Long time, no see. But hey, let’s not waste any time because news is occurring in a blur in northern Kentucky. This includes all those rapidly happening coaching hires and college offers. We have the latest on the best teams and the biggest stars in the area. It’s all here in the fastest 1,000 words in sports.
MENEFEE’S SO NICE, NEWPORT HIRED HIM TWICE
Newport High School has rehired Beau Menefee as the head girls basketball coach. Menefee returns to Newport after a season away from the team, during which he coached his son’s AAU basketball squad. In his previous three-season stint, Menefee posted a 37-31 record. He replaces Marcus Harris, who led the Wildcats to a 7-24 record last season and is now at Boone County.
A 1991 Highlands alum, Menefee has coached both boys and girls basketball teams in Kentucky and Ohio. His previous coaching stops include Aiken in Cincinnati. In Kentucky, he has coached at Bellevue, Highlands and Campbell County. He was twice the 10th Region girls coach of the year with the Camels.
Menefee’s career includes a head girls basketball coach position at Aiken. He added two seasons coaching the Bellevue boys basketball team. He totaled five years coaching the girls basketball team at Campbell County. Menefee became the first 36th District coach to win a regional championship and a Sweet 16 game. He posted a 110-53 record at Campbell County and led the team to a No. 1 state ranking.
He has also coached junior varsity and freshman boys basketball at Highlands and freshman boys at Campbell County. While coaching the Campbell County girls, he led the Kentucky All-Stars in the 2018 Ohio-Kentucky All-Star game. Menefee has taught Language Arts and Speech Communications at Campbell County and most recently in the Newport Independent School District.
Menefee captained the basketball team his senior year at Highlands. He later attended Northern Kentucky University, where he earned a pair of bachelor’s degrees. He received a master’s degree from Thomas More University. Menefee and newly hired Newport athletic director Kevin Reinhardt share connections to Campbell County and NKU. Reinhardt was a multi-sport standout for the Camels and one of its best basketball players, later playing at NKU.
Menefee also has ties to Newport, in addition to teaching. Both of his parents attended Newport High School. His grandfather was a salesman with Newport establishments as customers. Menefee’s wife is a Newport native.
NKU HIRES NEW SOFTBALL COACH
Northern Kentucky University has named Morgan Gerak as its new softball coach. She replaces Kathryn Gleason, who left NKU in July to become the head coach at Northern Illinois University.
Gerak spent the past two seasons as an NKU assistant. She has been part of the two most successful Norse seasons in the NCAA Division I era. This includes NKU’s first Power Five wins over Michigan State in 2023 and Michigan in 2024. There’s also the school’s first Horizon League tournament championship and NCAA regional appearance in 2023.
Now the youngest head softball coach in NKU history, Gerak worked primarily with the pitching staff. She also assisted with offense, recruiting, academics and team travel during her first two years at the school. The Norse led the Horizon League in opponent batting average (.249) and shutouts (8) this past season. They were second in strikeouts (267), victories (27) and saves (8).
Gerak joined NKU after a successful stint as a graduate assistant at Northwestern University. Like Gleason, Gerak is an Illinois native, hailing from DeKalb. She graduated from DeKalb High School in 2015.
Gleason left NKU as the second-winningest softball coach with 173 wins in nine years. She guided the Norse to a Horizon League championship and their first-ever NCAA tournament bid last season. Gleason returns to Illinois with nearly 250 career wins at NKU and Boston University.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL OFFERS — BOYS
Newport’s Tay Kinney has received another NCAA Division I basketball offer, adding Kansas to the list of more than 30 colleges. Kinney, a tryout for the 2024 USA Basketball Men’s U17 National Team, also has a recent offer from Florida State. The junior’s offer list includes Arkansas, Auburn, Cincinnati, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame and Ohio State. He also has offers from Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Tennessee, Villanova, Virginia and Xavier, among others. He has plans to visit Kentucky.
Newport senior basketball player Yamil Rondon has received a college basketball offer from Kentucky Christian University. Rondon, a 6-foot point guard who transferred from Cooper as a junior, averaged 13 points per game last season. He has competed internationally for Puerto Rico, most recently for the Men’s U-17 national team.
Cooper basketball player Andy Johnson has received recent Division I college offers. They include those from Boston University, Illinois-Chicago, Morehead State, North Florida and Youngstown State. The senior received his first D-1 offer from Eastern Kentucky University in July. A 6-foot-5 combo guard, Johnson is 100% following a wrist injury. It limited him to 10 games his junior season. He scored a team-high 15.3 points per game. He averaged 25 points in the first two games of the season before the setback.
Former Covington Catholic basketball player Caden Miller has received college offers from High Point University and Texas-Arlington. Miller, listed as a 6-foot-10, 220-pound forward, is originally from Arkansas. He is taking a post-graduate year at Moravian Prep National in North Carolina before heading to college. He is the son of former Bengals linebacker Caleb Miller. In his one season at CovCath, Miller averaged 15.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. He was co-9th Region Player of the Year by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches. That made him a candidate for the Mr. Kentucky Basketball award.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL OFFERS — GIRLS
Notre Dame Academy basketball player Emma Holtzapfel received her first Division I offer from Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. Holtzapfel, a 5-foot-11 shooting forward, averaged 9.4 points and 3.6 rebounds last season. She led the Pandas in 3-point attempts, converting 80 of 221 shots from behind the arc for 36.2%.
Cooper’s Haylee Noel has received a D-1 college offer from both Northern Kentucky University and Western Kentucky University. Noel, just a sophomore, averaged 7.8 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds per game last season. She shot nearly 50% from the field, 40% on 3-pointers, and 80% on free throws as a freshman.
Jayden McClain from Ryle has received more D-1 offers. The latest come from the University of Central Florida and Southern Methodist University. McClain, a 6-foot-5 eighth-grade center, is the daughter of 6-11 former University of Cincinnati post player Anthony “Biggie” McClain. Physically stronger, she could begin her ascent after playing in 26 games as a seventh grader with limited production. McClain already has several Division I offers, including those from Florida State, Kentucky, and Ohio State.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL OFFERS
Beechwood football player Luke Erdman picked up his second Division I college football offer this month. He received one from the University of Dayton. Erdman, a senior wide receiver and defensive back for the Tigers, caught 50 passes for 1,133 yards last season. He added 16 touchdowns. His sprinter’s speed enabled him to average nearly 23 yards per catch.
Covington Catholic football player Andrew Huber received his first Division I offer from the University of Dayton. Huber, a senior, is a 6-foot-5, 255-pound two-way lineman for the Colonels, playing guard and tackle on offense.