Deron Blasingame

The number of boys in a school does not mean much in high school basketball where only 5 can play at a time. The right 5 or 6 can take you a long way no matter who the opponent is.

Correct. Clay County 1987. Albeit a while ago.

I will try and answer this for you as best I can. Ben grew up playing basketball with several of the kids that currently play with Highlands either on the Moyer school team or an AAU team coached by myself. As Ben got exposure playing in the AAU league, other teams swooped in and asked him to play with them in tourney's and other leagues. Through all of that, Ben still liked to play basketball with all of the kids that he went to school with at Highlands Middle School. The kid worked hard at his game and became not only an inside presence, but an outside presence as well.

 

During the 8th grade middle school season, 3 kids were asked to move up and play some frosh games due to a lack of players caused by defections for various reasons. Ben was one of the 3 moved up and to be honest he was probably shorted a little on his time. He then made the decision that he no longer wanted to play frosh, but strictly with the 8th grade team.

 

That is when coaches saw the opportunity to be in his ear as well as being visible. I will not go any further with that part of it. Another factor contributing to the decision was that virtually all of the kids that he played with in middle school were football players. Take all of this into consideration and Ben made the choice along with his parents to attend NCC and to be very very honest, it was certainly the right decision for him to make and it has worked out well for him.

 

His leaving the Highlands program was a major setback because he was "that" kid who concentrated solely on basketball and was someone that you could build your team around.

I see. Well with the success that the JV and younger teams are having sounds like the program is on solid ground for a really nice run.

Nevermind. Probably don't need to know. Carry on.

Another know it all I see. What was the halftime score? What was the deficit at the time of the "T"? Never mind, don't bother. So you don't think Ben Weyer would have had a major impact in that game if he was playing for Highlands rather than for NCC? Glad to see your buddy chime in with a "like" because the soccer boys stick together now don't they?

 

If being down 10 is not in the game then maybe you should stick to watching that soccer ball more.

My question is why is Weyer at NewCath?

I for one want to see that. Need to make sure that Fort Thomas paramedics are on call as are Newport, Bellevue/Dayton, Covington and other surrounding cities because everyone isn't walking out of there in one piece.

Comedy halftime show. If the Birds aren't packing the place for BB games right now maybe a little amusement for the locals would help till they turn the corner.

Or maybe we can get you to buy a Legacy Locker in the New Football Locker room. You know it is the house that you helped build.....:thumb:

Good call. As soon as a certain Brotha ponies up, I'll be more than happy..

I love me some "Dags" @deronblasingame

Lol. Been a long time since I heard that. Good to hear that the younger grades are coming along. I hear the gym looks nice. Maybe they ought to bring some of the old timers back for a pick up game for halftime amusement. :lol:

7th grade is 51-0 past 2 seasons. 8th graders are 19-3 this yr. Birds frosh are pretty talented with exceptional athletes not sure of their record. JV this yr are pretty good so nobody is waiting for any of those you mentioned to walk thru the door.

Those records are indeed very impressive. The key is being able to keep the "core" of each of those classes so that you are able to build back the program. Just let kids be kids and allow them to be the best athlete that they can be in all sports. It's great to hear the pipeline is loaded. As a former grad of Highlands it's good to see the younger teams having success.

It's unfortunate if kids feel "pressure" to not play a particular sport because a coach is in the kids ear. Kids should freely play as many sports as possible and not succumb to the mindless antics of a High School coach. If a coach has used these tactics to keep "difference makers" from playing, or even players that would be role players, then shame on them. I hear the Highlands JV is very good. So maybe the talent is right around the corner.

I live in Ohio and the folks here like the setup that is in place. If Ohio would adopt the Kentucky version of State (Sweet 16), it would no doubt be a tourney filled with Big boy schools only. I have been to several of these tourneys in Columbus and believe me no small school would be able to compete. It is night and day in the overall talent of the teams. So it's good that the smaller divisions have a chance at a State Title that otherwise would have no business being there. On the surface , I would keep Ky as it is, but it is rather telling when you see these enrollment numbers.

I see you B-Game.....LOL!

B.Jayyyyyyyy!! I won't blow your cover..

Again, I think there's more of a bias against the Lex schools.

 

No one is mentioning how beloved those Highlands teams or the '04 Cov Cath team was. I don't really recall the fans being behind a Lexington school unless it was the Male-Lafayette championship.

 

Again, we're talking about the average fan with no rooting interest here.

