On Wednesday April 17th at 1 PM, at the Gardens of Park Hills,
the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame will be inducting the following 6 new members.
JAMES POUNCY – Holmes Class of 1989
REFEREE
James graduated from James was a varsity letterman in football, basketball, and baseball. The rare 3 sport star. He got into coaching at the Kenton County Boys Club. He has developed and run the NKY Tar Heels/KY Select youth basketball program teaching basketball and life skills for 30 years. The program has collected Christmas gifts and food and donated these items to the Welcome House and the NKY Homeless Shelter. In 2012 James was named the Kentucky AAU Coach of the Year. He began officiating in the 9th Region in 2000, and became a college official in 2006. He has worked 15 Regional tournaments, 10 All A Tournaments, and 4 KHSAA Basketball State finals. In 2011 he was nominated for Kentucky State Official of the Year. In 2021 he was selected to be the 9TH Region Basketball Assigner. He is currently working NCAA in Divisions II and III, and NAIA College basketball. His current and past assignments have been to 7 NCAA National Tournaments and 9 NAIA National Tournaments. He states his biggest thrill was officiating the NAIA Championship Game in South Dakota that was televised on the ESPN network.
JEFF HANS
BASKETBALL COACH
Jeff is the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Thomas More University. He has coached 3 national Championship teams and 2 national runner-up finishes in his 13 years at the helm. He has had 2 national player of the Year, and he was named the National Coach of the year 1 time. He has a 312-31 win/loss record (.911). Eight regular season titles, eight conference tournament titles, 11 national tournament berths. Jeff came to Thomas More from NKU, where he was the top assistant to NKYSHOF member Nancy Winstel for three years. Jeff spent four years as head girl’s coach at Lexington Catholic and at St. Henry were he had a combined record of 89-34 with 2 district titles and 2 regional runner-up. Prior to his 4 years at the high school level he spent 5 years as an assistant at Indiana State, NKU and Wilmington College. He helped his teams go a combined 168-67 (.714) in his 8 years at the collegiate level
JEFF HETZER
BASEBALL COACH
Jeff was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference coach of the year 4 times, the ABCA Conference coach of the year 3 times. He posted 18 winning seasons in his 19 years. Jeff expected excellence in both the classroom and the field. In the classroom team shad a grade point average of 2.8 or better in all 38 semesters, including 29 semesters of 3.0 or higher Jeff had 104 players named all-conference, including 40 named first team Jeff was the head baseball coach at Thomas More College for 19 years. During this time he compiled a 484-277 record with 5 conference championships, 7 NCAA appearances, 5 regional semi-finalist, and 1 region finalist. He is the programs all-time winningest coach. He had 4 PAC player of the year and 1 Pitcher of the year. He had 39 named all-region, and 7 All-Americans. He had 2 NCAA post-graduate scholarship recipients as well as 13 academic all-district players and 6 Google Cloud Academic All-Americans. He was named ABCA conference coach of the year in 2008, 2011 and 2015. He was PAC coach of the year in 2011, 2014, 2016, and 2018. He has also served a 4 year term on the NCAA Division III Baseball Committee from 2010-20213.
KEN ELLIS – Holmes
ATHLETIC DIRECTOR-REFEREE-COACH
Ken graduated from Ken is currently the Athletic Director at Holmes, he is responsible supervising all coaches to meet federal and state guidelines for the Student athletes. He continues to use sound financial planning in the Athletic department. He works with the principal on effective communications of athletic events. He supervises all athletic fields used the Covington school district, he coordinates a master schedule for all facilities, he works with all on effective uses of financial resources and all scheduling overseeing and watching for over lapping or double booking of the facilities. But like most he didn’t start at the top. He worked his way through starting as an Asst. Football coach at Dayton High School 1978-1984. He was the girls Head Track coach 1978-1984 the Asst. boys’ basketball Coach 1978-1985, the Asst. athletic Director 1989-2000, the Dayton High School Youth basketball league Director 1988-2000. And he somehow found time to officiate High School basketball for 16 years 2003-2019, and a Football official from 1993 until the present, over 30 years Ken was named the 9th Region Athletic Director of the Year in 2020-2021. After all this he states working with kids as his greatest thrill, and his decision to be an official as his most exciting decision ever.
MARC COLLINS – Erlanger Lloyd
FOOTBALL-BASKETBALL-TENNIS
Football: Marc was a 3 year starter as the punter and kicker. His senior year he led NKY in scoring with 53 points, led NKY in punting average, was name 3RD team All-State Punter. He made the Recorder Newspaper, NKY Coaches, Channel 5 top 22, the Enquirer and the Class A All-Star Teams. He was named to the East/West All Stars and was named the game MVP, earning a scholarship to EKU. Basketball: He was a 3 year starter for Coach Bill Code. His senior year he averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds. He shot 77% on free throws for the year. He was named to the All-District team going 51 of 67 from the field. He was named Class AA All-Star Team, he was honorable mention all-state, he was a famous Recipe Player of the week, and was named Lloyd’s “Mr. Juggernaut” Tennis: He was a 5 year starter and letterman in both singles and doubles. He was region runner-up in singles his junior year and played in the state singles tournament. College football: He was a 4 year starter, a 2 time All-conference kicker and punter. He was named All-American by the Associated Press, the Sports Network, the Walter Camp Foundation, and the Football Coaches Association. Marc signed with the Seattle Seahawks in 1996, and wit the Buffalo Bills in 1997. He is currently the President of NFLPA for the Cincinnati chapter and serves on the advisory board for former NFLPA players.
MELISSA MARSH – Notre Dame Academy Class of 1993
SOCCER-BASKETBALL-SOFTBALL
SOCCER: She was first team Academic All-State, first team All-Region, and Ky. Post Defensive Player of the week in 1993. She led her teams to two district titles, a region title and a region runner-up, a conference title and a State runner-up. BASKETBALL: She was Coaches Assn. first team, 9Th region All-Tournament, First team All-Region, and Ky Post All Star. She was NDA Most valuable Player and chosen to play in the Senior All-Star game. SOFTBALL: She was a 3-time first team All-Region, 3-time coaches’ assn. All-region, 3-time All-State Academic, a Ky. Post All-Star. She was NDA 3 sport athlete award. Best defensive player, and chosen to play in the Senior All-Star game. She was a 3 time Who’s Who in American High School Athletics. Melissa was selected in 1994 to play in the World Softball Championships in Kansas City. She was inducted into the NDA Hall of Fame in 2014. She was inducted into the Athletic Director’s HOF in 2019.
