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.
HIGHLANDS GIRLS BASKETBALL
It started with a double-overtime thriller and ended with a 3-0 week for the Highlands girls basketball team.
The Bluebirds (5-1) defeated Holy Cross 62-61 in a game that needed two overtimes to decide it, a big win for the program as they were without standout Marissa Green due to injury. Tyriana Berry’s 20 point, 15 rebound performance helped propel them as they shot 9-of-17 from 3-point range. Katie Bucher, Avery Barber and Maren Orme all knocked down two 3-pointers apiece in the victory.
Highlands followed it up with wins over Scott (49-46) and Valley (70-39). In the win over Scott, Marissa Green returned to the lineup with 18 points and seven rebounds. Kaylee Mills added nine points, Orme with eight points. Ten different players entered the scoring column in the win over Valley, led by Green with 22 points, Orme adding 14.
LUDLOW GIRLS BASKETBALL
After an 0-3 start in the first week of the season, Ludlow’s girls basketball team bounced back with wins over Oldham County (69-53) and Villa Madonna (57-42).
Addy Garrett exploded for 36 points in the win over Oldham, knocking down four 3-pointers and hitting all eight free throw attempts. Alex Adcock posted 19 points, hitting 7-of-11 shots while Kiley Huff and Ashtyn Huff added 10 rebounds apiece.
Garrett continued her scoring rampage in the win over Villa, going off for 37 points on 12-of-21 shooting and hitting 11-of-13 from the charity stripe. Kiley Huff had 10 points with seven rebounds while Zoey Wilson added nine points with five rebounds and Ashtyn Huff had another double-digit rebounding game, pulling down 13 rebounds.
BEECHWOOD BOYS BASKETBALL
The Tigers are off to their first 4-0 start since the 2020-21 season thanks to two more convincing victories last week over Scott (72-28) and Augusta (63-26).
In their first four wins this season, Beechwood is winning by an average margin of 29 points per contest. Standouts early on include Jack Sullivan, Carson Blackburn and Owen McCormack.
Sullivan is posting 18.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, Blackburn’s 16 points per game is coming from a blazing 67% shooting from the field while McCormack is putting up 11.8 points per game and hitting 47% of his 3-point attempts.
CALVARY CHRISTIAN BOYS BASKETBALL
The Cougars posted a 2-0 week with wins over Villa Madonna (57-54) and Bellevue (36-27).
In the win over Villa, Peyton Morris led the way with 23 points and eight rebounds, hitting 9-of-15 shots from the field and four 3-pointers. Matt Ayyildiz posted 10 points and eight rebounds while Luke Getzy had eight points with 10 rebounds, Collin Duty also adding eight points.
In grinding one out over Bellevue, Morris scored 23 of the team’s 36 points, knocking down five 3-pointers. Ayyildiz pulled down 13 rebounds to go with his six points.
RYLE BOYS WRESTLING
The Raiders finished runner-up in the Ryle Raider Rumble out of 24 teams at the event at Ryle High School over the weekend.
Ryle scored 195 points in the match, taken down by Cincinnati power Elder, 200-195, in the meet’s final match.
Bryant Brinkman won the 106-pound weight-class. Aiden Brinkman came in fifth at 113 pounds. The three other Ryle individual champs include Luke Cornwell at 126 pounds. Landon Evans won at 132 pounds and Rider Trumble was triumphant at 157.
Other Raiders scorers include two third-place finishers, Callen Schimdt at 165 pounds and Travis Steiber at 190. Keagan Reisenbeck came in fourth at 175 pounds and Jagger Irvin was fifth at 144.