It may have taken about five months to fill the position.
But the Campbell County administration hired a well-known name in the northern Kentucky volleyball community in 23-year-old Mikah Freppon. Freppon graduated Newport Central Catholic in 2018 then played five years for the Lewis University Flyers in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference located 26 miles southwest of Chicago in Romeoville, Illinois.
“Mikah’s genuine love for the game immediately was evident in her interview and her volleyball experience is off the charts,” said Mike Florimonte, Campbell County Athletic Director. “She will be an outstanding teacher in our building. We couldn’t be happier with this hire.”
Campbell County High School Principal Holly Phelps acknowledged the need for continuity in the position. Freppon will be the program’s fourth head coach in four years.
“We have multiple people that we have interviewed,” Phelps said. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t just fill the spot quickly. We know we need some stability. We did our due diligence and we made sure we vetted every applicant, interviewed everyone that was a potential candidate and we are very excited about Mikah taking the position.”
Freppon said she’d like to be at Campbell County for a number of years. Freppon may be coming into her first year coaching high school volleyball, but did coach 15 and 11-year-old Northern Kentucky Volleyball Club Volleyball squads in the spring.
“I want to build a program that’s going to be great not just now, but in the future,” Freppon said. “I think something important for that is to really emphasize whether its the relationship with the girls, the parents and the staff is having the support system I think is big. Everyone believes in everyone. Everyone is family. Just creating that background where everyone is comfortable and knowing what Campbell County volleyball is going to be like. It’s good to give back to part of the community I grew up in.”
Campbell County also hired Freppon as a Special Education teacher for the upcoming school year.
“I want to have an open door policy. So whenever they need to come in or they’re struggling with something, I want to be all hands on deck,” Freppon said. “I want to be a great mentor because once I was a teen-ager and high schooler. I know exactly how much stress it is to be a student-athlete so I just want to help out in ways that I can.”
Freppon grew up in a volleyball family as one of six children. She started playing at a young age. Her older sister Kaela played at Xavier and Northern Kentucky University. Freppon’s parents met playing volleyball at Thomas More University.
Freppon lettered all four years at NewCath, helping the Thoroughbreds to a 77-53 record, three 36th District Tournament championships and the program’s last region tournament win in the quarterfinals in 2015 over Beechwood. Freppon was a four-time All-District, three time All-9th Region and Northern Kentucky Coaches Volleyball Association All-Star First Team selection.
Current NewCath head coach Angie Reckers took over the team before her sophomore year.
“Her work ethic, mentality and determination will go a long way,” Reckers said. “She doesn’t easily give up. She enjoys being challenged. She was always one of the hardest workers in the gym when she was a player. I think she’ll do the same thing as a coach.”
Freppon then helped Lewis University to GLC Tournament championships as a junior and senior. The Flyers made it to four NCAA Tournaments including the national semifinals in 2018.
After redshirting in 2018, Freppon helped the Flyers to a 93-24 record finishing her career with 1,324 assists, 30 aces, 86 kills, 560 digs, 40 assisted blocks and four solo blocks. She also played setter and outside hitter there but transitioned to defensive specialist as a senior because of an injury to her pinky finger. Freppon received three Brother David Delahanty Awards given to Lewis student-athletes as the result of academic excellence.
Freppon said she’ll be putting a huge emphasize on mental health in addition to making the sure the girls are in good physical shape.
“One advice I will have is to be calm,” Freppon said. “There’s nothing we can do on the scoreboard. We have to calm it down, take care of the things on our side that we’ve learned. Just think back to the practices, how sweaty we were and how we’re pushing each other. Just go back to those moments and understand that we have this and that we can achieve anything.”
Freppon takes over a team that finished 10-16 last season, graduating just two players in outside/right side hitter Bailey Beiting and defensive specialist Ashlyn Niemeier. The Camels lost to eventual 37th District and 10th Region champion Bishop Brossart in the 37th semifinals, missing the region tournament for the first time since 2015.
One goal for Freppon is to bring back offensive balance for the Camels. Campbell County returns two 6-feet even middle blockers in Emma Manser and Lexi Scharold, a University of Minnesota at Crookston commit, who led the Camels with 266 and 246 kills in 2022, respectively.
“I think it’s super big for teams to have balance whether it’s the outside hitter, middle hitter or the right side hitter,” Freppon said. “Even the setter in general can be an offensive threat. Maybe just moving them around and hitting different shots that are in their tool box is a big key to playing powerful opponents.”
Five seniors return total. The other three are setter/right side hitter Ava Crowl, outside/right side hitter Penelope Stacey and outside hitter/defensive specialist Ella Thorwarth. Thorwarth had a team-high 362 digs and Crowl had a team-high 440 assists. Juniors Lucy Trapp at setter/outside hitter and defensive specialist A lon McIntyre along with sophomore setter/opposite hitter Hope Hamilton also return. McIntyre had a team-high 48 aces and Hamilton finished second with 186 assists.
The Camels will look to get back to region title contenders after making six straight region championship games from 2016-21, winning region titles in 2018 and ’19. Since 2005, they’ve won five region titles, tying with Scott for the most over that time as current 10th Region members.
“We’ve been playing together since middle school so our team chemistry is really good,” Scharold said. “We also try to include our younger girls since we are huge this year and will be leaving. We’re also trying to bring more role models into the group aside from just ourselves, bring up the team chemistry with them and get them involved as well.”
The Camels have been to the state semifinals three times in program history in 2018, 1998 and ’80.