guards who were double-figure scorers on last season’s national playoff team.
“They’re not going to hand anything to me, but I’m looking forward to coming in and possibly being a helping hand to lead the team to greater things,” Goetz said. “It’s exciting knowing that it could happen again and I could play in the NCAA tournament. I’m really looking forward to it.”
More changes ahead in girls’ basketball coaching ranks
Notre Dame and Beechwood have joined the list of local high schools that will have a new girls’ head basketball coach next season.
Wyatt Foust resigned as Notre Dame’s head coach after compiling a 54-35 record over the last three seasons. Beechwood needs to find a replacement for Troy Houston, who is stepping down with a 22-32 record after two seasons.
Beechwood will be hiring a new coach for the third time in the last four years. There were only nine players on the Tigers’ varsity roster last season and four of them were seniors.
Notre Dame will have five players returning who saw action in 27 or more games last season. The list includes guards Jenna Martin and Kennedy Baugh, who were the team’s top two scorers.
Bishop Brossart is the other local high school searching for a girls’ head basketball coach. Newport and Dixie Heights recently filled vacancies for that position.
The two local schools still in the market for a new boys’ head basketball coach are Scott and Ludlow.
Local players seeded for state tennis tournament
Covington Catholic singles player Anthony Bosch and Notre Dame doubles partners Francie Case and Kylie Moellering are the local players who received a seeded position in the brackets for the state high school tennis tournament that begins Thursday in Lexington.
Bosch, a first-time state qualifier in boys’ singles as 9th Region champion, is one of four players seeded No. 5 through No. 8 by a committee of coaches. The other local state qualifiers are Ben Emery of Highlands, Cameron Shi of Scott, Sheldon Preisler of Boone County, Max Cook of CovCath and Anderson McDowell of Campbell County.
Case and Moellering are seeded No. 4 in girls’ doubles after winning the 9th Region title. Case switched from singles to doubles to team up with Moellering and make a run at the state title.
The other local teams in the girls’ doubles bracket are Brooke Hodory and Mia Smith of Highlands, Elizabeth Pawsatt and Katherine Taylor of Beechwood, Sydney Hancock and Abby Hillmann of Scott, Lauren Auteri and Lacey Pohlman of Highlands, Natalie Hahn and Lauryn Reckner of Simon Kenton, Dana Pangburn and Lauren Sebastian of Campbell County.
The local state qualifiers in girls’ singles are Brooke Warden of Dixie Heights, Elizabeth Hamilton of Ryle, Sarah Hoffman and Lexi Herman of Highlands, Audrey North of St. Henry and Rachel Crigler of Campbell County.
In boys’ doubles, the local contenders include Jake and Jarod Haught of CovCath, Nathan Eberhard and Nick Elleman of Conner, Max O’Leary and Jonah Shields of Ryle, Peter Laskey and Jeff Schenk of Highlands, Blake Heimbrock and Benito Trojani of CovCath, Mason Geiman and Jacob Walters of Campbell County.
Football championship games will take three days next season
Kentucky high school football championship games will be played over three days instead of two next season with two title games scheduled on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Western Kentucky University.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control approved a proposal from staff members to adjust the schedule beginning in 2016. The change would minimize lost school time by having four of the six games on the weekend and help alleviate traffic concerns on the WKU campus while classes are in session.
Kentucky high school football teams are divided into six classes based on enrollment. In past years, the KHSAA scheduled three state championship games on Friday and three on Saturday.
That schedule had to be extended to three days last year because the WKU football team hosted the Conference USA championship game on the same weekend as the high school football finals.
Covington Latin swimmer to join successful small-college team
Covington Latin conducted a signing ceremony Tuesday for senior Krista Borchers, who will be joining the women’s swimming and diving team at Denison University in Ohio.
At the girls’ high school regional meet, Borchers placed third in the 100 backstroke and fifth in the 100 freestyle to qualify for the state meet in both events. She was also the anchor swimmer on Covington Latin’s 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.
Borchers will be joining a Denison women’s team that placed fourth in the NCAA Division III Championships last season.