When Scott Code resigned as the Bishop Brossart boys basketball coach in 2022 to take care of an ill family member, he didn’t have much interest getting back into the game at the time.
But after teaching at Dixie Heights and being asked by Chad Fields to join his staff, that thought started to change. First Code was going to come out to a couple of practices and help out, a couple practices turned into more and the passion was back again, an assistant under Fields the past two seasons.
So when Fields resigned from the position recently, Code felt it was time to get back in the head coaches seat. He was named the next Colonels head coach on Monday.
“It’s exciting. Love the fact that here at Dixie, there’s really good kids, really high character kids in our program,” Code said. “The admin has been fantastic and it made me want to get back into becoming a head coach again. You don’t always find those scenarios.”
Code brings a plethora of experience with him, over 20 years in fact as both an assistant and head coach. He led Campbell County from 2007-10, Bishop Brossart from 2020-22 and has stops as an assistant at Lloyd Memorial, Highlands, Brossart, Thomas More and was an assistant twice at Dixie, once under Scott Draud and recently under Fields.
“Coach Scott Code has a proven track record of success both on and off the court as a coach and educator,” Dixie Heights High School stated in a press release. “He is a well-respected teacher who embodies everything that is great about Dixie Heights. We are confident that he will continue to make a positive impact on the lives of our student-athletes based on his ability to build relationships with his current players and students.”
Code is a Lloyd Memorial grad, playing under his father Bill and attended Northern Kentucky University and the University of Cincinnati.
He’s coached at big schools, small schools and in-between.
“Obviously you take bits and pieces from not only every coach, but every situation is different,” Code said. “You learn from kids a lot. You can push some certain ways, others you constantly try to build up. I didn’t know those tricks early in the career, after 30-plus years in this you start to figure it out. I’ve become a lot more patient than 25 years ago.”
Now for the task at hand, Code inherits a team that is expected to return three of its top six rotational players in Griffin Derry, Owen Niehues and Max Rubemeyer, but lose Hudson Blank, Jaxson Gray and Lavonte Parker to graduation. Blank is a 1,000 point scorer and led the team in scoring, but Derry wasn’t too far behind with 15.1 points per game. Derry also presents a long distance threat, hitting 50% of his 3-point attempts on 180 three-point tries last season. Rubemeyer and Niehues were among three of five players to score at least seven points per game.
From there is a bit of unknown, the Colonels not going too deep on the bench last season.
“This is not a rebuild, we do have three guys with a lot of experience we’ll lean heavily on,” Code said. “We have some younger guys to cut their teeth and develop. Just not a lot of guys with experience.”
Code stressed summer will be important to see who can separate themselves and start to earn playing time heading into next season. The Colonels finished 18-14 in 2023-24 and their final two games were separated by a total of four points in a two-point overtime loss to Lloyd Memorial in the 34th District championship and a two-point loss to Covington Catholic in the 9th Region tournament quarterfinals. The Juggernauts will still be the team to beat in the district and the usual suspects Newport, Cooper and Covington Catholic are expected again to be the top teams in the region.
Much like he helped his brother Mike at Bishop Brossart on staff for years in two separate stints when Mike was the head coach of the Mustangs, Mike will join Scott’s staff.
“Mike just has an amazing way to communicate and deliver a message to kids,” Code said. “It’s also one of those situations where we don’t have to teach a system to a coach. Mike developed a lot of what we do initially. It’s not just Mike, Chase Holthaus and Jordan Catchen are phenomenal young coaches who have a bright future in this business.”
Code stated the style of play will be similar to what has been seen on the floor the last two years under Fields, but can always change based off personnel. The Colonels will look for their first district title since 2022 and first region tournament victory since that 2021-22 season in which they made it all the way to the 9th Region championship game before losing to Covington Catholic.
