Colonels' athletic program has success across the board

By Mike Fields

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER


How do I know it's time to close up the notebook for summer vacation?

Surf's up!

While Kentucky was wrapping up its high school sports year with the state baseball tournament last week, California was finishing up with the national high school surfing championships.

High school surfing?

"Some of my friends from other places are like, 'You're on the what?' " a San Clemente High surfer told the The Los Angeles Times "They're like, 'Dude, during our P.E. classes we have to run around the track.' "

n There is no fool-proof way to gauge which Kentucky high schools had the best athletic programs this year. One old-fashioned way is to measure success in the major team sports -- baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, fast-pitch softball and football. (Soccer and volleyball aren't played in some parts of the state, and/or the number of games they play in those sports vary widely.)

Using 20 wins as the standard of success in baseball, basketball and softball, and 10 wins in football, Dixie Heights was the only program to hit the mark in each of those sports this school year The Colonels won 10 games in football, 25 in boys' hoops, 20 in girls' hoops, 20 in baseball and 23 in softball.

Scott County just missed scoring across the board, coming up one win shy in softball. Corbin, Henderson County, Lexington Catholic and Owensboro Catholic also qualified in four out of five sports. Trinity, an all-boys' school, was 3-for-3 in baseball, basketball and football.

• Corbin was the only school to win region titles in football, boys' basketball and baseball this school year. "Our senior class was amazing in all those sports, and we won the region in tennis, too," football Coach Steve Jewell said. "Even the seniors who didn't play anything really supported all the teams."

• Kentucky's football all-stars beat Tennessee for the fourth time in a row, and fifth time in six years, last week. Tennessee, which once owned this rivalry, is now being dominated by the Bluegrass State. It's another indication that Kentucky is producing better high school football players than basketball players these days.

• The basketball All-Stars tangle with Indiana in Indianapolis Saturday, hoping for a rare win in Hoosierland. Kentucky's girls, who surprised Indiana in Bowling Green last week, haven't won in Indianapolis since 1992. Kentucky's boys, who lost to the Hoosiers last week, haven't beaten the Indiana All-Stars on their home court since 1996.

• agreed that remodeled Diddle Arena on the Western Kentucky University campus was a first-class facility for the Kentucky-Indiana all-star basketball games last week. It was a big step up from the old Owensboro Sportscenter, where the games had been played the previous four years. Still, barely 3,000 fans showed up at Diddle, 1,000 fewer than the event drew at Owensboro last year. The sponsoring Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation has to decide what's more important -- a nicer facility or bigger crowds.

• Thirty years ago this week, Dwane Casey was playing for the Kentucky All-Stars in their summer hoops series against Indiana. Today, Casey is the new head coach of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. Casey starred at Union County before playing at Kentucky. Coincidentally, Jerry Sichting, a member of the Indiana All-Stars in 1975, has been an assistant coach with the Timberwolves for the last 10 years.

• The 2005 high school football season kicks off in eight weeks. The opening games for Lexington's teams: Aug. 19 -- Bryan Station at Madison Southern; Tates Creek at Clark County. Aug. 20 -- Lone Oak at Dunbar; Henry Clay vs. Belfry in the Pike County Bowl; Lafayette vs. Madison Central in the Recreation Bowl; Lexington Christian Academy vs. Lexington Catholic in the Bluegrass Bowl.

• LCA's state baseball title means Lexington teams are hitting a robust .303 in the state championships since 1973. Dunbar, Henry Clay, Lafayette, Lexington Catholic, LCA and Tates Creek have combined to win 10 of the last 33 titles. Realignment next season will lump Dunbar, Lafayette, LCA, Lexington Catholic and Tates Creek in the same district. "That's a big crew in one district," LCA Coach Keith Galloway said.

• LCA's Garrie Krueger was an obvious choice for tournament MVP. A center fielder and pitcher, Krueger had a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the seventh in the Eagles' 4-3 escape of Owensboro Catholic in the opener. The junior left-hander then pitched a complete-game five-hitter as LCA beat Trinity 5-2 in the semifinals. Krueger struggled at the plate and on the mound earlier in the playoffs, but Galloway figured he would bounce back. "Garrie is the quarterback on our football team, so he's been knocked down before, and he always gets up," he said.

• If you remember, LCA's post-season almost ended in its first playoff game. The Eagles trailed host East Jessamine 1-0 in the seventh inning of the district semifinals, but Seth Hargrove's solo homer tied it, and they won in eight innings. Before the state final at Applebee's Park, LCA senior Jeff Owen remarked to Hargrove, "This is a great place to finish our career." To which Hargrove replied, "It's a lot better than East Jessamine."

• Galloway made a nice gesture in the last inning of the Eagles' 7-0 win over Christian County by sending Nate Hargis and Jackson Silvanik to the plate as pinch-hitters. They were the only non-starting seniors on the team.

• Christian County pitcher/outfielder Anthony Stacy put up phenomenal numbers over the last two years. The Murray State signee had a 27-6 pitching record, with a 1.01 earned run average and 247 strikeouts in 193 innings. At the plate, he had 100 hits, a .446 batting average, 93 runs and 60 RBI.

• Louisville Eastern junior Jason Chowning has committed to UK. The 6-foot-4 right-hander was 12-3 this season, including two no-hitters, and had 133 strikeouts in 93 innings.

• Madison Central senior center fielder and pitcher Keenan Wiley has signed with UK.

