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The Northern Kentucky University basketball careers of Rianna Gayheart and Mike Hester did not overlap. Gayheart played for the Norse from 2012-16. Hester’s NKU career was completed in 2011.
But their coaching careers have intersected at Walton-Verona High School, with success.
“We weren’t at NKU at the same time, but it was close. Now that we’re at Walton-Verona, we’re still trying to win,” said Gayheart, who began head-coaching the Bearcats in 2021 after being promoted from assistant.
Hester became the Bearcats’ boys head basketball coach in 2019 after several years as a Simon Kenton assistant.
Both Walton-Verona teams have been winning this season.
The Walton-Verona girls won 11 of their first 18 games and went 8-2 in their first 10 games against 8th Region opponents. They went 3-0 and won the 8th Region All “A” Classic Tournament and qualified for the All “A” state tournament.
Coach Gayheart knows the lay of the land. She was 8th Region player of the year in 2012 at Owen County and scored 1,902 points in her prep career.
“We started peaking at the right time. It was supposed to be somewhat of a rebuild,” Gayheart said. “What’s helping is having two 6-footers. Everybody else is a guard. With two bigs protecting the rim, that allows the guards to put on more pressure, and it makes us tougher to score on. Offensively, they give us more flexibility.”
The tall ones are 6-foot-2 junior Braylin Terrell and 6-foot freshman Ava Kendall. Terrell, a double-double waiting to happen, averages about 12 points and 10 rebounds per game. She’s a defensive force with nearly 100 blocked shots. Kendall averages about 6.5 points and 6.0 rebounds. They rank 1-2 on the team in field goal shooting, both converting around 57% and ranking among Kentucky leaders.
Campbell Christy and Elin Logue lead the Bearcats in scoring with averages around 13.5. The rest of the regular rotation includes senior captain Avery Geiman and backup point guard Nova Dryden.
“We’re all friends, so team chemistry is really good,” said Terrell. Her grandfather is former major league pitcher and one-time local baseball coach Walt Terrell. “I think we have good energy on this team. We talk to each other. We help each other.”
The Walton-Verona boys won 14 of their first 18 and went 9-3 over the first 12 games against regional foes. They won the 8th Region All “A” Classic and, like the girls, qualified for the state tournament.
“The boys and girls definitely root for each other,” said 6-foot-6 junior Aaron Gutman. He recently joined senior teammate Julian Dixon in the 1,000-point club. “Both teams didn’t make state together the last few years, so it’s special this year. We all have T-shirts saying ‘Double Day At State,’ because we both made it.”
Gutman averages about 21 points per game, ranking among state leaders. He’s followed by Dixon (15.5 ppg) and seniors Zach Smith (12.5 ppg), Max Montgomery (7.5 ppg), Landon Bach (6.5 ppg) and Sawyer Webster (3.5 ppg). Dixon and Gutman are 1-2 in rebounding.
“They’ve been our guys for so long,” Gutman said of the five seniors. “They’re all captains.”
Captainship is hard-earned at Walton-Verona. Likewise, not every player is in the Bearcats’ exclusive Blue Collar Boys Club. Players have three ways to get in.
“You have to have either 100 rebounds in a season, take five charges in a season, or you have 10 first-to-the-floor on loose balls,” Hester said. “I got it from watching the Brooklyn Nets one year. They were acting like they were putting on hard hats and work boots because of the blue-collar work ethic. I thought it’d be a fun idea for us.”
Smith, among state leaders with 85% free throw shooting, was one of many Bearcats suddenly doing more dirty work.
“Zach was way into it. He took about 20 charges last year,” Gutman said. “So yeah, I’d say the club thing works.”
Now that they have embraced their tougher identity, the Bearcats play more in their coach’s image.
“We like to get up and down and create as many possessions as possible, but I also like my teams to be tough,” Hester said.
The coach was as tough as they come while playing at Simon Kenton. He suffered a broken fifth metatarsal as a senior in 2007 and returned before the postseason. Hester was a scrappy undersized all-region guard. He scored over 1,000 points in high school and led the area in steals as a junior. He sees a lot of himself in the 5-foot-7 Montgomery, who returned from shoulder surgery in less than four months.
“He’s a lockdown defender because he’s so tough,” Hester said. “A lot of our guys are like that. If they want to be in the club, if they want to win, they have to learn it’s OK to be tough.”