Let’s take a look at some of the top sports stories of the year in Northern Kentucky.
From state champions, coaching news, milestones and the start and end of eras, 2024 had it all.
Here are some of the top stories of the year:
Coaching legends step down
Bruce Kozerski and Scott Ruthsatz both brought back state titles to northern Kentucky. Ruthsatz with two and Kozerski with one.
The two decided to step away from the games they coached for a long time. Kozerski resigned from Holy Cross after coaching the football program for 20 years, Ruthsatz stepping down from post as the basketball coach for Covington Catholic for the last 13 years.
Ruthsatz made the decision in May, accumulating a 363-79 record (82%), winning two state titles, making it to four Final Fours, winning six region titles and 10 district titles. The state titles came in 2014 and 2018. He departed as the all-time wins leader of the program.
Kozerski helped start the football program up at Holy Cross in 1998 with John Wysong, who was the head coach the first six seasons of its existence. Since then it’s been “Koz”, the former Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman who was a key part of the line in the 1989 Bengals Super Bowl run.
He guided the Holy Cross program to reach its pinnacle in 2011 when the Indians won the Class 2A state championship.
Taylen Kinney takes his talents to the prep scene
As his stock continued to soar, so did his game as Newport’s Taylen Kinney decided it was time to up the competition level and take his game to Atlanta and play with Overtime Elite, a prep school in Georgia.
Kinney would have been a junior at Newport this year, leaving the Wildcats a big void at one of their guard positions in their quest for a 3-peat as 9th Region champions. The door is still open for a return in his senior year, but Kinney will be highly coveted by a lot of Power Four schools as his college choice looms.
St. Henry breaks onto the football scene
While they are just months away from their first official varsity game, St. Henry High School broke into the football scene this season with a freshman and JV schedule.
The Crusaders first game was played Aug. 26, a JV game against Dayton and winning 26-0.
The plan is to start varsity football for the 2025 season. They’ll be placed in the Class 2A, 5th District with Beechwood, Bracken County, Gallatin County, Owen County and Walton-Verona.
CovCath, Highlands back together again on the gridiron
Covington Catholic and Highlands are reunited again as district foes on the gridiron.
In a May KHSAA Board of Control meeting in Lexington, the proposed high school football realignments for the 2025-26 seasons became official.
With the new alignment, it moved Highlands down from Class 5A to 4A, joining Covington Catholic in the Class 4A, 5th District with Holmes, Harrison County and Mason County. Grant County was approved to move out of the 5th District and into the 4th District in Class 4A.
Not much else changed for the rest of the teams in NKY.
Beechwood wins state title No. 18, three NKY football teams compete for state titles
Title town brings another one back as Beechwood won their 18th state football title in program history with a 50-34 victory over Owensboro Catholic.
The Tigers went 14-1 in 2024, a special season in which they outscored the opponent 705-239.
Beechwood was joined by Cooper and Ryle at Kroger Field in Lexington for their respective state championship games, the first time since 2014 NKY had three teams playing for state titles. The Jaguars and Raiders came up short in their title tilts, Bowling Green defeating Cooper, 37-20, while Trinity took down Ryle, 42-23.
CovCath shocks the state
Not only was Boyle County arguably the No. 1 team in the state in all of the football classes, but the Rebels were nationally ranked all season as they faced Covington Catholic in the Class 4A region championship on Nov. 22.
The Colonels sent shockwaves through the state as they stunned Boyle County, 31-28. They ran all over Boyle, churning out 325 yards on the ground, Cash Harney collecting 234 of them.
CovCath eventually fell in the semis to Franklin County, but turned their season around with 11 straight wins after an 0-2 start.
Historic O.W. Davis Field ends an era
Dayton Independent Schools celebrated the groundbreaking in April for a new sports complex that includes a new turf football field. It also signaled the end to one of the oldest football stadiums in Kentucky, O.W. Davis Field.
The Greendevils played their last season at O.W. Davis in 2024, the new complex expected to be available by the start of the 2025 season on the campus of Dayton High School and Gil Lynn Park. The $14 million project is an effort to create a sports complex and learning space that will unite the district’s high school and elementary schools into one unified campus.
Newport Central Catholic also broke ground in October on a new multi-purpose sports complex that includes a synthetic turf field and six-lane track.
Ryle volleyball earns historic win
The Ryle volleyball team did something this season that no other public school this century has, beat Assumption in volleyball.
The Raiders defeated nationally ranked Assumption on Sept. 14, 26-24, 25-21, on their home floor at the Louisville Invitational Volleyball Tournament. At the time, Assumption was ranked second in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Super 25 national rankings. The Rockets were No. 1 in the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association poll and eventually won the state championship.
Cross country reigns supreme in NKY once again
Plenty of hardware came home again to northern Kentucky from Georgetown in cross country. Villa Madonna’s boys, Covington Catholic’s boys and Cooper’s Paul Van Laningham and Beechwood’s Lilly Parke all came home with state titles.
Villa Madonna’s boys team title was the first in any boys sport in school history. Covington Catholic won back-to-back titles and their fourth in program history.
Parke got over the second place hump, finishing second the prior two years. Van Laningham followed in his parents footsteps, his father Eric and mother Michelle individual state cross country champs at Boone County in the early 90’s. Â
A Campbell County matchup at the state tournament
Two schools 15.6 miles apart met in the first round of the KHSAA Sweet 16 boys basketball state tournament when Newport and Campbell County clashed in Lexington.
The Camels got the upper hand in the matchup, 43-40.
Newport, Holy Cross claim the small school state titles
For the second year in a row, Holy Cross won the All “A” state tournament in girls basketball while Newport’s boys won their respective All “A” state title.
The two traveled down to the Corbin Arena in Corbin and came back with hardware.
Camryn Whitaker-Volz agrees to part ways with NKU
Back in April, Camryn Whitaker-Volz and Northern Kentucky University came to an agreement Volz was recently under investigation about alleged conduct of emotional abuse.
In a statement released by the University, they were aware of media reports about more claims . The statement said that although the university determined Volz did not violate any university employment policies, leadership agreed it is time to go in a different direction with the program.
NKU named Volz the head coach on May 6, 2016. The Norse finished 106-126 over those eight seasons including a 72-70 record in Horizon League play.
After her third season in 2019, former players including Taryn Taugher accused Volz of emotional abuse, but an external review of the program said the claims were unfounded.
Just a few weeks later, the program hired Jeff Hans to be the new coach. Hans made a 7.6 miles move down the road from Crestview Hills to Highland Heights, spending the last 13 seasons with the Thomas More University women’s basketball program.
Hans lost just 42 games in 13 seasons with the Saints and has shown the ability to be able make the jump to the next level, starting at Division III and winning two national titles, moving up to NAIA and winning a national championship in 2022 and in 2023-24 where Thomas More made the jump to Division II and went 18-11 in their inaugural season.