To be the winning team, fan votes play a heavy role, along with consideration from our sports team here at LINK.
Nominations are reader-submitted or recommended by our sports team. Our Team of the Week program honors all local sports at all levels, whether it’s youth or adult-oriented recreation, high school or college, professional or amateur.
The new school year has added to the awards program. OrthoCincy Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine and LINK nky are excited to expand in addition to the weekly winners, the program will be including three winners for Team of the Season and one overall winner for Team of the Year for the 2024-25 sports seasons.
New this year for the program is the addition of the Team of the Season (TOTS) and Team of the Year (TOTY) awards. Sports seasons are considered fall, winter and spring for the purpose of this awards program. At the conclusion of each sports season, an overall TOTS winner will be chosen from all previous TOTW winners for that season. Their school will also receive a $500 scholarship to be presented to the athlete of their choice at the end of the school year.
Finally, the program culminates by selecting one TOTY from the three TOTS award winners. Online and print articles will again be published, a large commemorative plaque will be presented and the school will receive an additional $500 scholarship to be presented to the athlete of their choice at the end of the school year.
The call for nominations, voting and winning announcement for each will follow the same format as the TOTW.
This week’s nominated teams are listed below with some information provided by the submitter or LINK nky staff. The poll where you can vote follows at the end of the article.
Voting is open until Friday at 11:59 a.m.
BOONE COUNTY BOYS SOCCER TEAM
The Rebels are off to their best start since 2019 as they improved to 5-2 with victories over Holy Cross (6-1) and Bishop Brossart (3-1) last week.
They’ve yet to surrender more than two goals in a game and are outscoring the opponent 25-10 through the first seven games of the season.
Mayemba Mayala and Abdullahi Ali lead the team in goals with eight apiece, Parker Byland adding three goals with a team-high six assists. Shane Powell has two goals on the year to go with three assists while David Courtney and Thierno Balde have split the goalkeeping duties, each with 12 saves apiece and a 1.0 goals against average.
Boone County has a four-game week ahead of them starting with Beechwood on Tuesday.
CONNER GIRLS SOCCER TEAM
The Lady Cougars extended their scoreless against streak to nine with three victories last week and are still without a loss. With wins over Bishop Brossart (4-0) and St. Henry (2-0) and Boone County (5-0), Conner improved to 8-0-1 and the state has taken notice as they are ranked No. 5 in the state in the latest Kentucky High School Girls Soccer Coaches Association Top 25.
Ally Welch has recorded eight of the nine shutouts on the season to date, Cara Fay with the other. They are led in goals by Izelee Kerns (5) and Ashley Sweetay (3) while five others have found the back of the net twice.
Michaela Potter and Maya Owen lead the team with three assists apiece.
They’ve outscored the opponent 19-0 on the season and look to keep their winning and scoreless against ways this week with matchups against Beechwood on Wednesday and Newport Central Catholic on Saturday.
VILLA MADONNA VOLLEYBALL TEAM
How about a 10-0 start for the Vikings?
Last week was quite the week for the Vikings. Along with three wins, they honored their coach, Sandi Kitchen for being the head of the program for 30 years.
Villa Madonna gathered three wins in three days, with a 2-0 victory over both Ludlow (25-16, 25-14) and Dayton (25-16, 25-14), following it up with a 3-0 win over Lloyd Memorial (25-11, 25-9, 24-14). The prior week, they won the Ludlow Classic by going 5-0 in it.
To date, they’ve been paced in kills by Maya Kondik (98) and Ella Breitling (85). Kondik also leads the team with 11 blocks. Catherine Gifford has been the table setter with 148 assists, Rebecca Raziano with 58. Gifford leads in the service department with 39 aces, Mary Chadwick with 20 while the team leaders in digs are Anna Raziano (56), Gifford (53) and Chadwick (48).
Villa hopes to make it 11-0 and advance to the 9th Region All “A” championship with a win over Newport Central Catholic on Tuesday.
HIGHLANDS FOOTBALL TEAM
The Bluebirds got the rivalry with Covington Catholic back on their side with a 32-22 victory over the Colonels.
The offensive line helped pave the way for 290 rushing yards, Jack White the biggest beneficiary of the holes in front of him with 148 rushing yards and a touchdown. Four different Bluebirds found the end zone, Gabe Williams, Mario Litmer and Adam Surrey all finding paydirt.
After a shaky start, the defense held firm, forcing an interception and recording a safety and allowed just eight points after the Colonels first two drives that ended in touchdowns.
Highlands is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2021 and garners a LINK nky Team of the Week nomination.
RYLE GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
The Lady Raiders won their own invitational on Saturday in Union.
They defeated the 11-team field by 11 points with 47 points on the day. They were paced by Allison Kosper (19:37) and Stella Carpenter (20:09) for top three finishes, finishing second and third, respectively.
Following the two were Isabelle Morin (21:06), Aubrey Poore (21:58) and Jaz Bartlett (22:05) for the top five finishers for Ryle, all placing in the top 25.
Click on the team below on who you feel deserves the LINK nky Team of the Week!