2024 Newport Wildcats

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Aug 23 at Carroll County
Aug 30 at Holmes
Sep 6 - OPEN
Sep 13 vs. Boone County
Sep 20 vs. Ludlow
Sep 27 - OPEN
Oct 4 at Lloyd Memorial
Oct 11 vs. Newport Central Catholic (District)
Oct 18 vs. Bellevue (District)
Oct 25 vs. Dayton (District)
Nov 1 vs. Covington Holy Cross

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Pendleton County has scheduled a game with Bellevue for Week 3 this year instead of Newport, so it would appear that Newport is left trying to find a 10th regular season opponent to fill out their 2024 football schedule.

The Wildcats were 7-3 last year against this same schedule (Pendleton County included). Losses came to Henry County in the season opener, and then two straight losses to Lloyd Memorial and New Cath. After beating Ludlow 16-14 in the regular season, the Panthers came back and ended the Wildcats' season in round two of the playoffs with a 28-6 win.

Coach Hahn has departed Newport for a position at his alma mater on Coach Sphire's Highlands football staff, and Paul Wiggins has taken the reins at Newport after an untenable dismissal as head coach at Bishop Brossart. Wiggins, who helped pull Brossart's football program out of an early downward spiral, has been on the teaching staff at Newport for years and there are high hopes for the football program under his eye.

With only a 25-player roster last year, Newport graduated 7 seniors and returns a large cast of starters to the team. Their QB Kyle Lee, who passed for over 2500 yards last season, will be back this year as a senior. Leading RB/WR Rodzion Thompson also returns. Last year Thompson had over 1400 all-purpose yards, including 7 touchdowns rushing, 7 touchdowns receiving, 1 fumble recovery returned for a touchdown, and a pair of kick returns for touchdowns. On the defensive side of things, they return two of their top three tacklers, and 6 of their top 10 - including two players who started last year as freshmen, DB Amonte Lowe & LB Sean Hurry.
 

[cincyswords]

Paul Wiggins will provide the stability the program needs in order to survive.  I expect them to increase numbers over time.   They are Class A so I am never expecting 40-50 players, but I do expect him to get them in the low to mid 30's.  

 

Newport has some nice skill position talent coming back so they could be competitive in the district especially since NCC graduated a lot of players.  

Although, NCC graduated a lot of players,  what I am reading in the current NCC thread is that the backups from  last year are ready to explode on to the scene.  This probably leaves Newport as a slight favorite to finish second in the district.  

[Honey Badger]

Heard Amonte Lowe was not playing football this year. Anyone know whether that's true or not at this point? I know he is huge into basketball so could that cut out some summer football activities and he still ends up playing? Would be a big hit for Newport if he doesn't play, he's been an electric kid to watch play for a long time while he has been growing up.

[Honey Badger]

Whelp. No Amonte Lowe putting on the pads this year. Sorry for Newport football but glad the kid is making decisions that are in his best interest. Even though I am not completely convinced that football could not have been his main sport if he wanted to stick with it.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Oh man, that's a major loss to the team. I can understand it a little, since basketball could very well be a free ticket to college for him, but I'm with you, @Honey Badger, I'd still have loved to see him suit up for football.

[Crazy Legs]

On 7/4/2024 at 12:43 AM, Honey Badger said:

Whelp. No Amonte Lowe putting on the pads this year. Sorry for Newport football but glad the kid is making decisions that are in his best interest. Even though I am not completely convinced that football could not have been his main sport if he wanted to stick with it.

First of all with such a small roster Newport needs all the players they can get. It's tough to see how they can be better without Lowe. But remember he's not even their most prolific receiver. That's running back Rod Thompson who had 14 catches more than Lowe and 209 more receiving yards. They had very similar yards per catch averages and TD totals though Lowe caught TDs more often on a per catch basis. There are four quality receivers still on roster. This is Newport's deepest position I think. The guys to watch out for now to take a step up with this opportunity are Sharp, Stacks and Farrell. They could do a heck of a lot worse.

2023 Newport receiving statistics (listed year in school is for this year)
Sr. Rod Thompson: 51 catches, 750 yards, 14.7 YPC, 7 TD
Jr. Kayveion Sharp: 27 catches, 380 yards, 14.1 YPC, 3 TD
Sr. Landon Stacks: 21 catches, 348 yards, 16.5 YPC, 3 TD
Jr. Keegan Farrell: 23 catches, 288 yards, 12.5 YPC, 5 TD
Jr. Kendall Buck-Barber: 16 catches, 179 yards, 11.1 YPC, 0 TD

Amonte Lowe: 37 catches, 541 yards, 14.6 YPC, 6 TD

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[No Hiding Here....BC 21]

On 7/5/2024 at 10:02 AM, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Oh man, that's a major loss to the team. I can understand it a little, since basketball could very well be a free ticket to college for him, but I'm with you, @Honey Badger, I'd still have loved to see him suit up for football.

