The biggest summer boys basketball showcase in Kentucky took place over the weekend as 144 teams came to the Lexington area to close out their summer schedules.
Eight Northern Kentucky teams participated in the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches (KABC) Bluegrass Summer Shootout that spanned June 20-22 in and around Lexington.
Campbell County, Conner, Covington Catholic, Highlands, Lloyd Memorial, Newport, Ryle and Simon Kenton all competed, playing a couple of games against competition in and out of the state.
Covington Catholic went 3-0 with wins over Pickerington Central (OH) 74-50, Oletangy Orange (OH) 60-44, and Centerville (OH) 65-63. The Colonels have the dangerous trio of Athens McGillis, Cash Harney and Donovan Bradshaw with incoming transfer Braeden Myrick from Mason County added to the mix.
McGillis’ summer recruitment was met with offers from Stetson and Loyola (MD) on the Division I level and Thomas More in Division II.
“It’s a testament to his hard work,” Colonels coach Jake Thelen said. “He’s been in the gym non-stop since the season ended.”
Those four make the Colonels the most likely team to beat in the Ninth Region entering the 2025-26 season and their summer results have shown no reason to think otherwise.
CovCath played 30 games in June consisting of their summer league with teams like Cincinnati St. Xavier, LaSalle, Elder, Dixie Heights, St. Henry and Simon Kenton included. They also played in a team camp at Indiana, Dayton, Oak Hills and Bellarmine.
“The goal was to develop depth and get guys familiar with high-level competition,” Thelen said. “We wanted them to see the speed, physicality and how strong varsity players are. We were in the weight room three days a week and games five to six nights a week. We feel like they did a good job of understanding each other and gelling on and off the court.”
On top of the four mentioned, Thelen said Dylan Courtney, Cash Myers and Teegan Staava had solid summers as well.
Ryle went 4-0 with wins over West Jessamine, McCreary Central, South Laurel and Central Hardin. The Raiders closed out a successful summer with a 17-3 record as they participated in Transylvania University’s team camp, going 9-1 and defeating Elder in the championship, went 4-2 at Mt. St. Joe and then 4-0 this past weekend.
Raiders coach Nick Dorning was impressed from the play of returnees Holden Smith, AJ Davis and Anthony Coppola while Nate Colmire and Blake Broz also had solid summers.
Ryle is most likely the 33rd District favorite entering the 2025-26 season.
Lloyd also went 4-0 with wins over Ashland Blazer, North Hardin, Shelby County and Paris. The Juggernauts transition from the EJ Walker era and seven other seniors departing was seen as a success for Lloyd coach Mike Walker.
“We really wanted these guys to see the speed of the varsity level,” Walker said. “We have three seniors, a junior and a slew of sophomores. This sophomore class can be really special.”
On top of the 4-0 performance over the weekend, Walker said they went 2-1 at Wright State’s team camp, 2-1 at Miami (Ohio) and 1-1 at Morehead State.
The one to keep an eye on will be Anthony Blaackar, the rising senior who is drawing Division I interest from a handful of schools. Blaackar scored 50 in a summer contest against Newport Central Catholic earlier this month.
“He is taking on more of a leadership role and you’re seeing more growth and maturity,” Walker said. “He’s gotten a lot better and is shooting it better from the perimeter.”
Walker is expecting Isiah Golsby and Billy Lewis to make big jumps next season as well.
Highlands finished 2-1 as they defeated Corbin and Dayton Dunbar (OH) with a tight loss to Butler out of Louisville.
The loss to Butler was just one of two this summer for the Bluebirds as they played in several team camps at Mt. St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Hanover and Thomas More, finishing 19-2.
“Very pleased,” Bluebirds coach Kevin Listerman said. “We played just one game with all of our guys due to the baseball team’s run to the state tournament and then some injuries and illness on the back end.”
On top of the win-loss record, Listerman really wanted to hone in on the team’s defensive shift as they’ve changed some things and their competitiveness.
“We challenged guys to guard more and changed some of the ways rotating defensively,” Listerman said. “We rallied down from double-digits and found ways to win those games. We had some sophomores really grow up and could provide us more depth than anticipated.”
