Chatty Cat

Thanks for the summary! I really think there are good days ahead for the girls basketball program at Ludlow. The middle school girls teams are doing quite well in the small school division. The 7th grade team has yet to lose a game and will be playing the championship game on Saturday. The 8th grade team has only lost a few games and will be playing in their championship game on Saturday as well. There is a lot of talent in the 6/7/8 grades, they just need some time for grooming. An issue Ludlow does have is numbers. Both the 7th and 8th grade classes are small; as in ~50 students each grade (boys and girls). Assuming there are 25 girls in the 7th grade; 9 of them (36%) are currently playing basketball. This core group of girls are all also playing volleyball, soccer, softball and track. Coach Wofford is going to have a balancing act to get them ready for high school basketball but still allow them to be high school students and have other activities besides basketball. I'm excited to watch Ludlow Girls basketball these next few years. I hope you stick around to watch!

division. A very good season for these girls!

Saturday. I assume we will know seeding and game times Monday.

I've said it before, but I truly think there are good things in store for Ludlow Girls Basketball. Their middle school program is doing very well in the small school division. The 7th grade team is still undefeated (with two regular season games left) and the 6th and 8th grade teams have only lost a handful of games. 7th grader Adriana Lovell (I think that is how her last name is spelled) is already getting some varsity minutes and should be able to help fill the void that will be left when Wofford graduates. As with most small schools, numbers become an issue. I hope this current group sticks together, with some hard work they have a pretty bright future.

Baseball seasons starts on 2/15. Are they allowed to hold tryouts before the KHSAA allows the season to start?

During the high school fall league, some varsity games were held at Cordero. I wouldn't park my car near the centerfield fence; there were definitely some long balls in all three games I saw there.

Spread on any of the three games. All three Ludlow Middle School teams are having good seasons in the small school division. The 7th grade team is undefeated (and have now faced all schools on their schedule ). Both the 6th and 8th grade teams have lost somewhere around 3 games each (give or take one each way). These girls are putting a lot of work in and getting good results.

respective small divisions as well. At this point I believe the 6th grade and 8th grade teams have lost 1 game a piece. The 7th grade girls are undefeated (including preseason tournament). The girls basketball program at Ludlow is most certainly on the rise!!

I think though, they could transfer to Campbell County (for instance) and not have to sit out since girls varsity basketball has been eliminated http://khsaa.org/handbook/bylaws/20132014/bylaw6.pdf j) CESSATION OF SCHOOL PROGRAM- The period of ineligibility may be waived in the event of a school remaining open but discontinuing its participation in an Association sponsored sport at all levels of play in which the student had previously participated while attending that school.

Jjj

I agree with the "population numbers". My daughter is a 7th grader at Ludlow and her ENTIRE 7th grade class has less than 50 students. She said that her largest class size this year is 14 students; her smallest is 8 students. Last year as 6th graders, there were two classrooms of less than 24 students in each room. I do not believe that the 8th grade class is much larger than the 7th grade class. If Ludlow were not able to combine multiple classes; then they would not be able to field a middle school football team. I know nothing about the middle school football team, other than I hear they are having a good year. I asked my kids (junior and 7th grader) about the player (not knowing his name; but describing the vomiting) and they both immediately said, "Oh yeah, he does that." I would hope though that Ludlow kept him cleaned up (there appears to be a disconnect re: his changing of uniform jersey and pants).

I believe Ludlow went undefeated in the conference last year. However, they lost quite a few key players and only have 2 or 3 seniors returning. I'm not sure the junior class is ready to rise to the occasion.

My daughter is moving into high school ball, 7th grader should make her school's JV team. She has played baseball and then rec fast pitch for the past five years. She recently just made her first travel squad and is playing fall ball and will be playing travel this summer. She is 12 yrs old, 5'5"-5'6" and about 110 lbs (tall, lanky, thin--kind of resembles a baby deer with her limb movement LOL). Are there bat restrictions for high school FP like there are for baseball (-3 drop, BBCOR, etc.)? I've been looking around the KHSAA website and found they use NFHS rules but I could not find an explicit specification for bats other than ASA certified. Thanks!

