Well...I'm sitting here watching soccer stuff on TV and thought to myself, we are about 12 weeks out from the Bluegrass Games which marks the start of the high school soccer season.  With that I thought it would be interesting to start discussing a team each week from the 9th Region.  There are 13 teams in the region, so I'll have to double on one week.

Let's start with Beechwood.

Beechwood went 10-7-2 as runners up in the 35th District and making an appearance in the 9th Region tournament.  They were a senior led team who graduated 10 seniors.  Biggest win from the 2024 season was 3-1 verses Dixie.  The Tigers had close games with Boone County (1-0), Highlands (0-1), Conner (0-0), and St. Henry (0-1, 1-0).  The defense for Beechwood was solid giving up 19 goals in 19 games.  The offense netted 43 goals for a 2.26 goal per game average.  

Looking ahead to the 2025 season, the Tigers will have to replace 14 goals from senior Breadon Trejo.  8 of the 10 seniors played in 17 or more games.  Excluding the keepers, 5 underclassmen played in all 19 games.  Eli Muck, Nathan Graman, Isaac Popham will be seniors heading into the season with all 3 goalies being seniors also (Wyet Rechtin, Warner Platt, and Everett Pohlgeers).  Johnny Yeager and Gavin Ginter will be juniors going into the season.  I don't see Beechwood having the success they had in 2024, but they have 5 field players returning with major varsity minutes and a good coach.  They will play hard and may surprise a team or two in 2025.

Should be a very interesting year around the 9th…..

Looking forward to all your write ups leading up to the Bluegrass games!

Week 11

Boone County had their first winning season since 2019 (7-7-3) or if you go all the way back to 2013 (16-7-1).  Coach Trenkamp had a senior led team in 2024 with 14 seniors and one of them being the 9th Region offensive player of the year, Parker Byland (NKU commit is my understanding).  The Rebels put up an impressive 52 goals and conceded 33.  In my opinion, the biggest win of the year for Boone County was against Cooper who they beat 2-1 to secure the 3 seed in the 33rd District.  The reigning Coach of the Year will have to replace 2 senior goalies (David Courtney and Thierno Balde), defenders Edwin Pajazetovic, Gus Rice, Logan Trout, and Parker Byland.

Looking ahead to the 2025 season, Boone County returns top scorer Salem Mayala (20 goals/3 assist).  9 players should return with varsity experience, but it may be a short rebuilding year for the Rebels.  The younger players coming up are talented and if they can adjust to the speed and physicality of the varsity game, the Rebels can be competitive in the 9th Region.  

I’m a huge Coach T fan!  He had a great season and well deserved Coach of the Year.

Looking forward to see how the Rebels respond after graduating a huge talent Parker was for the team.

Salem is a great talent - very dangerous on the ball. I am excited to see him play this upcoming year.

Week 10

Conner excuse me if this post seems a little slanted toward the Cougars of Conner...of course it will be.

The Cougars had a great year winning the 33rd District title and getting to the second round of the regionals.  The Cougars will lose Trey Wagner, Brayden Thornton, and Owen Mayhew from their starting 11 due to graduation.  The Cougars beat up on the 33rd District, but struggled against regional contenders like Cov Cath, Highlands, and Dixie Heights.  Will this be the year the Cougars get the tri-fecta and beat all three?  

Going into the 2025 season the Cougars will return 7 starters from last year's team with the top 2 scorers Grady Noble and Mason Ginn returning.  Kellen Faulkner will anchor the defense with returning starters Benji Araujo and Colin Davey.  Dallas Marshall and Owen Swaney return in the midfield.  The Cougars will look to Beckham Mullins to be the man in the box.  Parker Coleman, Clark Peterson, Ayden Terry, Brayden Cranfield, and Henry Cobble will all be fighting for the remaining starting positions.  I will be posting the Cougars schedule in the next couple of weeks, but I can tell you...it's a tough one that should help get the Cougars ready for the post season.  I look for the Cougars to make a claim for back-to-back 33rd District Champs and make a run to the finals of the region and perhaps finally getting through to the state tournament that this school has never achieved.  

Week 9

Cooper graduated 8 seniors from last year's team.  In the tough 33rd district the Jaguars finished last.  I was a little surprised by this as Cooper had a talented team.    

For the upcoming 2025 season the offense returns Maddox Pemberton (16 goals) and Andrew Palmer.  In the mid-field will be Jackson Carnes, Ronan Joyce and Alex Winterman.  The defense will be led by Carson Morgan (keeper).  Cooper will have 14 seniors and will look to make a return trip the regional tournament.  

 

Week 8

Covington Catholic the 9th region champions graduate 14 seniors. The Colonels return 12 players with varsity experience. The leading score, Tyler Turnpaugh (19 goals) will need to be replaced. The Colonels scored 76 goals with 14 players scoring with none of those scoring more than 7 on the year. 
 

it will be interesting to see how the Colonels reload and look to repeat in the 9th. 

I'm a couple of weeks behind now...sorry.  I'm going to do multiple teams on this post.

