Here we go, year 6 of the Sphire era Highlands Bluebirds.  We have seen the Birds accumulate a record of 47-17 in the 5 years with Coach Sphire at the helm, twice making it to the State Semi's (23 & 24).  Unfortunately, that isn't the standard that Fort Thomas expects.  State Championship Trophies are what people in Fort Thomas expect from one of the most winningest programs in the country.  The drought has been long, it has been since 2014 when a new trophy was placed in the Trophy case all shiny.....  It is getting unfortunately a little dusty now.  We have come so close especially in 2023 when I believe Highlands made it back on top of the 5A rankings during the Regular season, the fan base felt like the tide had turned and a visit to Kroger Field was imminent only to be dealt a heartbreaking loss to a NKY foe Cooper Jags in the Semi's on a cold November Friday night.

Will THIS year be the year that the stars align and the Birds make a trip south to Kroger Field to add to the Trophy case?  

Here is my take on the 2026 Edition of the Highlands Bluebirds

When I think about the 2026 Highlands Bluebirds, one word comes to mind:  ATHLETES!  Coach Zitt, the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator (& RB coach) at Highlands has these young men looking like machines.  The Strength program in my opinion is one of the biggest pieces of Highlands football that was missing in the years prior to Coach Zitt. 

The 2026 Birds are going to have a TON of skilled position players that they will have the opportunity to as Will Stein says "Feed the Studs".

Other than losing Rio Litmer which is a huge loss losing a QB that threw 252 of the 289 passes in 2025, but other than Rio you basically return your whole running back room and your receiving core.

Here is the run down on these rooms:

Running backs:  Tayden Lorenzen led the team in '25 with 541 yards rushing with 18 TDs, right behind him on the stat sheet is Colt Kremer who really progressed nicely in '25 only being a Sophomore, rushing for 432 yards.

Receiving core:  John Feldbrugge led the team in '25 with 505 yards receiving, right behind John is Cale Harris with 331 yards and then Tayden Lorenzen with 321 yards receiving.

The Birds will also hopefully get a healthy Gabe Williams back who missed the last 6 games of the season with a back injury.  

QB room:  This will probably be the biggest topic at the water cooler in Fort Thomas in the off season, but maybe not.  Who will get the keys to the Offense?  Will Coach Sphire go with the upcoming Young Gun stud Bryce Armstrong who razzle dazzled the offense in the Freshman and JV games.  He is the REAL DEAL but can he lead a Varsity team as a Sophomore to the "Promise Land"???  Or will there be some pressure to have a more older bigger player in Tayden Lorenzen drop back in the pocket and sling away like his father did back in the late 90's for the Birds?  

Weakness:  With all these returning skilled players and athletes running around the ball the biggest question mark I have to believe on this team is interior lineman.  Graduating the likes of Max Merz, Mason Howard and the other IOL/IDL I will be interested to see who might be replacing these big boys in the trenches.

With the interior lineman a big question mark, what won't be is the highly recruited Twin Tower Edge rushers in Cooper & Griffin Benke.  These 2 have had the height of men for the last couple of years and have been getting stronger and wider in the last 12 months, it will be very interesting after another off season what their bodies will look like suiting up on Friday nights in 8 months.  Not a lot of teams are going to have success running around the edges in 2026 versus the Birds.  

Rising star watch out:  Nick Stojkovic, will be a Sophomore this upcoming 2026 season.  It will be interesting how the program uses him.  I believe in the Freshman/JV teams he has played RB on offense and LB on defense.  This kid has looked like a stud since Kindergarten.  Every time I see him around town he looks bigger and bigger.  His body type reminds me of a Brycen Huddleston body type.  The next 3 years will be fun to watch him grow within this program.  The future is very bright for that young man.

2026 Schedule..  I haven't seen an official schedule with dates but I believe everyone we played in 2025 should be on contract for 2026, therefore here is the home/away opponents how it would line up:

Home:  Cooper, Boyle Co, Harrison Co, Elder, Mason Co

Away:  Frederick Douglass, Campbell Co, Ryle, Covington Catholic, Scott Co

Let the discussion start.....  What have I missed?  Any other names we should be looking forward to seeing? Who you have as QB1?

#GOBIRDS!!!!

 

It blew my mind when Highlands lost to Corbin. Felt like talent wise, they were as good as anybody in 4A. Losing all their lineman has to be cause for concern knowing that you have a good shot of playing Johnson Central, Boyle, or Corbin in the playoffs.

Will the Benke twins play some OL or TE this year? It is time for Lorenzen to be QB1!

