A look at the rosters show two distinct trends in the boys 34th District: two coaches in different places and heavy graduation losses.
There are a pair of not-new Sullivans on the sidelines this season. Dan Sullivan returns to Ludlow, and Tim Sullivan (no relation) comes to St. Henry from Cooper, where he led the Jaguars to a pair of Ninth Region titles.
Defending district champion Lloyd Memorial lost eight seniors (including South Carolina freshman EJ Walker), three of Ludlow’s four top scorers graduated, and St. Henry lost six.
Intra-district games to watch include: Ludlow at Dixie Heights (7:30 p.m. Dec. 11); Ludlow at St. Henry (6 p.m. Dec. 23); and Lloyd at Dixie Heights (7:30 p.m. Jan. 26).
Lloyd Memorial (26-7 in 2024-25)
Juggernauts coach Michael Walker didn’t want to publicize the roster on Nov. 11, possibly because only four players are listed: seniors Anthony Blackaar, Isiah Golsby and Billy Lewis and junior Isaiah Coleman.
Most of the team is still playing football (the Juggernauts host Russell in next Friday’s Class 3A quarterfinals), which meant, junior varsity players practiced with the varsity.
“I pretty much know my roster; I just haven’t posted it yet,” Walker said.
The Cats’ Pause Basketball Yearbook considers Lloyd the Ninth Region’s third best team behind Covington Catholic and Highlands, and senior guard Anthony Blaackar the second best player behind CovCath’s Athens McGillis.
“I really don’t get caught up in … people’s rankings or whatever,” Walker said. “I let the games speak for themselves.”
Blaackar averaged 15.3 points and 3.5 rebounds last year and hit 46% of his 3-pointers; he’s received several college offers, including Eastern Kentucky and Murray State. Walker said Blaackar’s shooting has improved.
“He’s gained seven pounds of muscle,” Walker said. “The ball’s gonna be in his hands a lot more.”
Golsby averaged 3.5 points a game last year, Lewis averaged 2.3, and Coleman added another 1.2.
Look for what Walker calls a “free flow” offense with multiple sets and a lot of man-to-man defense. Defensively, the Juggernauts allowed 51.06 points a game was 22nd best in Kentucky.
Walker doesn’t expect to see his entire team until at least late November – or maybe Dec. 8, two days after the Class 3A football finals.
“So you kind of use that month of December as a practice time, and they get ready for January and so on,” Walker said. “None of the games matter outside of your district anyway.”
Dixie Heights (21-10 in 2024-25)
Colonels coach Scott Code said it’s unusual for an entire high school to have three state Governor’s Scholar Program participants, let alone three on one team, seniors Max Rubemeyer, Hudson Morris and Eli Givens. Code said the overall grade point average for the program’s 19 players was close to 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
“We don’t have to really worry about behavior with them because they’re going to do it really well in the classroom, outside the classroom, and they’re a joy to be around, coaching from 3-5 o’clock every single day,” Code said. “So it allows us to do certain things in practice over the course of the year in terms of installing things late, that we have the utmost confidence that they’re going to be able to handle.”
Code said the Colonels are selective shooters who make what they take most of the time. Last season’s 53.0% from the field was eighth-best in the state, and the 42.4% from 3-point range and 72.4% at the free throw line were seventh and 26th, respectively.
Dixie Heights hasn’t won the district since 2021, and the Colonels will need all the intelligence it can muster to replace the scoring 2025 alumni Griffen Derry and Owen Niehues provided – about 41% of the Colonels 60.8 points a game last season. Good thing Rubemeyer and junior Hunter Seng return; they averaged 9.5 and 11.1 points.
Dixie’s defense was stout, too – the 51.12 points the Colonels allowed was six-hundredths of a point behind Lloyd.
Ludlow (16-15 in 2024-25)
Dan Sullivan is grateful Ludlow allowed him to coach the game he loves.
This season is Dan Sullivan’s second stint guiding the Panthers. He has a 250-219 overall record at Walton-Verona (60-46 from 1990-94), Campbell County (126-118 from 1994-2003, with a 10th Region title in 2001) and Ludlow (64-55 from 2018-22).
Sullivan was on the Campbell County sidelines on March 14, 2001, when South Laurel’s Derek Coffey’s offensive rebound and put-back with a second to go gave the Cardinals a 64-63 overtime win in the Sweet 16.
