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I should've posted this sooner...but the NKY Senior All-Star game will be played Friday 6/6/25 7:00 PM at Dixie Heights high school. It is my understanding each school is sending 2 players. Shout out to Coach Trenkamp and Tom Gamble for organizing this and getting this back on the schedule. I played in this back in 1991 at NKU...these young men will remember this experience and will have one more game to play. Admission is $5...I'm not sure if it is cash or card only so bring both.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

Does Matt Otte come out of retirement and take over the program?

Conner led by as many as 12 in the first half taking a double digit lead into the half. Newport started the 3rd quarter strong cutting the lead to 4 before Conner extended it again. Multiple key players for both teams had 4 fouls in the 4th quarter. With a little under 2 minutes left in the 4th, Louden drives to the basket, makes the shot but is called for a charge drawing his 5th foul. At this point Conner had I believe a 9-10 point lead which got cut to 4 again due to Conner not being able to get the ball across half court and one time not being able to inbound it after a time out. The Cougars did prevail though making free throws at the end.

Vlade for Kobe back in 1996 wasn't a bad trade for the Lakers. Got a couple of championships with that Kobe guy.

They are not posted yet….but you can find them on Riherds scoreboard.

Went to this 33rd District battle tonight. Conner was missing Warner so the Cougars threw a box and 1 on Johnson. I thought Bushman did a really good job for 3 quarters keeping Johnson in check. 4th quarter saw Johnson get the ball more and the Cougars struggled stopping him. With a little over a minute left, Copper had a 10 point lead, but Huff was fouled on a 3 point attempt and converted the free throw. If I remember correctly, I think Conner got as close as 4 but Cooper hit their free throws and put the game away. Will be interesting to see these two play again with both teams at full strength.

We need an I-Team investigation or maybe have Tricia Macke do a sit-down with all parties involved...I'd watch it with my ?.

Attend this one in Hebron tonight. Conner started off fast and opened in a 1-2-2 press which St. Henry had problems with. Huff picked up 2 quick fouls in the 1st quarter and sat out most of the 1st half. Louden and Warner did a nice job of scoring for Conner making 3s and getting drives to the rim. Conner was in full control going into the half putting up 55 points. St. Henry made a few buckets and pressed a little to open the second half, but the Cougars would extend their lead to 30:at one point in the 3rd. 4th quarter saw both coaches put the reserves in with just under 4 minutes to go. At this point Conner had 92 points and Gabe Smith made a 3 to get the Cougars to 95 with about 2 1/2 minutes to go. Conner jacked up a few more shots, but couldn’t get the magical 100 which of course meant everyone in attendance would’ve got a free waffle from Waffle House (just kidding about the waffle). Conner is not very tall, but they have good athletes and if they can press and make shots (especially 3’s) might surprise a team or two.

Did Hatfield get hurt?

All Region Final Vote for 2024 Offensive Player of the Year: Parker Byland- Boone Defensive Player of the Year: Tanner Robertson- Covington Catholic John Toebben Coach of the Year: Tony Trenkamp- Boone Scott Christian “More Than A Match” Award: Eli Putnam- Ryle Ed Lett Sportsmanship Award: Holy Cross Official of the Year: David Tony Lloyd Keeper of the Year: Sam Lang- Highlands 1st Team Forwards: Maddox Pemberton- Cooper Harrison Gamble- Highlands Midfielders: Parker Byland- Boone David Do- Covington Catholic Diego Lakkis- Ryle Trevor Bolte- Dixie Defenders: Tanner Robertson- Covington Catholic Donovan Lameier- Dixie Andrew Lusby- Brossart Logan Thoss- St. Henry Keeper: Sam Lang- Highlands 2nd Team Forwards: Salem Mayala- Boone Josh Ruwe- Calvary Midfielders: Alex Runge- Brossart Austin Bush- Campbell Jonathan Green- NCC Cody Crowder- St. Henry Defenders: Chris Wessels- Covington Catholic Logan Trout- Boone Liam Haswell- Cooper Pierce Wilson- Ryle Keeper: Miles Mullen- SK 3rd Team Forwards: Grady Noble- Conner Zach Franzen- Campbell County Midfielders: Cole Garnett- SK Andrew Roland- Covington Catholic Cooper Neace- Ryle Jack Reagor- Calvary Defenders: Ashton Pawlak- Highlands Carlos Marquez- Campbell Braden Thornton- Conner Noah Klaene- Holy Cross Keeper: Wyatt Driscoll- Holy Cross Honorable Mention Forwards: Ivan Potapenko- Villa Tyler Turnpaugh- Covington Catholic Midfielders: Luis McVicker- Highlands Luke Linville- Campbell Vinny Petroze- NCC Dawson Nichols- Pendleton Defenders: Austin Twehues- Brossart Kellen Faulkner- Conner Ian Lawrence- SK Jackson Popil- St. Henry Keeper: Trey Wagner- Conner My opinion, top 25 in the state Trey Wagner gets “mentioned” by the coaches. Wagner had 7 solo shutouts, 3 other shared shutouts and is disrespected All of these should be stat based. Wagner had 103 saves due to the solid defense which kept many shots from him. Speaking of the defense which was ranked #14 in the state only other NKY team in the top 15 is Cov Cath at 9 get disrespected by having Brayden Thornton make one of the top 2 teams. Thornton had the second best stats, only Weasels was better with 5 goals compared to Thornton’s 3, but Thornton had more assist. Shameful. Also Kellen Faulkner had better stats then most of the 2nd and 3rd team defenders. I’m not just griping about Conner…Beechwood gets totally disrespected with no players making the list. I’m not angry, just confused on what these coaches use for criteria in making selections. In the end congratulations to all of these young men, great accomplishment.