32 minutes ago, DearToday said:

It blew my mind when Highlands lost to Corbin. Felt like talent wise, they were as good as anybody in 4A. Losing all their lineman has to be cause for concern knowing that you have a good shot of playing Johnson Central, Boyle, or Corbin in the playoffs.

I thought Corbin matched up pretty well physically against Highlands and the weather was not perfect.

To your point, graduations up front should be a concern for the 2026 Birds.  

Is it August yet?

4 hours ago, FrankNicodemus said:

Here we go, year 6 of the Sphire era Highlands Bluebirds.  We have seen the Birds accumulate a record of 47-17 in the 5 years with Coach Sphire at the helm, twice making it to the State Semi's (23 & 24).  Unfortunately, that isn't the standard that Fort Thomas expects.  State Championship Trophies are what people in Fort Thomas expect from one of the most winningest programs in the country.  The drought has been long, it has been since 2014 when a new trophy was placed in the Trophy case all shiny.....  It is getting unfortunately a little dusty now.  We have come so close especially in 2023 when I believe Highlands made it back on top of the 5A rankings during the Regular season, the fan base felt like the tide had turned and a visit to Kroger Field was imminent only to be dealt a heartbreaking loss to a NKY foe Cooper Jags in the Semi's on a cold November Friday night.

Will THIS year be the year that the stars align and the Birds make a trip south to Kroger Field to add to the Trophy case?  

Here is my take on the 2026 Edition of the Highlands Bluebirds

When I think about the 2026 Highlands Bluebirds, one word comes to mind:  ATHLETES!  Coach Zitt, the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator (& RB coach) at Highlands has these young men looking like machines.  The Strength program in my opinion is one of the biggest pieces of Highlands football that was missing in the years prior to Coach Zitt. 

The 2026 Birds are going to have a TON of skilled position players that they will have the opportunity to as Will Stein says "Feed the Studs".

Other than losing Rio Litmer which is a huge loss losing a QB that threw 252 of the 289 passes in 2025, but other than Rio you basically return your whole running back room and your receiving core.

Here is the run down on these rooms:

Running backs:  Tayden Lorenzen led the team in '25 with 541 yards rushing with 18 TDs, right behind him on the stat sheet is Colt Kremer who really progressed nicely in '25 only being a Sophomore, rushing for 432 yards.

Receiving core:  John Feldbrugge led the team in '25 with 505 yards receiving, right behind John is Cale Harris with 331 yards and then Tayden Lorenzen with 321 yards receiving.

The Birds will also hopefully get a healthy Gabe Williams back who missed the last 6 games of the season with a back injury.  

QB room:  This will probably be the biggest topic at the water cooler in Fort Thomas in the off season, but maybe not.  Who will get the keys to the Offense?  Will Coach Sphire go with the upcoming Young Gun stud Bryce Armstrong who razzle dazzled the offense in the Freshman and JV games.  He is the REAL DEAL but can he lead a Varsity team as a Sophomore to the "Promise Land"???  Or will there be some pressure to have a more older bigger player in Tayden Lorenzen drop back in the pocket and sling away like his father did back in the late 90's for the Birds?  

Weakness:  With all these returning skilled players and athletes running around the ball the biggest question mark I have to believe on this team is interior lineman.  Graduating the likes of Max Merz, Mason Howard and the other IOL/IDL I will be interested to see who might be replacing these big boys in the trenches.

With the interior lineman a big question mark, what won't be is the highly recruited Twin Tower Edge rushers in Cooper & Griffin Benke.  These 2 have had the height of men for the last couple of years and have been getting stronger and wider in the last 12 months, it will be very interesting after another off season what their bodies will look like suiting up on Friday nights in 8 months.  Not a lot of teams are going to have success running around the edges in 2026 versus the Birds.  

Rising star watch out:  Nick Stojkovic, will be a Sophomore this upcoming 2026 season.  It will be interesting how the program uses him.  I believe in the Freshman/JV teams he has played RB on offense and LB on defense.  This kid has looked like a stud since Kindergarten.  Every time I see him around town he looks bigger and bigger.  His body type reminds me of a Brycen Huddleston body type.  The next 3 years will be fun to watch him grow within this program.  The future is very bright for that young man.

2026 Schedule..  I haven't seen an official schedule with dates but I believe everyone we played in 2025 should be on contract for 2026, therefore here is the home/away opponents how it would line up:

Home:  Cooper, Boyle Co, Harrison Co, Elder, Mason Co

Away:  Frederick Douglass, Campbell Co, Ryle, Covington Catholic, Scott Co

Let the discussion start.....  What have I missed?  Any other names we should be looking forward to seeing? Who you have as QB1?

#GOBIRDS!!!!