I will assume that you are talking about the later Highlands teams with Smith and Lorenzen as being possibly beloved. I know from experience, when we played Hazard in 86 and Clay County in 87 that the love being thrown those days were for the mountain schools and it wasn't even close. Ritchie Farmer was so admired and adored it was almost comical.

Because he's a high school kid who enjoys football.

That is so good.. And so true.

So after reading through much of the thread I take it that Bolden is now 18 and will be

19 when his basketball season ends in March of next year. When Dicky was 19 he was

starting at UK. I think the best way to analyze the two would be to understand that the

game is so much different today than when we played. Today's game depends so much

on individual play, dribble drive, 2 man, high screen and rolls, etc. The game played in the

70's and 80's is no where near this example. Take for example Dicky and Holmes. Absolutely,

not high screen and rolls and definitely never a 2 man game of pick and rolls. I will say that Dicky

had the ability to do his thing with the dribble drive but not at the expense of rolling the other

offensive players to the perimeter and beyond. Good gosh Dicky would have avg. 45 a night if

they were to implement the dribble drive offense. Nobody would have been able to stay in front

of him. Hard to compare really. I would take it that James and Dicky will

probably go down as the 2 best guards ever at Holmes. And probably leave it at that.

79 team was really, really good.

Yes it was. Muntis and Vories are definitely Top 10-15 players at Highlands All-Time. We had a get together for the All-Time team not to long ago and they are on it.

The night Charles Hurt went through the net was a night I will never forget for as long as I live. My dad who has not missed a State Tournament since get this, 1955, came home from the tournament on Saturday because Channel 19 was televising it and he wanted to see it on TV. I'm only 10 years old at the time but I cried for what seemed like most of the rest of the night. These were my hero's from Holmes and the game was flat out taken away from them. I couldn't understand. My dad said nothing. I just stared at the TV and cried. After a while when things calmed my dad came over to me and said, "Deron, winning is not the ultimate in sports, but the will to win is." I'll never forget.

Great info Deron, and just wanted to say welcome to BGP. Sounds like you have lots of info to share. If you have any questions about anything, just ask me our one of the other guides, we would be glad to help.

Thank You. Can't remember yesterday or last week but I sure as hell can remember the 70's and 80's.

James can play. Might have a better handle overall than Dicky as well. Great elevation on his J. Finishes really well in the lane and in traffic.

 

Not as strong or as thick as Dicky. Dicky had slightly better hops.

 

Kid is legit in a long line of legit Holmes players.

I would like to see the kid play for sure. My dad's report on him is dead on yours.

I would agree with you 100% that your teams could not compete with those teams. While your teams were special in their own right, those teams were simply SPECIAL. The rule of thumb back in those days was if you had not played basketball at the Newport Boys Club, you were perhaps not going to make your high school team. Can remember many high school coaches coming to games down there to see what they had coming up in the near future. Sometimes the practices were even more competitive than some of the games.

Well if anyone knows my dad they knew that practices were going to be an all out get after. My dad would purposely have my brother guard Dicky at all times. And because Dicky was about a year and half older it made for some frustrating times for Bill. I can tell you this though. My brother will flat out tell you that Dicky was the one that made him the player that he became. Great experiences and great memories. Wouldn't it be fun to find all of the fellas and get together?

I've probably said it in this thread already but I'll say it again. Dicky was the most exciting player I've ever watched in NKY. The only criticism about his game was his jumper. My aging memory tells me it wasn't as good as Bolden's.

I agree and everyone knew it. Didn't matter though. He would find a way to get around you and score or dish. Haven't seen the new kid play. Must be pretty good.

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At the risk of sabotaging this thread with talk of Cottage A.C. ... Volpenhein, Shumate, and Blasingame were all 1982 graduates (Kevin and Rick of CovCath, and Bill of Ludlow in a year I believe that he took 9th Region Player of the Year). Beal of course graduated in 1980, but with him being a young graduate, when we faced him as youngsters, he would've been in his 2nd year of C-League at NKCC in the season that ended in 1975 when most of us were in our 1st year of C.

 

Just for kicks I've provided C.A.C team photos from seasons ending in 1974 and 1976, however neither of these were taken in the year that we faced Beal.

 

The 1974 photo was taken at John G. Carlisle. My memory is a bit as foggy as the photo, but I think that we took runner-up trophy in the 2-and-out elimination tournament against I believe "Turners Green" that featured the dynamite guard play of Danny Trame.

 

Standing 2nd from the left would be Kevin Volpenhein, 4th is Bill Blasingame, and 5th standing is Rick Shumate. 3rd kneeling is Mark Wehry.