Dixie Heights ended up losing to Ryle in the opening round of the regionals last year which kind of surprised me.  Dixie graduated 5 seniors from last year's team so they will return a majority of the team for the 2025 fall season.  Players to watch include Donovan Lameier, Trevor Bolte, and Ezequiel Bautista.  I look for Dixie to win their district again.

Highlands no disrespect to @FrankNicodemus, but I'm going to include them in the catch-up post.  Highlands went to the final round of the regions where they loss to Covington Catholic 3-1.   The birds lose 14 seniors, most notable Sam Lang and Harrison Gamble.  The highlight for the 2025 season for the Bluebirds maybe the opening of their multimillion-dollar soccer field in Tower Park.  I've been following the post, and it is going to be the best field in NKY for sure.  

Holmes will return their entire team for the 2025 fall season.  The Bulldogs will be looking to improve on the 8-9-3 record.  Can the Bulldogs upset a Beechwood or Holy Cross team this year?  I'm not sure.  I can't share much on the Bulldogs as their team stats are incomplete.

Holy Cross had a rough 2024 season.  The Indians will need to replace 7 seniors from the team, most notably Wyatt Driscoll in goal.  Holy Cross struggled to score only netting 18 goals.  They do return their top 4 scores who combined for 12 goals on the season with Gabe Romito leading the pack with 4 goals.   

Thank goodness I'm not getting paid to make post on time...I'd be fired by now!

Newport Central Catholic had a rough 2024 fall season.  The Throroughbreds finished 5-13-2.  I would say their best win of the season was against Conner.  Having witnessed that game firsthand, I thought NCC had a nice team...but the record says otherwise.  NCC got the automatic bid to the region and took the loss to Cov Cath 1-6.  

Looking at 2025 NCC returns 16 players from the varsity roster of last year.  If I'm correct, Andrew Green who will be a sophomore is one of the players to watch.  The Thoroughbreds maybe more like COLTS for 2025 as they will be mostly sophomores and juniors and looks like they will have one senior, Grant Kevill.

 

Ryle had their run of 33rd District kings and 9th region monarch end in 2024.  The Raiders had three big losses with Chris Maraduaga not being able to play due to injury, Chase McCarthy injury, and of course the loss of Brice Denigan choosing to play club soccer over high school.  The Raiders graduated 12 seniors from last year and will look to familiar names to lead them back glory for 2025...Marcos Hoenderkamp (Senior), Peyton Ingalls (Senior), Damien Lakis (Junior), Chase McCarthy (Junior), and Cooper Neace.

On 5/25/2025 at 7:43 PM, kyag said:

Week 8

Covington Catholic the 9th region champions graduate 14 seniors. The Colonels return 12 players with varsity experience. The leading score, Tyler Turnpaugh (19 goals) will need to be replaced. The Colonels scored 76 goals with 14 players scoring with none of those scoring more than 7 on the year. 
 

it will be interesting to see how the Colonels reload and look to repeat in the 9th. 

CCH is apparently going in a different direction in terms of coaching this season. While they did lose 14 seniors, those seniors were not playing as a “team”. All the talent in the world matters little if they are managed poorly.

I hope the incoming coach is able to create a positive climate that helps to build the “team”.

4 hours ago, OutOfNeccessity said:

CCH is apparently going in a different direction in terms of coaching this season. While they did lose 14 seniors, those seniors were not playing as a “team”. All the talent in the world matters little if they are managed poorly.

I hope the incoming coach is able to create a positive climate that helps to build the “team”.

Are you saying what I think you are saying without really saying???

When was this memo released if you are saying what I think you’re saying?

14 hours ago, OutOfNeccessity said:

CCH is apparently going in a different direction in terms of coaching this season. While they did lose 14 seniors, those seniors were not playing as a “team”. All the talent in the world matters little if they are managed poorly.

I hope the incoming coach is able to create a positive climate that helps to build the “team”.

10 hours ago, FrankNicodemus said:

Are you saying what I think you are saying without really saying???

When was this memo released if you are saying what I think you’re saying?

I looked into this and I was told:

"There is zero truth to that."

10 minutes ago, theguru said:

I looked into this and I was told:

"There is zero truth to that."

Thanks for the research, I hadn’t heard anything on what was being implied as well.

Maybe I read the comment incorrectly and assumed what was being implied in my brain.

St. Henry had a nice season in 2024. The Cru was able to beat Cov Cath for their best win of the season and also surprised the Blue Birds. The Crusaders graduated 4 seniors, most notably Cody Crowder. The Cru will return Brady Aubuchon in goal who allowed 16 goals and is on the Enquires list as one of the top in NKY. The defense will be led by Connor List who will be entering in his Junior year. I look for the Cru to finish as runner ups again to Dixie Heights in the 34th District. 
 

Villa Madonna will look to improve their record for the fall 2025 season. The Vikings graduated 5 seniors but have their top player returning, Ivan Potapenko. If Ivan played for a bigger school he would have better stats, but he has to carry a lot of the load for the Vikings and just gets wore out trying to do everything for his team. 
 

That concludes the preseason look at the 9th region. With Kentucky Bluegrass games starting this weekend and then Soccerama a few weeks later at Cov Cath the season will be here very soon. Should be a fun ride this year.