It would definitely have been to Ludlow's benefit to keep those kids. It is a shame they didn't stay and if I recall correctly; their parents are Ludlow alumni (I could be wrong or not thinking of all the transfers). Ludlow is in it's 5th year of middle school football and are seeing good numbers this year in their football program (31 on this year's Maxpreps roster), hopefully that trend continues and the kids stay through high school. I know there were a couple of games last year where the Panthers had less than 20 kids dressed for varsity (Beechwood was definitely one of those games; I think 17 were dressed). They need to keep their numbers up, keep players healthy and academically eligible.

I haven't seen it in person yet but from what I understand.....A new concession stand was built, a new fieldhouse for the Panthers, visitor locker rooms were redone, new lights were installed and a new track put in. Very nice improvements. (There were also very nice capital improvements done at the school over the summer too)

Ludlow wins. First home game in their refurbed stadium. I would expect a large crowd and a win from the improved Panthers. From what I understand, their numbers are better this year than the past few seasons..

If you are going to catch a game at Ludlow, go during Homecoming, they go all out. It has such a special, small-town feel to it and the place will be packed. It is just different to have everyone walking to the stadium versus pulling up in a parking lot. The all grass field and being literally on the Ohio River bank makes it pretty special.

IME, starting around 15U a lot of teams leave SWOL and become tournament teams only. SWOL is not inexpensive and most of these teams would rather play high level tournaments.

I'll out myself as his parent, it doesn't matter to me.......... He was pitching and a line drive was ripped right back at him. He got his glove up and deflected the ball somewhat, but still took a big hit to his face. As a parent of a kid who pitches, it was one of my worries. He was taken by ambulance to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. The next day, we transferred him to Cincinnati Children's. Even with all of the injuries listed above---he's okay. His noggin is okay (as okay as it can get for a just-turned-16 yo boy :-)), the stitches have come out, orbital bones are healing, if surgery is necessary it wouldn't be until this fall/winter, he's going to have some nice looking scars, but that is about it. His vision is returning in his right eye (he had major vision loss and double vision immediately following the injury). In fact, he was cleared today by both plastic surgery and ophthalmology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital to start playing baseball again. He's a lucky kid. As a parent, I was really touched by the support we received from parts of the NKY baseball community.

The only two home runs at Ludlow this year were hit by Ludlow players; one in the park and one over the fence. Ludlow pitchers gave up no home runs at Ludlow (to be honest I'm not sure they gave any up this season, but I wasn't at every away game so I could very well be wrong). Also fwiw, my son played at Highland Park this weekend in a tourney--I'm not convinced the right field fence is much longer there, maybe 10 feet or so. But, I do have old eyes and again could be wrong

started school on time. He will be 17 when he graduates high school. So, since he started school on time and has a summer bday, every other kid on his travel ball team is a year behind him in school. Three of the players are actually older than him, out of 13 boys on his team, I believe that 5 of them were held back. We were talking to a parent on another ball team this past weekend and talking about age/grade in school/etc. We were point blank asked, "Why are you hurrying him through school?" I was totally taken aback. He started school at the appropriate age, has always made high honors, sporting a very high GPA while taking AP and dual enrollment classes; not sure what we would've gained by holding him back. But, by not being a "red shirt" he is absolutely the anomaly on his travel baseball team. At this point in time, I think an extra year of high school ball would be great for him, but who knows at age 4.75-5.0 years what your kid will have an affinity for?

It will be a few weeks before results are posted on PBR. Second day is underway today. I'm assuming the top results will be tweeted sometime tonight.

the best pop time of all catchers for the day. Ziegelmeyer had one of the top exit velocities and infield velocities per tweets from PBR

this season. Coach Gray and his staff had a lot to do with this year's turnaround. Many Ludlow baseball parents stuck their necks out last year asking the school administration for changes to the baseball program. The boys had a team meeting sometime in late January and were told they did not have a coach, there was no off season work for most of this team. The new coaching staff did not start until February, they took a team with 5 wins the season before (and no off season work) to a 15-10 season (with some close 1 loss games to very good teams)---on top of all of that, he's a great guy! Again, a very well deserved honor!

mmn