Highlands will have the advantage over the rest of the Ninth Region when they 2025-26 season begins as they are expected to return everyone from last year’s roster. The only one who may not be back is Tayden Lorenzen as he puts more of a focus into football and his recruitment on the gridiron heating up.
“Everyone took a step forward,” Listerman said.
On top of the returnees like Nathan Rickard, Vinny Listerman, and Owen Ebert who stood out this summer, Listerman liked what he saw out of Noah Wells and Bo Schlarman as they look to add the depth to the rotation.
Newport finished 2-2 with wins over Bethlehem and Butler County and losses to Butler and Lincoln County.
The Wildcats had a successful summer winning the Walton-Verona All “A” tournament and the Mt. St. Joe team camp.
“Decent June, but definitely don’t gauge too much in June,” Wildcats coach Rod Snapp said.
Newport will tout a talented duo in Amontae Lowe and Griffin Starks for the 2025-26 season, the two rising juniors holding Division I offers and expected to take a big leap this season. Starks has added four offers over the past four months which include Ohio State, Florida State, West Virginia and most recently Cincinnati.
They’re not expecting to have rising senior James Turner back. Turner is exploring prep school options and hasn’t been with the team over the summer.
Conner went 2-2 with wins over Shelby Valley and Seneca and losses to Marysville (OH) and Pleasure Ridge Park.
For the Cougars this summer it was a matter of getting their last season JV guys up to speed at the varsity level. They graduated five seniors that played significant minutes.
“The JV guys impressed me, we were worried about them defensively, but this summer it’s been really good,” Cougars coach Nathan Browning said. “When the season ended, we weren’t sure what we’d get out of them but we’re encouraged with the way they played this summer.”
Browning estimated they went 12-4 at the varsity level over the summer. They played against Campbell County, Holy Cross and at Simon Kenton’s team camp and also went to Lawrenceburg (IN) for their team camp.
On top of trying to develop depth, they know they have an All-Region player in Finn Louden returning, who will look to improve on a standout junior season.
“Finn does some stuff at times that even makes us wonder how he does it,” Browning said. “He scored at least 30 against the champions in the Lawrenceburg team camp, the team from Terre Haute (IN).”
Browning said he was impressed with rising junior Tyler Warner and his ability to step up into a bigger role with the departing senior class. They didn’t have Brady Bushman all summer as he focused on baseball and will be counted on more offensively when the 2025-26 season comes.
Campbell County entered the weekend short-handed and finished 1-3 as they defeated Hughes (OH) and lost to Milford (OH), Bardstown and Marshall County. The Camels are a fixture as a 10th Region title contender and this upcoming season will be no different with rising sophomore Austin Davie set to take the reigns from a big departing senior class that included 10th Region Player of the Year Garyn Jackson.
“We fought a lot of injuries, but saw what we needed to see,” Camels coach Brent Sowder said. “We developed some depth and threw people in situations they may not be familiar with.”
On top of the weekend in Lexington, the Camels challenged themselves against the likes of Simon Kenton, Marshall County and Great Crossing.
Sowder was excited about the future that Davie has along with a senior leader that stood out in Lucas Anthrop.
“Austin has yet to get near his ceiling,” Sowder said. “He leads a young and fun exciting group of young kids in our program. Lucas will play a big part in what we do next year and lead that senior core.”
Simon Kenton was limited to just one game as they lost to Spencer County in sudden death overtime on Friday night and their second game against Owensboro was canceled. Kenton County School District started their dead period early on June 21 to run through July 9, so the Pioneers couldn’t play the rest of the weekend.
All in all, Pioneers coach Trent Steiner said it was a good summer for the team. They went 5-1 in their own team camp, 3-2 at Lawrenceburg (IN) team camp, played Covington Catholic, Dixie Heights, Campbell County and Great Crossing as well.
“Losing five seniors from last season, it’s good to get some of these kids rep and they need it,” Steiner said.
They’ll be headlined by rising junior Bray Bilton in 2025-26, who Steiner said had a “great summer.”
“His work ethic has always been great, he handled physicality well and we really saw him mature,” Steiner said. “He’s really growing with his personality.”