 

The 1976 photo taken at Covington Turners after completing our 23-0 season, of course as champs, with a season that also featured us as champs of the Covington Turners 2-and-out holiday tournament where we faced off twice with the tough invitee team "Yellow Cab" from Newport in packed house, smoke filled, alcohol drenched barn burners. The good ol days... LOL!

 

In this photo sitting 1st would be Volpenhein, 5th is Shumate, and 6th is Blasingame. Head coach standing 2nd from the left is Jim Shumate and as an extra bit of trivia, standing big kid number 41 is Eric Herald who went on to star at Newport.

 

I could go on in both photos and be more complete with "who's who"... as there are a few other notables... and not on your life will I be confirming which one is me. I never made it past intramural ball in high school, so who cares anyhow?

 

This photo coincidentally was taken on the Saturday morning of the 1976 Regional Final between Covington Holmes vs. Holy Cross @ Conner. How do I know this? I just remember being high on a cloud and capping off a great day of basketball with my first ever high school regional final. To me it felt big time like I was witnessing an NBA game.

Holmes incidentally won that game 79-52.

You know BB Fan it doesn't matter if you reveal or not. I surely don't care if you never played basketball after these pictures were taken. My old man on the right. Man he looks young. Funny I'm only 6 years old at the time but I remember this like it was yesterday. If I can find the photos I will share with you some of the Newport All Stars teams with Dicky, my brother, Walton, etc... Great memories is what it's all about. Times have changed so much. The nostalgia of playing basketball in these environments was absolute great theatre.

I am old enough to have watched Beal.He was the best to come out of N.Ky period.Bolden is awesome but Beal was better.Bolden could develop into something special.Beals best game ever was against Summit Country day.They had a stud named Dexter Bailey BEAL Dunked over him not once but twice.The best player in Ky not to be named Mr. Basketball I think Winston Bennett from Male got it Beals sr year.I would take Beal over Bolden.

I would agree with this. IMHO Dicky was the best all around player I ever played against or saw. However, the absolute best Offensive player to ever play in Northern Kentucky is without a doubt, Scott Draud. I have been fortunate enough to have played against both Draud and Beal. I played with Scott for 2 years in high school and played against Dicky when he came back from UK and in some later years when he would stop out at NKU and play against us in open gym. I could write a book about these times... So much fun.

Turned on Ihigh today and saw Mr. Bolden for the first time. Very impressive sophomore but I have to say I'd take Dicky at this point, Hard to say how much better Bolden will be with 2 more years. Seems like he always wants to go left where Dicky could go left, right , forward and backwards from about age 8. I was 11th man on the junior varsity team you mentioned and for life me can't remember a Blasingame. Starting five were Beal, walton, and Davis from Holmes. David Bedford from Newport and Rich Dees from Highlands. Vaguely remember a Mcgurn, Uehlien, and Wrobleski as well. Having had the fun of guarding or more like chasing Beal as a senior, after one viewing of Bolden today, I'd rather chase him even at age 51. Maybe if Dicky was a young 17, guess he could of played junior pro another year with a Blasingame playing on that team?

My brother played up in age. Remember, there were multiple teams that Dicky and several others including my brother would play on. It was a collection of talent that in my mind was probably the best Northern Kentucky has ever seen at the Junior Pro level. Now, my Dad would probably argue for some of the teams that I played on later could have had an impact against these guys. Our teams were also a collection of great talent that would go on to win a Junior Pro championship and win countless tournaments through the years. I don't think we could have beat those guys. Dicky was the one player that we would not have been able to guard.

Didn't Beal really make a name for himself playing Junior Pro Basketball in Newport where he was a teammate of Bill Blasingame? Also had Phil Davis and Ricky Walton among others. I will take those teams against any and all takers as they were very special indeed. I saw many of Beal's games back in those days as a youth and saw them score 70 to 80 points with no problem at all. Ended up winning several National Junior Pro titles. Best basketball in Northern Kentucky was played at the Boy's Club back in the day IMO.

I suppose I'm late to the game here. I hope that reviving this 1 year old thread doesn't distract you guys. Anyway, wanted to put my spin on the subject. My brother Bill played with and against Dicky for the better part of 8-10 years. I was a very impressionable kid at the time but I still can remember in great detail all of those great years of them playing in Newport and the Covington Turners. These teams (and individual players) were some of the best collection of talent that Northern Kentucky has ever assembled. I have a special place in my heart for these times and wish kids today could experience what I did so long ago.