Area basketball coaching hires continue at a rapid pace. Offers, commitments, transfers and invitations are coming in quickly. A local football player gets the score of his life. I have another fish story. It’s all here in the fastest 1,000 words in sports.
FORMER BULLDOG BECOMES BEECHWOOD COACH
Celeste Hill Brockett is the new Beechwood girls basketball coach. The former Holmes standout was hired Thursday. Brockett previously coached at Holmes where she starred for the Bulldogs as a player before embarking on a college career at Old Dominion. She was an assistant coach at Old Dominion in two separate stints. Brockett coached for the team in 1998-99 after playing basketball overseas in Israel and Greece. She returned to Old Dominion in 2008-09.
Brockett was Colonial Athletic Association player of the year three times at Old Dominion from 1990-94. She averaged 20.4 points per game as a senior. Brockett was the first women’s player in school history to lead the team in scoring and rebounding all four years. Brockett finished her career as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,112 points. The record stood for 13 years. Brockett is a 2002 Old Dominion Athletic Hall of Fame inductee.
Professionally, Brockett was a member of Ano Liosia in Athens, Greece and Ramat-Chen in Ramat Gan, Israel from 1998-2000. Following her second stint playing overseas, Brockett returned to Holmes as a varsity assistant and head junior varsity basketball coach for four seasons. Holmes won the 9th Region girls championship and finished state runner-up during that time.
Holmes promoted Brockett to girls head coach in 2004. She held the position four years and put together a 55-50 career record. Brockett also taught math at Holmes and served as Drop Out Prevention Coordinator and Covington Summer Youth Program Coordinator. She is a 2006 Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
JUNIOR ALL-STAR INVITATIONS ANNOUNCED
A handful of local boys and girls basketball players received invitations to play on the Kentucky Junior All-Star Teams. They include Highlands’ Marissa Green, Newport Central Catholic’s Caroline Eaglin and Notre Dame’s Sophia Gibson for the girls. Invited to play for the boys is Lloyd’s EJ Walker and Walton-Verona’s Aaron Gutman.
They have a chance to represent Kentucky versus the Indiana Junior All-Stars in June. The Kentucky Junior All-Stars will play the Indiana Junior All-Stars June 2 at Scottsburg High School in Indiana with games at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. They will meet again June 5 in Kokomo, Indiana with games at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
COVCATH FOOTBALL PLAYER’S PERFECT SCORE
Covington Catholic football standout Tate Kruer achieved a perfect score of 36 on his ACT exam. He carries a 4.33 weighted grade-point average in class. On the football field, Kruer totaled a team-high 112 tackles (91 solo) in 2023 with three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, two sacks and an interception for the state finalist Colonels. The junior linebacker also recorded a safety.
On offense from his tight end position, Kruer was nearly perfect when it came to scoring efficiency. He caught three passes, two for touchdowns. He averaged 23.6 yards per catch. As a sophomore, Kruer was in on a team-leading 72 tackles (62 solo) in his first starting season. He registered eight tackles for loss. He also came up with a team-best four interceptions.
BASS FISHERS ANGLE FOR STATE
Four local bass fishing teams, two from Covington Catholic, qualified for the state tournament with KHSAA Region 2 performances Saturday at Lake Cumberland. The team of Sam Scroggins and Eli Scroggins placed ninth with a bag of 11 pounds, 2 ounces. CovCath’s Brandon Smith and Phoenix Parks finished 21st with 9 pounds, 11 ounces.
The Bishop Brossart tandem of Lincoln Schabell and Carson Schultz placed 17th with 10 pounds, 1 ounce. Simon Kenton anglers Mason Stewart and Jake Taulbee finished 28th with 8 pounds, 8 ounces of fish. The state tournament is May 9-11 at Kentucky Lake.
NEWPORT BASKETBALL STAR COMMITS
Newport senior basketball player Jabari Covington has committed to the Union Commonwealth University men’s basketball team. Union Commonwealth, formerly known as Union College, is located in Barbourville and competes in the Appalachian Athletic Conference of the NAIA.
Covington, a 6-foot-1 guard on Newport’s two-time 9th Region championship squad, was second for the Wildcats with 12.6 points per game and third in rebounding as a senior. He had several small-school offers including those from Tennessee Wesleyan, Danville Community College and Eastern Mississippi Community College, which gave him his first offer in December.