Saw this young man play 1 game and he was flying around all over the field. 

He might not have been their most prolific receiver as @Crazy Legs mentions in his post, but it was on the defensive side of the ball that I noticed him first.

Could definitely see him playing at the next level in either sport.

[Buck2]

23 hours ago, Crazy Legs said:

First of all with such a small roster Newport needs all the players they can get. It's tough to see how they can be better without Lowe. But remember he's not even their most prolific receiver. That's running back Rod Thompson who had 14 catches more than Lowe and 209 more receiving yards. They had very similar yards per catch averages and TD totals though Lowe caught TDs more often on a per catch basis. There are four quality receivers still on roster. This is Newport's deepest position I think. The guys to watch out for now to take a step up with this opportunity are Sharp, Stacks and Farrell. They could do a heck of a lot worse.

2023 Newport receiving statistics (listed year in school is for this year)
Sr. Rod Thompson: 51 catches, 750 yards, 14.7 YPC, 7 TD
Jr. Kayveion Sharp: 27 catches, 380 yards, 14.1 YPC, 3 TD
Sr. Landon Stacks: 21 catches, 348 yards, 16.5 YPC, 3 TD
Jr. Keegan Farrell: 23 catches, 288 yards, 12.5 YPC, 5 TD
Jr. Kendall Buck-Barber: 16 catches, 179 yards, 11.1 YPC, 0 TD

Amonte Lowe: 37 catches, 541 yards, 14.6 YPC, 6 TD

Correct me if I'm wrong.

How are they doing replacing the graduation loses up front? 

[Honey Badger]

On 7/9/2024 at 6:07 PM, Crazy Legs said:

First of all with such a small roster Newport needs all the players they can get. It's tough to see how they can be better without Lowe. But remember he's not even their most prolific receiver. That's running back Rod Thompson who had 14 catches more than Lowe and 209 more receiving yards. They had very similar yards per catch averages and TD totals though Lowe caught TDs more often on a per catch basis. There are four quality receivers still on roster. This is Newport's deepest position I think. The guys to watch out for now to take a step up with this opportunity are Sharp, Stacks and Farrell. They could do a heck of a lot worse.

2023 Newport receiving statistics (listed year in school is for this year)
Sr. Rod Thompson: 51 catches, 750 yards, 14.7 YPC, 7 TD
Jr. Kayveion Sharp: 27 catches, 380 yards, 14.1 YPC, 3 TD
Sr. Landon Stacks: 21 catches, 348 yards, 16.5 YPC, 3 TD
Jr. Keegan Farrell: 23 catches, 288 yards, 12.5 YPC, 5 TD
Jr. Kendall Buck-Barber: 16 catches, 179 yards, 11.1 YPC, 0 TD

Amonte Lowe: 37 catches, 541 yards, 14.6 YPC, 6 TD

Correct me if I'm wrong.

I would say WR is definitely their deepest position and I imagine they are pretty deep at DB also. With Lowe having that type of production as a freshman on both sides of the ball I was excited to see the jump he made within the next couple years with getting bigger, stronger, faster cause even with being so young his IQ and feel for the game would of never made you think he was an underclassmen. He was an extremely young freshman at that I am pretty sure he didn't turn 14 until after the season started and that's hard going against dudes that have been in the weight room 3-4 years already and also already experienced years of high school football. They may not miss him too much production wise for the next year or so but he brought alot more with him than just what shows up in the stats. Very highly competitive kid.

[Bac2369]

I hear they had a good showing at EKU. Anybody have details? 

[Hard Work]

21 hours ago, Bac2369 said:

I hear they had a good showing at EKU. Anybody have details? 

I think many have misread this group. I got the chance to see them at EKU and they had a lot of speed and talent. This group could be dangerous. I am not sure what they have for linemen but skill groups are not short on talent. 

[Bac2369]

What kind of numbers they got coming in? Roster looks to be thin with what’s returning and the loss of Lowe not playing.

[Bac2369]

Bump. Anyone have any scrimmage updates/results?

[J. Peterman]

I believe they scrimmaged a team out Ohio this past weekend. Not sure of the details.