“I still don’t know how that happened,” Sullivan said. “Yeah, that’s a tough one.”
After leaving Ludlow, Sullivan traveled a little more than 37 miles southwest to Gallatin County to assist his son Vance from 2022-25. (Vance will be assisting his dad this season.)
So why did Sullivan come back to 150 Adela Avenue?
“I thought, maybe (Vance) might be getting out,” Dan Sullivan said. “And I still have a passion for the game and for young people, and this opportunity presented itself. I thought it was a great opportunity.”
Ludlow might be the Ninth Region’s most youthful, size-challenged team – Travis Turner and Kimani Edwards are the only seniors, and 6-2 sophomore Andre Englemon Jr. (whose 3.8 rebounds tops the returnees) is the only Panther taller than six feet.
Sophomore Logan Day, who averaged 10.2 points a game, is the top returning scorer, and junior Gage Grider is next at 7.0 points.
To Sullivan, coaching at Ludlow is the completion of his career circle – he said he’ll stay as long as he feels he can positively affect his players’ lives.
“This is it for me,” he said. “Right now, I feel good.”
St. Henry (7-19 in 2024-25)
Tim Sullivan holds no animosity toward Cooper High School or the Boone County School District.
Wednesday was one of the first times Sullivan has spoken about the circumstances of his departure from Cooper – the program he built from scratch in 2008 and guided to Ninth Region championships in 2017 and 2025 before his coaching contract was not renewed.
“You know, it’s what it was,” Sullivan said. “I spent 17 great years of my life there. My children grew up in that school and grew up in that gym. I hold that program and the school in a high regard.”
Forgiveness wasn’t easy. Sullivan spent hours talking with Marcus Mecum, his pastor at 7 Hills Church in Florence.
“But you know, like my pastor at church says, big forgiveness takes big faith, and I’m working on that big faith right now,” Sullivan said.
St. Henry has won eight Ninth Region All “A” titles (1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2020 and 2021), state small-school championships in 2003, 2020 and 2021 and a postseason Ninth Region trophy in 2003, but the Crusaders have not won a postseason district title since 2021.
Senior Caden Kunstek is last season’s leading scorer and rebounder returning (8.5 points, 4.5 rebounds), but he’s recovering from a knee injury he suffered during football season; Sullivan hopes he’ll be cleared by Nov. 21 at the latest.
Sullivan said sophomore Tyler Detzel, senior Trey Fedders and junior Cooper McIntire are three players folks should watch.
“I think (Detzel) can really shoot it, really rebound the ball,” Sullivan said. “… (McIntire’s) really changed his body, gotten bigger and stronger. I think (Fedders) can really, really cause a lot of people problems just because he’s got really good hands, and, you know, he’s just a big body that can score.”
Sullivan said emotions will run high when Cooper visits St. Henry on Feb. 12.
“I think I’ll be able to mask those emotions a little bit, but it’ll be the biggest game just because it’ll be the next game,” Sullivan said.
Villa Madonna (5-25 in 2024-25)
A not-fun fact: The Vikings have advanced to the postseason regional tournament just once (2008) since 1999.
“We’re small school … we have 63 boys in high school,” second-year coach James Meyers said. “So this year I actually have seven seniors, four sophomores, and then 13 freshmen.”
Which means a lot of time teaching the basics of dribbling, passing, shooting and defense.
“Usually at Villa, they don’t have a non-parent coach until they get to high school,” Meyers said. “So yeah, we do a lot of fundamental team teaching … I mean, it’s literally the basics in the beginning, making sure their heads are up when they’re dribbling.”
The Vikings have some size – seniors Drew Thomas, Jay Meyers and Michael Popham are the only Vikings who stand taller than six feet at 6-5, 6-2 and 6-2, respectively. Popham averaged 10.1 points and 7.3 points a game.
Seniors Michael Callioni and Jay Meyers (James’s son) are strong defenders.
“Last year in 25 games, (Jay) had 63 blocks and a bunch of steals, a whole bunch of deflections,” James said. “He’s a great defensive disrupter, but he was also the only one on the team that dunks a basketball.”
Coach Meyers said a 10-win season is a reasonable objective.
“My lofty goal is to get 15 on the season, but I think, you know, when you have seven seniors, you can surprise some people because these guys have been playing together since, like, fourth grade,” he said. “So chemistry between them is pretty good.”