Sir!

One thing you can count on from NCC, year in and year out, strong year or rebuilding year, is that they Will play with grit and determination. Always a tough out come post-season.

Best of luck to coach Zach Rechtin and Beechwood this fall. 40 kids coming out for soccer sounds like steps in the right direction. Short article from July 7 NKY Tribune: Prep Sports Notebook: Beechwood boys? soccer prepares for first varsity season; Ludlow coach resigns for good reason | NKyTribune Unless there's something unique about Beechwood's turf, field width can't be the real issue. There's enough turf within the (2 - yard minimum, each side) restraining lines outside the 53 1/3rd yard wide football field width to get minimum 55 yard width required for soccer. The real issue I suspect is the inconvenience and unsightliness of putting down temporary (aerosol chalk) soccer lines for home soccer games. That, plus at this point it's probably easier for Beechwood to schedule games if they're offering to play at everyone else's field.

It is true that Simon Kenton graduated their leading scorer in Hrusto Selimovic (19 goals and 7 assists). Much of their offense started and ended on his foot. Look for a different approach in 2015 with rising Juniors Bryce O'Hara and Blake Chadwick running a more inclusive offense. A key question for the Pioneers is whether they can tighten up their defense a bit, including goalkeeping duties. Last year Simon Kenton went 9-10-3 and lost in the first round of Regionals. This year I have SK making Regionals again but getting knocked out the first game they meet a team with "Oldham" in their name. Who are other names to watch on SK? Hunter Cagle? Francesco Abbinante? Others?

"Meet n Greet" at Hoops5's shade tent. Don't forget side dish. Leave parking space for '78 Firebird.

Anyone know where some of the WV boys play club ball?

The Bearcats went 12-9-1 in 2014 ending their season in the first round of Districts with a 3-1 loss to Simon Kenton. They only graduated 4 Seniors including 3 starters (all backs). WV returns starting GK Jake Poland and leading scorer (F) Jeremy Moran (17 goals and 3 assists). The entire starting midfield returns, including Michael Martin (7 goals and 9 assists) and Zach Leffler (5 goals and 13 assists). WV will be improved in 2015 and can challenge Simon Kenton for a District title this year, but getting out of Region 8 with the Oldhams may be a bridge too far.

Frink and Tully sounds right in goal. They split time at JV and I could see that happening again. Freshman goalie from last year transferred to St. X (Cinci) I believe. Other Seniors, Juniors and potentially even Sophmores will stand up and compete for starting positions and playing time in the field. I expect that will all come into focus as the season gets under way.

Highlands suffered from injuries early in 2014 going 0-6-3 in the first half of the season before finishing strong with a 9-3-2 run to end 2014. They return 7 starters including seniors Brady Gesenhuse, Noah Sellers, Mark Baron, Ben Schweitzer and Ben Seiter, along with junior Colton Wagoner and sophmore Drew Rom. Gesenhuse, Schweitzer and Sellers led scoring with 5 goals apiece followed by Colton Wagoner with 4 goals and 5 assists. A strong incoming Junior class will help HHS complete its reload to try to recapture it's form from 2013 when it advanced to states but lost to PL Dunbar in the quarterfinals.

Both are Ohio South teams. The 17s got to nationals by winning state (OHS) and regional (R2) titles. The 16s got there by virtue of their second place finish in National League play. At least I think that's right.

Congrats and good luck to these young ladies. Represent!

Concessions and Water Closet facilities?

The #1 reason cited by kids for giving up youth sports is that it is no longer fun. Frequently the joy gets sucked out of the game by negative adult behaviors...coaches and parents alike. A kid can choose to quit a bad coach...

CCH has an impressive slate of Ohio teams scheduled for 2015. Maher started ranking Ohio teams last year. In the SE District across all three divisions there are 138 schools (compare to 150 for all of KY ). CCH Ohio opponents and their respective ending Maher Rank in SE Ohio from last year: Elder (15/138); Walnut Hills (9/138); Seven Hills (8/138); McNick (31/138); and Summit Country Day (11/138). That's some great competition from just over the river that should position CCH to play against top teams in KY.

For NCC in 2015 Riherds Scoreboard only shows 10 games scheduled so far with 7 of those 10 against teams they played last year. The three adds are Pendleton County, Campbell County and Scott County... so agreed not as difficult as many of their 2014 opponents (though I bet Campbell County will be reasonably good this fall, even with losing the talented Michael Dumaine to graduation).