 

If you couldn't get it done with that heralded OL this past season how will it go with new guys? I would assume Armstrong will be the QB and should do a nice job athletically. I would think 4A will be pretty good again.

It’s never to early and the Birds always get the football fans talking. The Benke brothers are ginormous and I think it’s so cool to both be that good to start opposite of each other on defense. I know we heard from day one of the Sphire administration that size on the line would be a priority. Last year they were absolutely huge and I don’t think they ran the ball enough. Kremer is going to be a stud, If they don’t roll with Lorenzen at QB (no clue if they should) because he can play position, if not Armstrong then who is the next viable option? 
 

Seems this years team won’t be hurting for skilled players but per usual the non-skilled don’t get much pub.

 

Good luck this year.

Nice write up… but you forgot Gabe Williams somehow. Is he transferring to a different school or something? I figured he would be RB1 going into this year. Also I feel like the Benke Bros could help fill out the OLine. 
 

Interesting oline point to make. Back in the 90s Highlands won state repeatedly with regular looking dudes playing OLine.  They pulled all over and just did their jobs fast. The one year Highlands had an OLine with D1 studs we lost in the mud bowl. When Highlands beat Cincy St X there was that awesome photo of a 5-11 200 lb guy blocking a Notre Dame commit. The old Highlands OLine way could work again. 

20 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Nice write up… but you forgot Gabe Williams somehow. Is he transferring to a different school or something? I figured he would be RB1 going into this year. Also I feel like the Benke Bros could help fill out the OLine. 
 

Interesting oline point to make. Back in the 90s Highlands won state repeatedly with regular looking dudes playing OLine.  They pulled all over and just did their jobs fast. The one year Highlands had an OLine with D1 studs we lost in the mud bowl. When Highlands beat Cincy St X there was that awesome photo of a 5-11 200 lb guy blocking a Notre Dame commit. The old Highlands OLine way could work again. 

Nah, he mentioned him. Just not under the running backs position. IMO Gabe will most dominate at Safety or somewhere in the defensive back field. He just makes plays, He will also get reps at RB, but I think that position has plenty coming back to fill any voids if there are any. 

 

The talent is there for sure. They will be able to cover any deficiencies that the Oline will have at the beginning of the season until they gel as a group. 

 

Very promising year ahead again for the Birds!  

On 1/8/2026 at 6:42 PM, 9068 said:

If you couldn't get it done with that heralded OL this past season how will it go with new guys? I would assume Armstrong will be the QB and should do a nice job athletically. I would think 4A will be pretty good again.

OL is going to be extremely young. But they have a whole offseason to get these young guys in the weight room and get them bigger faster and stronger. Highlands is going to be alright. 

Highlands has progressed nicely the past couple of years. I would expect the Oline to be just fine. When you have athletes like they have. You can get away with average or alittle better oline play. I can see them making a great run at it again this year!

On 1/14/2026 at 6:38 PM, BBHCEAGLE said:

Highlands has progressed nicely the past couple of years. I would expect the Oline to be just fine. When you have athletes like they have. You can get away with average or alittle better oline play. I can see them making a great run at it again this year!

Plus they’ll have 6 months to get their OL situation figured out. Get the young guys in the weight room and working on the field as well!

Bump.

The Birds have a lot of talent coming back at the skill positions. Lorenzen, Williams, Harris, Jacob, Feldbruegge, Tincher, Kremer. They have Armstrong,Simon, Stojkovic coming up from the freshman team. So there’s a lot to work with there. 

They graduated most of the offensive line. Merz, Howard, Cook, Higgason, Ali will need to be replaced. I know Swope got some varsity time last year. 

Other than Swope, did any lineman get meaningful snaps on Friday night? Scott Turner is one of the best offensive line coaches in the state, so I’m confident he will develop a unit to be successful this season. 

On 1/10/2026 at 11:10 AM, El Diablo said:

Nice write up… but you forgot Gabe Williams somehow. Is he transferring to a different school or something? I figured he would be RB1 going into this year. Also I feel like the Benke Bros could help fill out the OLine. 
 

Interesting oline point to make. Back in the 90s Highlands won state repeatedly with regular looking dudes playing OLine.  They pulled all over and just did their jobs fast.  Highlands had an OLine with D1 studs we lost in the mud bowl. When Highlands beat Cincy St X there was that awesome photo of a 5-11 200 lb guy blocking a Notre Dame commit. The old Highlands OLine way could work again. 

Still have that picture framed hanging on my wall. Smile every time I look at it.

Actually that was Cam Derieg a DE and was in St. X back field all night long. 

Looking at their roster they 7 to 8 kids in the 250 to 275 pound range. The Oline will be fine!