Don’t you dare use the d-word to describe Ryle’s boys soccer team.
Raiders coach Stephen Collins begins his 19th season on the sidelines. He said calling his team a dynasty in Northern Kentucky – or anywhere else – is just, well, wrong, especially because Louisville St. Xavier has won 15 state titles, including 11 since 2000.
“No, I don’t think so,” Collins said. “I think what St. Xavier does is a dynasty … To do it a couple years, I think a dynasty, you’ve got to do it four, five, six.”
Labeling Ryle a soccer sovereignty is nevertheless at least a little tempting because 2022 was as memorable as a bicycle kick for a state championship-winning goal. Ryle (19-5-2) won its third straight 33rd District title last year, claimed its second Ninth Region championship in three seasons and reached the state semifinals.
The good news for Ryle: senior Diego Hoenderkamp and sophomore Brice Denigan are back; they scored 24 and 16 goals last year, respectively. Hoenderkamp had nine assists, and Denigan added eight.
“They’re kind of two different players; they do feed off each other,” Collins said. “Diego, when he gets the ball, he can do so much with it. You never know, sometimes, what he’s going to do with it; he’s got some of the best foot skills I’ve seen in a long time.
“Brice is much better out in space. Brice has got a lot of speed, and he can create a lot of problems by getting deep into the corners and making into the mix.”
Senior goalkeeper Landon Barth is back, too – he’s a four-year starter. He saved 144 shots last year with a 1.0 goals-against average.
“When you’re 6-3, 6-4, whatever he is, it’s an imposing figure there in goal,” Collins said.
The challenge is replacing two defenders, Aidan Byrd and David Snowden, who graduated. Collins was uncertain about who would take over, but he said junior Chris Maraduaga is one candidate.
The way Collins sees it, the district is the toughest in Northern Kentucky because all four schools call Boone County home. Collins said Ryle is one of four teams that could win the region, but as for the district …
“Probably the favorite going into our district, but our district is extremely hard just because it’s all schools from the same county,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what the record is of any of those schools, every game is a dogfight.”
Cooper (12-2-3 last year)
The Jaguars are basically a brand new varsity squad – 18 seniors graduated – but coach Doug Flesch chuckled and said his squad is not inexperienced.
“We have a very close-knit program,” Flesch said. “Our JV has made it to the JV regional finals the past two years; they won it two years ago and made it last year.”
Defense could be Cooper’s strength. Seniors Landon Hughes – the Northern Kentucky Coaches Association Defensive Player of the Year – Tanner Musgrave and Angel Ramirez return. Sophomore Carson Morgan is the goalkeeper.
“We will have a very strong core defense,” Flesch said.
Sophomore forward Maddox Pemberton’s seven goals and seven assists is tops in both categories among the returnees.
Conner (9-8-3)
The Cougars’ 2022 season was somewhat Dickensian because it was a tale of two seasons with its best and worst of times – an 8-2-1 beginning and a 1-6-2 finish, including losses to Ryle in the district final and Covington Catholic in the regional opening round.
Eleven seniors graduated, but leading scorer Mason Arevalo (seven goals) is back. Senior keepers Trey Wagner and Owen King recorded 129 and 110 saves respectively.
Boone County (5-13)
New coach Tony Trenkamp was the physical education teacher when many of this year’s Rebels were at Ockerman Elementary School.
“I kind of wanted an opportunity to coach kids that I taught years before,” Trenkamp said.
Trenkamp is not a coaching newbie; he led Conner from 2018-2019 and was a junior varsity coach for what he said was “many years.” He said the first thing he wants to do is the same thing he always does at the start of a season.
“Just seeing how we defend individually and how we defend as a team will be beneficial for this group of kids,” he said. “Soccer’s a low-scoring game, right? The goal is to not give up goals and outscore the opponent.
“Honestly, I think we’ve got kids who can score a lot of goals. If we could shore up how we defend defensively, we’ll be competitive.”
The good news: three of the top four leading scorers, Denis Rodriguez (nine goals), Parker Byland (eight goals, 12 assists) and Edwin Pajazetovic (seven goals), return.