*Information and photos pulled from tomleachky.com
The Tom Leach All-Resilient-Team honors student-athletes from Kentucky high schools who have had to overcome some form of adversity to compete and often excel in sports, within the previous calendar year.
Tom Leach is the “Voice of the Wildcats” for the UK Radio Network, the play-by-play announcer for football and basketball games.
Each year, Leach releases the student-athletes selected for the All-Resilient team, this year two NKY student-athletes made the list.
Luke Rabe / Covington Catholic
A broken leg and a subsequent surgery to insert a metal rod kept Luke off the football field at Covington Catholic for his junior season. By summer, after more than a year of rehabilitation and therapy, he was able to return to the gridiron.
Rabe played in six games, scored a touchdown and played a key role on the scout team. On a 14-1 Cov Cath team that was runner-up in Class 5A, Luke also recorded six tackles. His grit and determination earned Luke the Resilience Award at the Colonels’ season-ending banquet.
Jacob Keith Thornberry / Villa Madonna
Thornberry has overcome family issues that may have led some to go down the wrong path, but Jacob found a way to write his own story and positively effect his own outcome through both athletics and academics. Jacob became an honor student, earned multiple merit-based awards and has plans to head to college and pursue a law degree.
In athletics, Jacob participated in four sports and served as a captain for all of them–cross country, swim, baseball and soccer. He was a three-time state runner-up in Class A in cross country, earned most improved player awards in soccer and baseball and was a regional qualifier for the swim team.
Thornberry finished 42nd in 20:42.74 in the region cross country meet this past season. In soccer, he recorded 71 saves and had two shutouts, allowing 0.8 goals per game. In baseball, Thornberry has stolen nine bases, drawn five walks and collected eight hits and four RBI for the Vikings so far this season.