It’s dusk in Fort Thomas and sunshine is disappearing at Monday’s softball practice at Highlands High School. But the sun is not setting on the Bluebirds’ season, especially after winning yet another 9th Region championship.
“We’re all really excited for the state tournament,” said .352-hitting second baseman Morgan Pompilio, one of four talented seniors for coach Milt Horner and a Central Florida commit. “We’re happy we get to keep playing softball with each other.”
The coach said they can play all they want so long as they keep winning. The state championship game is June 13.
“That’s the goal, win state,” Horner said. “It’s why we play.”
Highlands has never won a state softball championship. There’s been just one team in northern Kentucky history to win a fast-pitch crown, and it took a once-in-a-lifetime talent to pull it off. That was Ryle in 2006 with the incomparable Kirsten Allen.
“It’s been 20 years,” said Horner. “I’d love that for these girls.”
The players would love it for their coach. They see the wheels turning in his head as he ramps them up to yet another attempt to reach the pinnacle. The red-hot Bluebirds have won 17 games in a row and 26 of the last 27.
“We’ve been blessed with this group of girls,” said senior catcher Payton Brown, who’s made a commitment to Northern Kentucky University. “And you know what, it’s great to have a coach who looks at everything and nitpicks. Our coach does a great job with a plan.”
The plan now is making a little history.
Highlands is heading back to the KHSAA Softball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare after a year absence. The 33-6 Bluebirds open play at 10 a.m. Thursday against 36-5 South Laurel, champion of the 13th Region at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington.
The winner plays the North Hardin-Apollo winner in a Saturday quarterfinal at 10 a.m. The semifinals are Friday June 12. The state championship game is 7 p.m. the next day on what the Bluebirds are hoping is their lucky June 13th.
With top-flight pitchers potentially awaiting at every turn, coach Horner knows his supremely skilled and highly successful team needs all the luck it can get to win a state title. He pumps up the players incessantly in his own unique way. Behind the scenes, the crafty coach has been fully aware of the idea that sometimes luck is the residue of design. It’s a timeless perspective attributed to legendary Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey.
The idea is simple: what people call “luck” is usually just the natural result of preparation, hard work, and intentional planning. Horner has coached softball long enough to know that when you set goals, show up consistently, and put yourself in the right positions — you vastly increase your surface area for opportunity and improvement.
That’s what the Bluebirds have been all about this season in their quest to reach state for the fourth time in five years. The one year they missed, last season, probably taught them as much as any year they made it. The Bluebirds were wiped out by a Holy Cross seventh-inning grand slam in last year’s 9th Region final, interrupting what had become their annual sojourn to the state tournament.
Nobody was more devastated than coach Horner, a methodical thinker who can override emotion with a sense of clarity. He approaches problems logically and sequentially, breaking challenges into steps and relying on factual data to reach predictable results. He doesn’t guess and he doesn’t wing it. Horner follows processes that make sense.
“Whatever I can do to help the team,” the coach said. “There’s a lot involved.”
Horner and his six assistant coaches track players, player data, player video, player input and each other’s input.
“It’s a shared responsibility among all the coaches,” Horner said. “I’ve got great assistants.”
They study patterns and they watch, learn, evaluate, adjust. They will pause a drill to explain the reasoning behind a tweak, walking players through the cause‑and‑effect instead of just issuing commands. Their attention to detail and fact‑based decision‑making all run through a clear, deliberate framework rather than impulse or intuition. Horner is at the center of it.
“I like the way he coaches,” Brown said. “I like the results.”
The results this season are resoundingly sound, and they came from the depths of despair. When Highlands lost 5–3 to Holy Cross in last year’s 9th Region final, Horner went straight into analysis mode. The Bluebirds couldn’t recover that day in the bottom of the seventh, but the coach wasn’t interested in dwelling on the moment. He wanted to understand it.
“We sat down with the coaching staff and then the team and asked them what we had to do to elevate the margin enough where the other team can’t come back,” Horner said. “We took a look at all of that and decided to change some things.”
Among the changes were three that directly reflected what he was hearing. The Bluebirds started a three‑day weekly weight program. They added slightly different training techniques. And they significantly upgraded the schedule.
“We’re stronger,” Horner said. “The girls adapted to the training. According to RPI, we played the seventh‑toughest schedule in the state, and we did very well with it.”
Senior Cam Markus, a .482 hitter heading to Kentucky Wesleyan, credits coaching for added strength. “I’m not the biggest upper body girl but I feel 10 times stronger this year like all the girls. We’re throwing harder, hitting the ball harder, we have better stamina and we’re a little faster.”
The added strength and upgraded schedule have provided the ultimate redemption arc. Armed with a design for success, a methodical coach, and a battle-tested roster, the Bluebirds head to Lexington no longer chasing ghosts of the past — but ready to write their own history.
After going winless at the state tournament during their three previous appearances, they are eager to advance. They have the pitcher and the hitting lineup to win a championship. Kaitlyn Dixon, a Thomas More signee, is 28-3 with 325 strikeouts and a 0.71 ERA. She’s also batting .372. To the star right-hander, seeing things through this season comes down to the simple ABCs: ace, bats, championships.
“The schedule did toughen us up,” said Dixon, who credits her coach and assistant Teri Cain for helping her navigate it. “I think for me too was all the work I put in during the offseason. And I’m more relaxed this year.”
Brown, the resident philosopher, echoed the sentiments.
“I was in a bit of a slump at the beginning of the year and focused too much on that,” Brown said. “It was kind of selfish if you think about it. I was like, come on, just hit the ball. Have fun. It’s softball.”
She hit alright, smacking a team-high nine home runs and 15 doubles while batting .414. She is arguably the greatest hitter in Highlands softball history, currently the all-time leader in more than a dozen categories including doubles (67), triples (26), home runs (35) and RBI (241). Brown, a career .424 hitter, set the all-time doubles mark in the 9th Region final.
Likewise, Dixon is queen of the circle at Highlands. She holds school records in virtually all of the quantitative and qualitative marks including wins (94), strikeouts (1,114), ERA (1.41) and WHIP (0.961).
Behind the seniors are talented players such as junior Allison Meyers (.297) and sophomores Layla Zepf (.472), Kate Class (.424), Bailee Class (.360) and Katherine Heilman (.359).
Is it enough to win a state championship? The Bluebirds think they have a shot. They not only have the talent, but they also have Horner. They realize his methods are actually acts of care.
“I think we’re as well positioned as we can be,” Horner said. “The girls are not going to be intimidated, not after the schedule we played. They are prepared.”
The Bluebirds didn’t stumble back into the state tournament through good fortune; they literally willed it into existence.
And that was by design.