Hard to say NCC won't be doing a bit of rebuilding. They lose Paul Grosser in goal (3-year starter); Jacob Hensley in defense (All-State 1st team); Seth Freppon in midfield (a beast athletically with a Rory Delap-like throw-in); and striker Pat Louis (2nd team All-state). I think Hensley and Louis are headed to Thomas More to play. That's a very strong spine of a team that probably should have done better than 12-8-3 last fall. NCC does have some nice underclassmen (Logan Muck, Eddie Schultz, Justin Randle and possibly another Grosser in goal, to name a few). If NCC finishes this fall with a better record than last fall, it'll be hard to say Coach Martin didn't do more with less, but ultimately it's up to the boys.

I know it's Mabika... what I can't for the life of me undetstand is why the spell checker wants to change "Mabika" to "Mabuka" for me?

CovCath is a perennial pre-season pick to come out of Region 9. After a tough loss in PKs in last year's Region 9 finals to an inspired St Henry side, CovCath looks ready to reload again as the prohibitive favorite. The midfield may again be the engine that makes CovCath go, with Bryce Day (2nd team All-state; 6 goals and 5 assists) joined by returning midfielder Jacob Litzler (5 goals and 9 assists). But CovCath will have A LOT of options with 22 rising seniors in the program and a talented set of rising Juniors as well. Biggest challenge may be sorting through the numbers to find the right combinations and chemistry before October rolls around (again). Is there any other team in Region 9 that looks as good as CovCath (on paper)? Who looks best situated to play spoiler and surprise in Region 9 come October? Scott had an amazing run last year getting about as close to a state title as you can get. You can't really replace a Treadway or Schneider, but Scott obviously has returning talent (Devin Morgan for one) and is well seasoned. Does anyone else out of Region 8 or Region 10 look like they can make a run this year?

Henry Clay only dropped one game last fall to a KY team, losing to Dunbar in the 11th Region Championship game. They went 18-2-2 with 66 goals for and 13 against. They return forward Collin Rose (1st team All-State), midfielder Chris Hunt (HM All-State) and defender Aime Mabuka (2nd team All-State). HC brings back a lot of talent. I'm going on record early picking HC to come out of the 11th Region this fall. I know Dunbar looks strong and has the goal-machine Ricky Clemente on tap, but I'm liking HC. Thoughts?

Why choose one or the other? Evan O'Hara (Boone) and Evan Talkers (CovCath) come to mind as two excellent soccer players who also kicked or punted. Takes a special talent to do both but could be a nice add for Highlands, especially if Gesenhues had both a strong leg and was consistent.

I can hear my favorite announcer... "Into the game for Covington Catholic, number 38, Ben Pollabellin... he jogs across the field and takes up rrrrresidence in the Colonels defensive line."

In Ohio you have to be able to count them on one hand, in KY you're allowed both hands and feet... which makes the roster limit 20 in urban areas, but up to 22 in the hollers.

I for one see no reason to be so doggone negative.

On why we may not see as many young men signing commitment letters: There are 328 women's D1 soccer programs and only 204 men's D1 soccer programs. In KY there are 7 women's D1 soccer schools and only 3 men's D1 soccer schools. I've heard people say that women's soccer in our area (Club) is viewed outside the region as being somewhat stronger than our men's soccer. I have no idea. NKU/UK/UC/Xavier/UC men's teams average 6 non-US players (full roster 23-29... average of 26) Those same 5 schools average 10 players from KY and OH combined. National champs UVa had one non-US player on their roster and one KY player on their roster (Fabrice Shema / Louisville / Waggener)... not bad for a KY kid. There are about 420,000 boys playing high school soccer in the US. Across all college soccer divisions (NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, NJCAA, etc) there are less than 38,000 rosters spots (and that includes those filled with non-US players). It is largely a numbers game. Congrats to those who are talented enough and put in the hard work to end up on the right side of the numbers!

The 10 goals in this game would make a season's worth of highlights reel for most high school teams... the last 20 minutes a "lowlights" reel. Congrats to Scott on making the finals and an insanely exciting offense to watch when they were playing soccer. Congrats to BG on being state champs. What a solid, well coached team.

0... which I think is the same # as Ballow. The difference is that Ballow may well get another shot on Tuesday! That's a great opportunity and probably means more than any individual NKAC honors. Go NKY! And that's my last post... promise.