• The Cowgill brothers, who played baseball together at Henry Clay a few years ago, are teammates again. Michael, an infielder who'll be a junior at James Madison University next season, and Collin, who'll be a sophomore at UK, are playing for the Covington (Va.) Lumberjacks summer team. Adam Revelette, a Lexington Catholic grad and UK pitcher, also is on the team.

• , a Morehead State product and a former major-league pitcher who had more than 100 wins in a 10-year career, is St. Henry's new baseball coach. Terrell had two sons go through the Crusaders' program.

• Lexington Catholic pitcher David Vicini signed with Austin Peay, and infielder Joe Boneau with Dayton University. Boneau, who also plays basketball, and hoops star Shannon Novosel were Lexington Catholic's scholar/athletes of the year.

• , who earned all-state basketball honors as an eighth-grader at Rose Hill and will be a high school junior in Cincinnati, got a big splash in Sports Illustrated last week. The article said Mayo is "widely considered to be one of the top five high school players in the country, regardless of class."

• of Lafayette, David Templeton of Tates Creek and Matthew Vetter of Dunbar will swim for Transylvania.

• is the new girls' basketball coach at Madison Central after serving as an assistant for more than 20 years.

• , who resigned as North Hardin's girls' basketball coach a couple of months ago, has reconsidered and will return to the sidelines next season.

• of St. Xavier, who won the state shot-put title for the third year in a row, is Gatorade's male track & field athlete of the year in Kentucky. Pam Bell of Paducah Tilgham, who won the state shot put and set a record in the discus, is the top female.

• Lexington lost one of its baseball jewels when Myer Godhelff died a few weeks ago at age 86. Godhelff lived a full life. A graduate of Henry Clay (1936) and UK (1941), he fought in World War II and was a D-Day survivor at Omaha Beach. He came home to work for the U.S. Postal Service, coach youth baseball for more than 50 years, and serve as a longtime scout for the Cincinnati Reds. Godhelff loved baseball, and for the kids whose lives he touched, the feeling was mutual.

• More than 20 years ago, my oldest daughter, Sarah, then a toddler, would get a giggle out of seeing her dad's mug shot accompanying this weekly column. A dozen years ago, I helped her earn extra credit in a middle-school language arts class by slipping some of her vocabulary words into this space. A month from now, I'll be the Father of the Bride, walking her down the aisle, and wondering where all the years have gone.

Quote:• agreed that remodeled Diddle Arena on the Western Kentucky University campus was a first-class facility for the Kentucky-Indiana all-star basketball games last week. It was a big step up from the old Owensboro Sportscenter, where the games had been played the previous four years. Still, barely 3,000 fans showed up at Diddle, 1,000 fewer than the event drew at Owensboro last year. The sponsoring Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation has to decide what's more important -- a nicer facility or bigger crowds.

Shows how little research he did. Yes, their were 1000 more fans, but their is a reason. For the Men's game, their was not a single in-state recruit on either team. Meaning no one on the IN or KY team was going to WKU, EKU, Morehead, Murray, UofL, uk, etc etc. The top two KY players did not even play. THAT is why it was down. Last year their were three WKU recruits on the Men's team and and KY Miss Basketball was coming to WKU also.

This was a bad year for the all-star game. To have 3K fans considering the talent on the floor, I thought was pretty good.

galojay Wrote:

Quote:• agreed that remodeled Diddle Arena on the Western Kentucky University campus was a first-class facility for the Kentucky-Indiana all-star basketball games last week. It was a big step up from the old Owensboro Sportscenter, where the games had been played the previous four years. Still, barely 3,000 fans showed up at Diddle, 1,000 fewer than the event drew at Owensboro last year. The sponsoring Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation has to decide what's more important -- a nicer facility or bigger crowds.

Shows how little research he did. Yes, their were 1000 more fans, but their is a reason. For the Men's game, their was not a single in-state recruit on either team. Meaning no one on the IN or KY team was going to WKU, EKU, Morehead, Murray, UofL, uk, etc etc. The top two KY players did not even play. THAT is why it was down. Last year their were three WKU recruits on the Men's team and and KY Miss Basketball was coming to WKU also.

This was a bad year for the all-star game. To have 3K fans considering the talent on the floor, I thought was pretty good.

That is my thoughts exactly. I think that everything turned out very well considering how this year's KY senior classes turned out.

I guess we will see next year. From the press coverage I have seen everyone was pleased with bg and Diddle -- the only negative was the attendance which was largely out of anyones control. The Legends dinner, the facilities, all got high marks. The article in the CJ talked about how BG gave the game a "big game" feel.

Here is a change of direction, how much is bball changed in KY that none of the major programs have any all stars this year? (I know low ebb of talent nothing to do with the school)

Well keep in mind Kentucky did sign the big kid from Scott Co., Jarrod Carter. He just chose not to play in the game.

Every state has a down year. Last year was a great year for KY.

Thats true, do you think this one will stay in Lexington longer than last years big man or is this guy just there for a cup of coffee?

If I'm not mistaken, none of the KY kids on the team are going to a KY team. If there were players going to WKU (like a ton of them last year, plus one on IN's team) or any other KY school, I bet Diddle would be packed. I would definitely make the drive from Louisville to catch a future Hilltopper playing.

TrumanWKU Wrote:Thats true, do you think this one will stay in Lexington longer than last years big man or is this guy just there for a cup of coffee?

Who cares what goes on with University of Central Kentucky - Lexington's players.

Yeah, I wouldn't make the trip down to BG to watch some kid going to that central KY school.