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.
This is the last week for the fall sports Team of the Week. Starting next week, we’ll cast a poll out for Team of the Season.
COVINGTON CATHOLIC BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
The Colonels cruised to another Class 2A boys KHSAA state cross country title, winning for the second straight year at the Kentucky Horse Park in Georgetown. They won by 18 points with 51 points, Bourbon County the lone team within any sort of striking distance as them with 69 points.
Will Sheets and Joe Mayer finished second and third as all seven Colonels that ran on the day finished in the top 40 out of 260 runners competing. Sheets ran a 15:42, 20 seconds off from three-time state champ Riku Sugie of Thomas Nelson. Mayer came in at 16:01.
From there it was Colonels’ Luke McLane in eighth at 16:38, Jackson Germann in 19th at 17:13 and Braden Franxman in 21st at 17:16. Jack Salyers was 28th (17:37) and Joel Barczak 39th (17:57) to round out the Colonel runners on the day.
The state title was Covington Catholic’s fourth in program history, winning in 2023 and ’24, also claiming state titles in 1982 and 1994.
VILLA MADONNA BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
A first for the Vikings! Villa Madonna won its first ever boys team state title in any sport as they took home the championship trophy at the KHSAA Class 1A state cross country meet on Saturday.
Villa clinched the title with a dominant effort, with a 108-173 win over St. Henry.
Senior Mark Antrobus was the first Viking in, placing 11th in 17:04.15. Villa’s Brendan Ramdass was 14th (17:09.03), Ethan Martin was 18th (17:32.99), Alex Chadwick was 27th (17:59.57), and Ethan Barker was 60th in 18:42.30. The Vikings won because it took just 1:38.15 for all five to finish.
NOTRE DAME VOLLEYBALL
The Pandas were a dominant force in the 9th Region and beyond this season. After a 3-0 (25-15, 25-14, 28-26) victory over St. Henry in the 9th Region championship, the Pandas finished off an undefeated record in region play at 13-0 and didn’t drop a set in the process.
They enter the state tournament as the No. 1 ranked team in the state and will host Lexington Catholic on Monday night in the first round.
Julia Grace, Audrey Dyas, Grace Portwood and Ava Tilden (MVP) were named to the 9th Region All-Tournament team.
Notre Dame enters the state tournament with a 31-3 record and having won 22 of their last 23 matches.
SCOTT VOLLEYBALL
Scott’s volleyball team earned their first 10th Region title since 2020 with a 3-1 (19-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-11) victory over Bishop Brossart last week.
The Eagles finished an unblemished 13-0 in region play throughout the season and carry a 12-game winning streak into Monday’s first round state tournament game with West Jessamine in Taylor Mill.
Payton Grigsby, Elise Manhardt, Ryann Grigsby and Milyn Minor were named to the All-Tournament team.
Scott sports a 29-11 record headed into the state tournament.
BELLEVUE FOOTBALL
The Tigers have earned their most victories in a season since 2018, when they also won five games. The Tigers defeated Jackson County, 40-6 to close out the regular season with a 5-4 record.
In a season where they had to dodge many obstacles out of their control, the Tigers perservered and are now looking for their first playoff win since 2014 when they play at Bishop Brossart on Friday.
Jordan Pendleton’s big night helped spur the blowout victory over the Generals. Pendleton rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns while also throwing for 79 yards and two touchdowns. Tristan Woodyard was on the receiving end of both touchdown tosses.
The Tigers defense forced three turnovers and had two sacks. Stephen Specht, Austin Castrucci and Pendleton all recovered fumbles while Derrick Fortner and Kameron Stokes sacked the quarterback. Arion Stuckey and Kayne Ross both had multiple tackles for loss.
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