BLUEBIRDS BASEBALL GREAT HONORED
Former Highlands baseball standout Eric Glaser is an 11:30 a.m. honoree during a pregame jersey retirement ceremony on May 4. It comes ahead of the Bluebirds’ noon home game against Madison Central at Highland Park. Glaser, a Highlands High School Athletics Hall of Famer from the induction class of 2018, wore No. 27.
Glaser was a two-time first-team all-state selection for Highlands as a junior in 1996 and a senior in 1997. He was Kentucky Mr. Baseball runner-up as a senior. He was a second-round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox in 1997.
NKU WOMEN LAND A TRANSFER
Former Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame basketball standout Abby Wolterman announced she has transferred to Northern Kentucky University from IUPUI. Wolterman, a 6-foot forward, will be a junior in 2024-25.
Wolterman averaged 8.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore at IUPUI and shot 52.9% from the field. She scored a season-high 16 points twice, once against NKU when she shot 8-for-11 from the field in a January 2024 contest.
THOMAS MORE LACROSSE MAKES HISTORY
The Thomas More women’s lacrosse team earned its first-ever postseason win in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday, beating No. 4 seed Tiffin 15-5 in the quarterfinals. The No. 5 seed Saints were led by Anna Wells’ six goals. She also had an assist. Alex Nunn scored three goals and added four assists plus five draw controls. Top-seeded Walsh eliminated the Saints, 18-7, in the semifinals. Madi Carle led with three goals and three caused turnovers. She set the Thomas More and GMAC single-season caused turnover record with 56. The Saints finished 4-14.
Nunn is a recent all-Great Midwest Athletic Conference first-team selection. Wells, Carle, Eva Kinwel and Meg Pierani are second-team all-conference picks. It’s the first GMAC awards for the Thomas More women’s lacrosse program.
FORMER COOPER VOLLEYBALLER MAKES A VAULT
One-time Cooper athlete Kaitlyn Luebbers moved up to third on the Florida Gulf Coast University beach volleyball all-time victory list with her 70th win last week. Luebbers, a 2021 Cooper graduate, is a junior at FGCU, where she has been an Atlantic Sun second-team all-conference selection.
Luebbers is from a long line of family athletes. She’s the daughter of former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Larry Luebbers, who starred in high school at St. Henry. Her grandfather, Walter Stephanski, swam for the University of Kentucky. Her aunt Meredith Luebbers-Palmer played basketball at Coastal Carolina. Aunt Charle Peck played volleyball at Thomas More. Luebbers’ sister Ashleigh played volleyball at Georgetown College. Her sister Logan played basketball at Cooper and will play collegiately at Evansville.
SPEED READS
Newport sophomore basketball player Tay Kinney picked up another college offer, adding Rutgers. He has more than 30 college offers. Kinney averaged 17.5 points per game this past season.
Lloyd junior EJ Walker is getting a re-offer from Ohio State. The 6-foot-8 Walker, who has nearly 30 college basketball offers, had whittled his wish list to a final 10 destinations, with Ohio State on the list. He averaged 16.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game as a junior.
Scott senior Xarek Sarakatsannis has committed to the Kentucky Christian University men’s basketball team. The 6-foot-5 forward averaged 12.9 points per game last season. He also averaged 4.1 rebounds with solid shooting percentages.
Ryle sophomore Jaelyn Jones received an offer from the Bellarmine University women’s basketball team. Jones, a 5-foot-10 guard, was third on the Raiders with 11.6 points per game in 2023-24.
Dixie Heights basketball players Hudson Blank and Jalynn Brooks have won 2024 Greater Cincinnati Basketball Hall of Fame McDonald’s Dr. Pepper Scholarships. Both will receive $500. scholarships.
Sophomore AJ Curry set a Ryle baseball record with his 16th double of the season Wednesday in a 6-2 road win over Simon Kenton. Curry’s third-inning double, part of a 2-for-4 effort, broke Landon Sawyer’s single-season record of 15 set last year. Next up, the single-season hit record. Garrett Wagner holds the Ryle record with 62 in 2007. Curry had 51 hits following the Simon Kenton contest.
Covington Catholic and Ryle are the only local teams appearing in this week’s Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association Top 25. CovCath (21-2) ranks No. 16. Ryle (18-7) ranks No. 25. The two teams meet May 15 at Ryle. The Colonels won the first meeting, 3-1, during the first week of April at CovCath.
Highlands remains the lone local softball team ranked in the top 25 of the KHSAA coaches poll. The Bluebirds (20-6) rank No. 21. Highlands, the two-time 9th Region champion, has won at least 20 games four seasons in a row and 101 games since the beginning of the 2021 season.