Holmes High school announced the girls’ basketball team (4-22) will not participate in the 35th District semifinals at Notre Dame against Holy Cross on Tuesday because of injuries.
Holmes concluded the season with a 65-42 loss at Tates Creek on Friday. The Bulldogs played that game with two sophomores, three eighth graders and one seventh grader, but another player got injured leaving Holmes with five healthy players.
Holmes started the season with three sophomores, one freshman and every other player was in middle school with a couple others transferring elsewhere. But first-year head coach Tracy Pope said some positives came from the season. His big preseason goal was to have fun.
“The biggest positive that I got is that through trial and error and through an extreme amount of fortitude just sticking with it, we were able to find, identify and keep eight girls that want to play basketball, that want to get better and love being around each other,” Pope said. “That goes beyond basketball.”
Eighth grade point guard Amariana Cook led Holmes with 14 points in the loss at Tates Creek. Sophomore guard LaTia White finished the season scoring a team-high 181 points, averaging 7.9 in 23 games played.
Pope can look to his cousin Todd Humphrey for guidance rebuilding a once-proud program. Boone County finished 2-26 Humphrey’s first season last year. The Rebels enter the postseason with a five-win improvement at 7-21.
The forfeit puts Holy Cross (25-6) into the 35th District championship game on Thursday at 7 p.m., and automatically back into the Ninth Region Tournament extending their run of consecutive 9th Region appearances to 10 straight. Host Notre Dame (16-10) and Beechwood play in the district semifinals on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Holmes has not been to the 9th Region Tournament since 2018 when Greg Ash led the Bulldogs to a fourth straight 9th Region championship game appearance. Holmes won the region in 2016 and ’17 under current boys head coach Tony Perkins. The 2016 team lost in the state quarterfinals to Mercer County and the 2017 team lost to Franklin County in the state semifinals. Holmes also made it to the state semifinals in 2002 losing to Jackson County.
