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Newport names former Campbell County mentor Beau Menefee as girls basketball head coach


NKyTribune staff

Record-setting coach Beau Menefee, who led Campbell County High School to a No. 1 state ranking and won more than 100 games with the Camels, has been named Newport High School’s girls varsity basketball coach.

Menefee, the only coach in the 36th District who has won a regional championship and a game in the Sweet 16 Kentucky State Tournament, has coached both boys and girls teams in Ohio and Kentucky during his career. Menefee, an English Language Arts and Speech Communications teacher, will also teach in the Newport Independent School District.

Beau Menefee led Campbell County High School to a No. 1 state ranking and won more than 100 games.

“We are very excited about Coach Menefee joining the wildcat family,” said Newport Athletic Director Alan Haire. “His energy, work ethic, and enthusiasm for the game is what set him apart from everyone else. We have many talented young ladies at Newport High School and we cannot wait to see where Coach Menefee takes this program.”

Menefee has deep connections to Newport. His wife, Margo Menefee, is a Newport native. The couple attends Newport Baptist Church with her parents Greg and Chris Wagner. Both of his parents, Frank and Joyce Menefee, are Newport graduates.

And his grandfather Frank B. Menefee was a Wiedemann Beer salesman who called on Newport bars in the years after returning from World War II with two Purple Hearts.

“I grew up doing things in Newport my whole life,” said Menefee, a graduate of Highlands High School in neighboring Fort Thomas. “Eating at Dixie Chili, watching the fireworks on the riverfront, going to Sis’s for breakfast, playing in basketball leagues at Arnold’s gym. And I know there is a great basketball tradition in Newport. My dad still talks about all the great Newport basketball teams from the 50s and 60s.”

Menefee describes his style of play as “suffocating defensive pressure, all out effort all day long.”

“I like to play up tempo but will grind it out on both ends if dictated by our personnel,” Menefee said. “We will practice with passion and out work everyone. There will be no favoritism or nepotism. We will play for one another and come together as a unit.”

While at Highlands, Menefee captained the basketball team his senior year before heading to Northern Kentucky University, where he received two bachelor’s degrees. He also holds a master’s degree from Thomas More University.

Last season, Menefee was the head girls basketball coach at Aiken High School in Cincinnati. In addition to serving five years leading the girls basketball team at Campbell County, Menefee also coached junior varsity and freshman boys at Highlands, freshman boys at Campbell County and varsity boys at Bellevue High School.

Menefee’s career highlights from Campbell County include:  
• Most wins (110) over a five year period in Campbell County girls basketball history
• Compiled a record of 110- 53 at Campbell County
• 2015-16 regional championship
• Most wins in a season in team history twice (25), 2015-16 (29), 2017-18
• First No. 1 state ranking in school history, 2017-18
• First conference championship in school history, 2017-18
• Kentucky Coach of the Year 2018, Greater Cincinnati Basketball HOF
• KABC 10th Region Coach of the Year, 2016
• 2018NKYGBCA Division I Coach of the Year, 2016

(Information compiled from staff reports and Newport High School)


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