We’re close enough to get a broad overview of the prep football scene here at this time, even though we’re not close enough to fall and high school football starting the third week of August for team-by-team views.
And in December, at UK’s Kroger Field, it all comes down to a state championship game for everyone in this area. And it worked for three teams here: Cooper in 5A, Ryle in Class 6A, and Beechwood in 2A, the state champions.
For 2025, all three must have the same idea. With Highlands moving down to 4A to join Covington Catholic in a division where the best two teams in the state can be in the same district, Cooper’s path may be a little easier now that he has a ton of offensive talent back.
It should come as no surprise that Ryle, Cooper, CovCath, and Highlands—four of the schools mentioned—all return excellent, skilled quarterbacks. Highlands, Cooper, Nathan Verax, and RyleThe core of Northern Kentucky’s greatest quarterback corps in history may consist of Rio Litmer and CovCath Cash Harney.
After another state championship season, Beechwood bids farewell to veteran quarterback Clay Hayden and has a difficult decision, despite the Tigers being able to line up quick Tyler Fryman in the Wildcat spot to run the ball.
A tough Cincinnati Elder is on the schedules of both CovCath and Highlands, and the Bluebirds are adding perennial power Boyle County, which could be a preview of the Class 4A playoffs. However, we can’t do the scheduling in detail here because the KHSAA’s official website for football isn’t yet up.
With five games versus CovCath, Conner, Cooper, Christian Academy of Louisville, and Highlands, Ryle is undoubtedly not hiding from anyone.
Speaking of Conner, the Cougars will start on the road at Madison Central before traveling to Northern Kentucky to play cross-county rival Ryle in Union. Noel Rash, the Beechwood state title winner, is returning to replace his friend David Trosper, who passed away tragically ten days ago from a heart attack.
CovCath’s schedule seems intriguing. The Colonels also play a home game versus Indianapolis Cathedral in addition to Louisville Central. They might use that Park Hills game given their road matchups against Simon Kenton, Beechwood, and Highlands.
As mentioned, the Tigers will host CovCath at Beechwood. They will also host St. Henry in the young Crusaders’ first-ever district game.
In relation to difficult openings, Cooper begins at Cincinnati Anderson, returns to host Highlands, and then travels to Ryle.
Is this the biggest high school basketball story?
As significant as the move of Mason County’s 6-foot-4 junior-to-be guard, Braeden Myrick, who averages 19.1 points per game, to a CovCath team that brings back its three top scorers, or the fact that former Cooper Ninth Region coach Tim Sullivan ended up taking over for Ninth Region’s all-time winning coach Dave Faustat St. Henry after he retired, or that regional champion Cooper moved girls coach Justin Holthausover to take Sullivan’s place, we believe the most exciting story may be elsewhere.
That’s because, despite the fact that almost three dozen of the best college basketball programs in the country are recruiting five-star former Newport guard Taylor Kinney, who is now signed with Adidas and plays for Atlanta’s Overtime Elite program, scoring more than 20 points per game and ranking as high as No. 12 in his class nationally, you have to assume that, after all the visits and offer-making, Kinney’s final college choice will be a Louisville program that has been recruiting him more aggressively and perhaps more personally than anyone since Day 1.
Alternatively, Kinney received one of 12 UK offers for the Class of 2026 in August 2024 from a Kentucky program that is well-known for being Kentucky. Additionally, he claims that since John Calipari was the coach, the Kinney family has been recruiting him and has been supporters of a UK program.
Consider Kinney to be inconsequential? His initial placement on Google these days is as an Internet Personality, which makes sense given his stats: he has over 320,000 Instagram followers and over 850,000 Tik Tok followers.
Kinney recently concluded two consecutive trips to Louisville during the first week of June and the UK during Week 3. In an interview with Kentucky Sports Radio, he shared his thoughts on the matter.
Before his trip to the UK, Kinney informed the KSR interviewer about his connection to the University of Louisville, which offers Louisville supporters optimism. “We got a great relationship, a great relationship.” I don’t know about Kentucky fans, but Kinney claimed that Louisville folks are undoubtedly rooting for me. They made a few outrageous statements. However, some of them are clearly pushing for me; they merely make remarks about other players.
Regarding the UK, Kinney stated: I get along well with the employees. I occasionally speak with Mark Pope and Cody Fueger, my assistant. I like how Coach Pope took over, developed the team as a whole, and turned them into a successful one.
Dan Weber can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him at @dweber3440 on X (previously Twitter).