Covington Catholic hires Jake Thelen as new head basketball coach

[theguru]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 7, 2024                                       

Contact: Bob Rowe browe@covcath.org or Tony Bacigalupo tbacigalupo@covcath.org                                                                              

Covington Catholic hires Jake Thelen as new head basketball coach

Former Colonel standout, Division II All-American brings high school and college coaching experience

Park Hills, KY – Covington Catholic High School has named former Colonel standout Jake Thelen its new head basketball coach. A native of Edgewood, Kentucky, Thelen starred at Covington Catholic – where he was selected to play in both the Kentucky/Indiana and the Kentucky/Ohio All-Star games – before embarking on an All-American career at Bellarmine University and gaining coaching experience at three top Division I basketball programs.

            Thelen, Class of 2011, finished his career at Covington Catholic with a scoring average of 16.6 points per game and is the 8^th all-time leading scorer in CCH basketball history with 1,258 points. He also holds the CCH single game record with 18 field goals. 

            Thelen most recently served as Director of Player Development/Assistant Coach for the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team. Prior to joining UC, Thelen was the director of basketball operations at the University of Georgia – the youngest director of basketball operations at a Power 5 school when he arrived in Athens at age 25. Thelen’s on-campus coordination helped the Bulldogs land a consensus top-10 class in head coach Tom Crean’s first full recruiting cycle. That group was headlined by Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and one of six top-100 prospects Georgia has signed during Thelen’s tenure in Athens.

            Thelen was an All-American forward at Bellarmine University, where he finished ranked No. 16 among Bellarmine’s career scoring leaders with 1,412 points in three seasons. As a senior, he posted the second-highest point (651) and rebound (375) tallies in school history to average a double-double of 18.6 ppg and 10.7 rebounds per game. Thelen was a consensus All-American and was named the GLVC Player of the Year in 2015. Thelen was tabbed first-team All-America by Basketball Times, DII Bulletin, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and BennettRank.com.

[Cov_Cath_Hwy]

Slam Dunk hire for sure.  Welcome back Home Coach Thelen.  

GO COLONELS!!!

[theguru]

Congrats Coach Thelen!

It would be hard to imagine CovCath making a better hire than Coach Thelen.  Happy Day in Park Hills. 

[TheDeuce]

Sounds like a perfect fit. 

[TheConch]

Great person, coach, and family! Hats off to Bacigalupo and Rowe for getting this done, and rather quickly. 

[RedHawk]

Great hire!! Should fire up the boys!! 

[tcjkbt]

Best of luck to Coach Thelen.

[Basketball Jones]

After CovCath and before Bellarmine, Thelen played one season at Spring Hill College in Mobile Alabama and averaged 18.5 points and 7.5 rebounds while earning Southern States Conference Freshman of the Year honors. His ensuing basketball career and subsequent hiring at Georgia, UC and CovCath shows the fruits of lowering your sights after high school and not being full of ego while making a reasonable, calculated life decision. Kudos to Jake.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

 

[Tranquility Base]

Tempus Fugit.   Doesn't seem like he graduated all that long ago.  Not that 2011 makes him ancient.

[Basketball Jones]

2 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

 

This is so cool. 

[Basketball Jones]

1 hour ago, Tranquility Base said:

Tempus Fugit.   Doesn't seem like he graduated all that long ago.  Not that 2011 makes him ancient.

Latin, nice. Time sure does fly, yep. I remember Jake as fresh faced and without a beard. Seemed real personable.

[TCR]

Wow, impressive resume! Not surprised that Covington Catholic would land someone with such a strong background. But still, that's an excellent hire and when you think about the connection to the school (Like Mark Pope with Kentucky) it brings a different type of feeling. Wishing him and Cov Cath the best. Always enjoyed watching and covering them over the years when they made trips to the eastern end of the state. 

[Oldercoach]

After watching him at Bellarmine I always came away with a smile thinking “that’s the way you should play the game.”  He’s a flat-out winner.