By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
CovCath junior quarterback A.J. Mayer has passed for 4,454 yards and 37 touchdowns in two varsity seasons.
Several college football teams were recruiting Covington Catholic junior quarterback A.J. Mayer, but the coaches at Miami University of Ohio impressed him the most.
“I visited there three times so I kind of grew into a good relationship with all the coaches there,” said Mayer, who accepted a scholarship offer from Miami of Ohio earlier this week.
“The other thing was, compared to some of the other places I visited, their practices are so up-beat. You can tell that their coaches have a lot of passion for the game. It just stuck in my mind that these guys really care about the team and want to keep getting better and they have great character.
Last season, Mayer provided nearly 3,000 yards in total offense for the CovCath team that posted a 9-4 record and made it to the regional finals in the Class 5A state playoffs. In addition to passing for 2,480 yards and 20 touchdowns, he rushed for 513 yards and 11 TDs. He ended up completing 163 of 296 passes for 55.1 percent with only seven interceptions.
That’s why the 6-foot-3, 190-pound quarterback received scholarship offers from several NCAA Division I college teams, including Akron, Ball State, Murray State, Eastern Kentucky and Ohio University, before he made his commitment with Miami of Ohio.
The Redhawks made history last season when they became the first NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team to get off to an 0-6 start and then win six games to become bowl eligible. Miami lost to Mississippi State, 17-16, in the St. Petersburg Bowl to finish with a 6-7 record.
Mayer said he wanted to make his college decision now so he could concentrate on his senior season at CovCath.
“I wanted to go into the summer focused on my team mainly because I really want to win a state championship,” he said. “We’ve got to get the team chemistry down and go into the season with a lot of confidence and momentum.”
Mayer became CovCath’s starting quarterback when he was a sophomore. He passed for 1,974 yards and rushed for 631 yards that year. He was able to pass more and run less last season because the Colonels had more experience on the offensive line and he made better decisions running the team’s intricate offense.
He expects to spend his freshman year at Miami of Ohio as a red-shirt reserve and compete for the starting quarterback job in the 2019 season.
“I’m not going to go in there saying, ‘Yeah, I’m going to start right away,’ but I can tell you I’m definitely going in trying to get as much playing time as I can,” he said.
Mayer was also a starting forward on the CovCath basketball team the last two years. He said Miami of Ohio head football coach Chuck Martin has no objections to him finishing out his basketball career with the Colonels.
“He really liked that I play multiple sports,” Mayer said. “The first couple times I talked to him he loved watching me play basketball. So I don’t thing it’s going to be a problem (for him) and I definitely plan on playing basketball again.”
High schools sending 53 qualifiers to state archery tournament
The list of qualifiers for the state high school archery championships includes 53 students from six Northern Kentucky high school teams who will be part of the competition on Thursday at the Kentucky Basketball Academy in Lexington.
The top local qualifier in the girls’ division is Simon Kenton freshman Holly Snow, who won the local Region 6 state qualifier with a 296 score that included 27 10-point shots. Last year, Snow placed 27th out of 222 participants in the girls’ state tournament.
Beechwood senior Matt Morehead won the Region 6 boys’ title with a 288 score that included 20 10-point shots to earn a berth in the state tournament for the second time in three years. He placed 70th in the 2015 season finale.
Simon Kenton and Ryle are both sending 24 archers to Thursday’s state tournament. Beechwood has two state qualifiers, followed by Cooper, Covington Catholic and Notre Dame with one each.
Any school with a minimum of 12 shooters can compete for the team title. After the first flight is completed, individual scores will be added up to determine the final four teams that advance to the championship round. Individual medals are also given to the top eight scorers in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions.
Invitations in the mail for Kentucky All-Stars basketball tryouts
It will be interesting to see how many Northern Kentucky high school basketball players receive invitations to tryouts for the Kentucky All-Stars boys’ and girls’ teams that will take place on Sunday, April 23.
A committee of coaches selected the senior all-star teams the last two years. The tryouts were brought back this year to give more players an opportunity to earn a spot on the Kentucky All-Stars teams that will play the Indiana All-Stars in a weekend series this June.
Invitations to the tryouts on April 23 were reportedly sent to more than 30 boys and more than 30 girls around the state. The tryouts will be held at Campbellsville University for boys and Franklin County High School for girls.
Dates for the 2017 Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Games are Saturday, June 10 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and Sunday, June 11 at Frankfort Convention Center. Proceeds from the game held in Frankfort go to the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation.
Ryle soccer player’s club team going to national championships
Megan Bine, a defensive standout on the Ryle girls’ soccer team, plays on the Cincinnati United Premier (CUP) 17-under club team that earned a berth in for the United States Youth Soccer Association national championships to be played July 24-30 in Friso, Texas.
Bine is an outside back and center defender on her CUP team that won a league title to qualify for nationals. A junior at Ryle, she has been a varsity starter for the last three seasons and verbally accepted a scholarship offer from Cleveland State University last summer.
