The 2024-25 school year is at its end which means the high school sports year is officially over.
You’ve played a big part in our Team of the Week and Team of the Season voting and have one last request…vote for Team of the Year!
OrthoCincy Orthopeadics and Sports Medicine and LINK nky are proud to partner and celebrate the remarkable achievements of our local high school athletes and teams!
Bellevue’s football team was the Team of the Season winner for the fall, Highlands swim and dive for the winter and Holy Cross softball for the spring.
These three candidates are now up for the final prize. A large commemorative plaque and the school will receive an additional $500 scholarship to be presented to the student-athlete of their choice.
A write-up for each Team of the Season is below with the voting option under the link. Vote as much as possible. Voting will end July 6 with the winner announced on July 7.
Fall Sports Team of the Season — Bellevue Football
Bellevue persevered in a season that faced some adversity. They had a game canceled at Lynn Camp due to safety concerns with the I-75 shooter in September and had a game postponed a couple of days with Gamble Montessori in Cincinnati due to the violence in the city.
After a loss to Eminence in the first game of their season, the Tigers routed Trimble County, Pendleton County and Gamble Montessori for a 3-1 start.
Bellevue went on to beat district rival Dayton, 42-0, in the annual Battle for the Paddle.
The Tigers sported a 5-5 record, surpassing last season’s win total of four, and having their winningest season in six years.
Jordan Pendleton was the team’s go-to guy. He had three passing touchdowns, 901 rushing yards, 16 rushing touchdowns, eight receptions for 107 yards and a score. Defensively, he had four fumble recoveries, one resulting in a touchdown, 53 tackles, one tackle for a loss and three interceptions.
Quarterback Stephen Specht had 407 passing yards and five touchdowns, his leading receiver Brayden Sizemore had 17 catches for 256 yards and two touchdowns.
Sizemore led the team in tackles with 76, adding on two TFL, one sack and tying Pendleton for the most interceptions on the team with three, one a pick-six. Arion Stuckey had a team-high three TFL, along with three sacks. Derrick Fortner had 63 tackles, one TFL and a team-leading six sacks.
The Tigers also had four named to the Northern Kentucky Football Coaches Association Division IV All-Area team:
Offensive lineman Patrick Vogt, Pendleton, Fortner and Sizemore.
Winter Sports Team of the Season — Highlands Swim and Dive
The Highlands boys and girls swim and dive team posted a strong season and finished runner-up for the combined KHSAA swim and dive state title.
The boys swim and dive team finished fifth while the girls placed fifth as well, giving them a combined team score of 243, only behind Ryle’s 305.5 points.
Among those placing in the championship final heats for the girls were Sarah Jones in fifth in the 50-yard freestyle, the girls 200-yard freestyle team of Ragan Moore, Ella Kate Reynolds, Keira Kobida and Sarah Jones in third and the girls 400-yard freestyle team of Moore, Reynolds, Kobida and Jones in third.
For the boys in the championship heats and those placing were the 200-yard medley relay team of Luke Deegan, Griffin Barlow, Noah Gracey and Chanith Abeysinghe in third, Abeysinghe in eighth in the 100-yard freestyle, Barlow in fifth in the 500-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Spring Sports Team of the Season — Holy Cross Softball
It was a storybook season for the Holy Cross softball team, winning their first ever fast pitch softball regional title. They knocked off three district champions in the regional tournament in doing so, the last against three-time defending champ Highlands in the region championship game.
They finished the year with an 18-13 record and claimed the 9th Region All “A” softball title as well. The Indians went 14-4 against 9th Region opponents and 5-2 against 35th District foes, finishing runner-up in the district. Their season concluded in the first round of the Clark’s Pump-n-Shop KHSAA state tournament against Harrison County.
According to the stats listed on the KHSAA website, as a team they hit .300 at the plate this season and were headlined by primary pitcher Evie Thomas who went 16-11 on the year with a 2.84 ERA. Thomas struck out 221 batters on the season and led the team in batting average at .410 and RBI with 25.
Other standouts at the plate include Madison Urlage, who led the team in hits with 36 and was second in RBI with 19. Paige Lachmann, Zoey Baker and Urlage all hit over .300 and collected at least 28 hits. Jordyn Reiselman and Zakyah Ryan also collected at least 20 hits. Reiselman and Suzette Klaiss were third on the team with 17 RBI.
The unlikely hero of the region tournament was Kayla Fledderman when her grand slam in the seventh inning turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead which would be the final score to clinch the title.
Not only did Holy Cross set a precedent for their program, but it gave small schools in Northern Kentucky hope, that a region title can be won by a smaller school and not the Highlands, Ryle’s, Notre Dame’s, Dixie Heights’ or Boone County’s of the region.
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