From 2019-2023, your guess was as good as any on who would win the girls 32nd District.
The past two years that hasn’t been the case as much. Safe to say, you’re not going out on a limb predicting that Simon Kenton will win a third straight district title this year. The Lady Pioneers are loaded after their second 8th Region championship in three years, returning their starting five and six of their top seven in the rotation.
Here’s what the 32nd District will look like this year:
Simon Kenton (26-5 in 2024-25)
The Lady Pioneers feature one of the better starting fives in the state. The question that begs is how much depth has been developed in the offseason? Often times, Simon Kenton would bring in just one, maybe two players off the bench in games last season.
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Lady Pioneers coach Jeff Stowers said. “We can go seven or eight deep, but last year I was hesitant to put some of them in.”
Stowers knows what to expect from Brynli Pernell, Haylie Webb, Anna Kelch, Bella Ober and Meg Gadzala. The five have been fixtures in the lineup for multiple years now as they all had to grow up quick and inserted into the lineup as underclassmen.
As far as beyond that, Stowers expects to implement four more in the rotation: Angela Kabeya and Naomi Krohman along with Allison Wiggins and Kaelly Niece. Three of them are eighth graders, Krohman a freshman.
“This year I’m counting on them,” Stowers said. “We’ll throw them in and see who rises to the top and battles for playing time.”
One thing that won’t be questioned is how they’ll be battle tested come tournament time. The schedule features five opponents ranked in the top 10 in the state in the Courier-Journal’s preseason poll.
“Our schedule is murder. Wherever we think we’re at or what we’ve done, we have to improve every single day,” Stowers said. “It’s the route we have to take.”
As far as the starting five, Pernell and Ober are interchangeable at the guard positions, a luxury Stowers says. Pernell is the returning leading scorer at 14.7 points per game while Stowers would like to see Ober’s point production increase from the 7.7 she averaged last year.
Gadzala is the defensive stopper while Kelch provides perimeter shooting with 48 made 3-pointers last season, second only to Pernell’s 74. Webb is the team’s top rebounder with 6.5 per game last year, an area Stowers said the team needs to improve this year.
“We’ve really been on them about blocking out. Rebounding is all heart if you want it,” Stowers said. “Haylie is a great rebounder, but we need to rebound better as a core group.”
With Zakiyah Johnson gone from Sacred Heart, maybe it opens the door for the rest of the state. The Valkyries have claimed the last five state championships, Simon Kenton is certainly in the discussion for one. They’re ranked No. 6 in the Courier-Journal preseason poll. With two trips to Rupp in the last three years and with nearly all of the returning players back, something special could be brewing in Independence.
“They’ll play for each other. Play hard and play for each other,” Stowers said. “We get the younger ones to buy in and we can really do something special this year.”
Walton-Verona (20-10 in 2024-25)
The Lady Bearcats are coming off their first 20-win season since 2019-20 when Mark Clinkenbeard coached the team. They lost just three seniors, but they were pretty big pieces in Braylin Terrell, Campbell Christy and Ava Fuller.
While they don’t have those three back, Clinkenbeard is back on staff as an assistant under Rianna Gayheart, entering her fifth season at the helm.
Despite the minimal turnover on the roster, the team is still pretty young with eight of the 13 on the roster sophomores or younger.
“One good thing is with the exception of one transfer and our one 8th grader, all of the players on this year’s roster have been in our practices a year already, as our 8th graders practiced with me last year,” Gayheart said. “The learning curve hasn’t been too big as far as learning the program, so we’ve really been able to jump right in to defining roles.”
Key returnees include Elin Logue, Ava Hargett, Nova Dryden and Addison Vonhandorf, the four playing in at least 27 of the 30 games last season. Logue returns as the leading scorer with 15.1 points per game and Northern Kentucky coaches have taken notice, ranking her as one of the top 10 players in Northern Kentucky this season.
“We always hope our major players are also our hardest workers and Elin is a great example of that,” Gayheart said. “She has become more vocal this year and has worked a lot with our younger players to prepare them for the year. As far as her individual game goes we are looking for her to show off her ability to score at all three levels this season.”
Hargett worked her way into the starting lineup as an eighth grader, picking up valuable experience. Ava Kendall also returns after missing last season with injury and should provide an impact. Dryden and Vonhandorf came in off the bench.
Defensively things will look different without Terrell’s shot-blocking prowess and that’s something Gayheart leaned into stating, “Expect to see some things you haven’t seen from our program in a while.”
Expectations include getting back to and making a run in the All “A” state tournament in Owensboro. Then the focus shifts to the district tournament, where they’ve failed to get out of the first round the past three seasons after last winning a district title in 2022.
Grant County (18-13 in 2024-25)
After losing by 25 to Walton-Verona in the regular season last year, the Lady Braves completely flipped the script in the postseason and ended the Lady Bearcats season with a 54-43 victory in the district tournament.
It propelled them all the way to the 8th Region championship, where they came up short to Simon Kenton for the third time in the season. They only graduated three seniors, but two of them happened to be the leading scorers in Jada Cummins and Caroline Barnes.
Williamstown (1-20 in 2024-25)
The Lady Demons opted out of district play last season and went 1-20.
They have a new coach in AJ Mason with a roster of 13 players. They are young with just three seniors and have five sophomores, a freshman and four 8th graders.
They do have seven returning on the KHSAA roster that played in at least 15 games last season, including top two scorers Audrey Hammond and Macy Spivey.