rjal

Just a heads up, St henry and Beechwood are first round of All A. It can't end in a tie. You may want to revise.

Covington Holy Cross 1 NCC 1 i wasn’t at the game so have no details other than HC’s only goal was by Senior defender Sarah Bottom and HC was missing four starters including Hoffman.

One thing I meant to add is that I wish they would have upgraded the schedule. No disrespect meant to any teams on the schedule, but 10-0 games don't help prepare for post season. I understand that some years HC isn't as competitive and is on the wrong side of the 10-0 games, but this isn't one of those years.

I was wondering if the Indians would get some love in this thread. After the bad loss to Beechwood last year they made some adjustments and while the record didn't reflect it, did much better the second half of the season. Lots of close games to schools like Campbell Co Ryle, Cooper, Conner etc. In addition to the players mentioned above we have the three junior Saalfeld cousins Addison, Bella, and Jenna who will be big contributors mostly in the midfield and sophomore defender Ella Lehmkuhl who was the only freshman starter last year. In the goal senior Mia Wilson will share time with sophomore Suzette Kleiss who played mostly JV last year and had an injury but at approx 6 ft tall has a huge reach and is very athletic. Stephanie decided to hang up her cleats this year. We will have a more depth off the bench with the girls all having another year under their belts. While the Indians don't have the rep of some of the schools they actually have three ECNL kids and three that played on the Fusion team that made the midwest regionals of presidents cup so more kids with higher level club experience than usual. I am excited to see what they do this year.

As far as keeper there is a freshman who split time with a couple of seniors at Bluegrass games. The freshman Maleah Lehmkuhl isn't currently on the KHSAA roster, but she got playing time on both JV and varsity in the goal. Three goalies got some playing time. I am not sure though about the plan for the regular season.

Covington Holy Cross had a nice showing going 3-0 with wins over Bardstown 6-1, Bullitt East 5-0, and North Hardin 2-0. The only goal given up was a PK from a foul in the box. It was was hot for sure, but fun having some different competition.

The diocese of Covington used to expand to three weeks, but this year did not. I am not sure why. It was kind of nice honestly. By the time you throw in AAU basketball there is no time to just be a kid.

The U16 boys Kings South team and the U16 girls Fusion Lightning represented KY at the Midwest regionals in St Louis this past weekend. Unfortunately neither advanced to Nationals but it was a fun experience. I am not familiar with all the members of the boys team but the girls team had girls from St. Henry (1), Walton Verona (2), Dixie (3), Holy Cross (3), Simon Kenton (3), Conner (1), Beechwood (2), Brossart (1).

Agreed if Meyer continues to play well and Ward can keep his head in the game they will do well. Thus the reason I said they are probably still the favorites. I was commenting on the person who said “they didn’t lose anything”. Losing two starters including your leading rebounder and your entire bench is something and the younger players will need to step up to provide a supporting cast.

I think that the Indians are the team to beat, but to say they didn't lose much is not true. They are not losing much in the point column, but they are losing five of their top 8 players including 52% of their rebounds. They only players with any meaningful varsity experience returning are Meyer, Ward and Gibson. While that is a formidable trio and they had some strong JV players, you can't discount the importance of the seniors they graduated with their rebounding, defense, three point shooting and leadership..

To the best of my knowledge Cade Lehmkuhl and Ian McDonald from Holy Cross.

Not just the pitchers but how about the catchers. I regret every day letting my kid catch as much as he did. Due to injuries and a relatively small roster he caught 30+ high school games a season including some doubleheaders and that was 8th grade (JV/freshman) and 9th grade varsity with some JV. Then summer ball of course. His arm has never been the same.

Per KHSAA 256 for the 2019-2020 school year

9th region Basketball Holy Cross-Holmes. Most of the kids all grew up together and some went to grade school together. For high school some chose public, some chose catholic. There have been some great battles.

When our little school of 320 students won the girls sweet sixteen 7 years ago they came home as heroes. My daughter who was in 2nd grade at the time had a writing assignment and in her little girl handwriting wrote about how Deja shot the game winner against the big bad Etown and then in the championship game Abby shot the game winner. Everyone involved at the school and surrounding community still talk about how they beat four team more than twice their size. Bell County (600+) with Maci Morris, Male (1950), Elizabethtown (759) with Erin Boley, and Allen County Scottsville (880). Oh yeah they also won the All A that year but the big prize means so much more. A few years before that football won state in AA, the girls are the talk of the town though.

I say leave it how it is. My kids play for an A school. While playing in the all A is cool and everything being the overall winner would mean so much more. I’m not sure how the boys work out as far as size of teams that have won but as far as the girls the only two teams that actually won a state championship out of the ninth, which is probably one of the most competitive regions, was an A school and a big school. The small schools that are competitive will have their shot at the big prize although not frequently. The non competitive small schools won’t ever have a shot regardless of how many classes. It will completely dilute and ruin the regional tournaments in my opinion.

Agreed that HC wins way more games with Meyer than without. He is a tremendous once in a generation player for a school like HC. That being said his job is going to be a lot tougher without the kids playing defense, setting screens, grabbing rebounds and basically busting their butts every minute they are in the game.

That was a great comeback by Connor. I was really getting worried for my Indians.

Fun fact Holy Cross has 4 CCH feeder school kids in their top 8. I am not sure all their reasons for not going but they are getting to play varsity and contribute. While Meyer played for Scott he does live in the HC feeder area.

I think Holy Cross got the worst possible draw they could get but to win the region you have to get through the tough teams. I know it is cliche but they need to just take it one game at a time and play hard.

I was surprised that when it started getting really ugly and it was going both ways that he left them in. When he did it last time one of his starters got his second technical and had to sit out two games. There were times when it was getting close to coming to blows. If someone gets ejected they are out for regionals or if someone gets hurt even worse. Taking big risks for no rewards.

There was a technicals called on both benches after the first intentional call, one on Meyer early in the game and I believe one on Dylan Arlinghaus late in the game. There were also two intentional fouls called. I don’t think Coach Sorrell got a second technical. As I said earlier very, very chippy. Lots of elbows, pushing, shoving and jawing.

They lost control. Lots of elbows, hooking, pushing. They didn’t call half of what they could and are over 40 fouls for the game. I am going to have to watch the film, but the first intentional looked like a pump fake that the defense badly overplayed. The second I will give them the two players involved had been pushing and shoving the entire game. There should have been warnings given out way earlier. I am glad no one from either team was hurt.

This hurts HC much more than CCH, but at least they are trying to keep the game under control.

I think it will be a better game than the first, but the Colonels will still come out on top. The first game between the two got really chippy so I hope the refs set the tone early letting the players know it won't be tolerated.