Cov Cath advances to host Henry Clay on Monday in the first round of the state tournament.

Cov Cath scores off a corner and some touches that were in the box in the first half. I thought Cov Cath controlled the first half and take the 2-0 lead into the half. Ryle came out with more energy in the second and applied more pressure to the back line of Cov Cath and get a goal to cut it to 2-1. The action goes back and forth and if I remember correctly, Cov Cath gets a corner, the ball bounces around and a Colonel flicks it past the keeper for the 3-1 lead. Ryle again starts to press and get another goal to go down one goal. Ryle kept pressing, but the Cov Cath defense did what they needed to do and towards the end of the game the Colonels get another goal off of a 20-yard shot from the top of the box that sealed the win for the Colonels. Ryle had a nice year considering the pieces they lost from last year and this year. The Raiders will re-load for next year as many of their players were sophomores and juniors.

Congratulations to the Highlands Bluebirds. This was a great game to watch and a world class goal by Harrison Gamble. I’ll let @FrankNicodemus give the game review. Proud of my Cougars for the season they had.

@FrankNicodemus I’ll see you Thursday in Edgewood at 7:30. You want to give me a quick scouting report for Highlands? ?

@NKYSPORTS GUY, how did that St. Henry verse Conner pick work out for you?

@FrankNicodemus I do agree with you. If I had to rank teams after District Tournaments, it would look like this: 1. Cov Cath 2. Conner 3. Highlands 4. Dixie Heights 5. Ryle 6. Beechwood 7. St Henry 8. NCC. I think this draw is very balanced Cov Cath has been the most consistent team all year in the 9th. Everyone else has had moments but it’s been proven this year, the top 8 teams in Region 9 can beat another on any given game. Let the anxiety, stress, heartbreak, joy, happiness, and opportunity for one more game start on Tuesday.

Little better view of the brackets.

Here it BGP faithful, the matchups for next week. Top Bracket Covington Catholic vs Newport Central Catholic Dixie Heights vs Ryle Bottom Bracket Highlands vs Beechwood Conner vs St Henry

2 for 2, Conner, Dixie Heights, Cov Cath, and Highlands are all district winners with Ryle, St Henry, Beechwood, and NCC advancing as runner-ups.

The Cougars are your 2024 33rd District Champs ending the 4 year run of Ryle. Conner was locked in and controlled this game pretty much from start to finish. The Cougars thought they had the first goal within the first 3 minutes of the match as Brayden Thronton throws the ball in from the sideline into the goal area and finds the toe of Clark Peterson, but the AR didn't run towards the center line, so the center ref talked it over and said no goal. Conner comes back down a few minutes later, Grady Noble heads the ball towards the goal, it bounces off the crossbar down (somehow didn't cross the line) bounces out to find Kellen Faulkner who heads the ball in and as the Cougars celebrate, the center ref again calls the goal off calling Faulkner for pushing off...(weak). Ryle would come down and draw a flopping foul just outside the box and they bury the direct free kick for a 1-0 lead. Conner would answer off a direct kick of their own from about 35 yards off as Brayden Thornton connects with Grady Noble for the goal drawing the Cougars even 1-1. Conner would again be on the attack and Noble would find himself with the ball, shoots from the right side and puts the Cougars up 2-1. Conner now feeling the moment to step on the Raiders find Mason Ginn in the box who draws 2 defenders to him and is fouled in the box, PK called. Brayden Thornton steps up and converts to put the Cougars up 3-1 which lead the Cougars take to the half. The second half would see the Cougars settle in and play at their pace. Ryle had a few chances but the Cougar defense who have only given up 1 goal in their last 5 games did what they needed to and secure the district title ending the 4 year run of the Raiders and their quest to win 5 in a row. Thonton, Wagner and Noble (33rd District MVP) were named to the tournament team. Now Conner awaits the regional draw on Saturday to see who they get to play in Hebron next week.