Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Maddie Scherr of Ryle will finally find out this weekend if she’ll join the list of Northern Kentucky high school players who have been named Miss Kentucky Basketball.
The Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation will present this year’s Mr. and Miss Kentucky Basketball awards at 5 p.m. Sunday during a virtual online ceremony that can be accessed by going to the mrandmisskybasketball website.
Maddie Scherr
The annual ceremony is usually held in April, but it had to be postponed for more than eight weeks and will now be presented online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Scherr, a University of Oregon recruit, is among the leading contenders for this year’s female award because of her impressive high school basketball resume.
With Scherr at point guard, Ryle made three consecutive appearances in the Kentucky state tournament as 9th Region champion. This past season, she was named Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year and topped the all-state balloting in two statewide coaches polls.
As a junior, Scherr was selected most valuable player in the state tournament after Ryle captured the title. She ended her high school career with team records in total points (2,297), rebounds (1,094), assists (679), steals (535) and blocks (233).
Donna Murphy of Newport was named the first Miss Kentucky Basketball in 1976. The other local players who have received the honor are Jaime Walz of Highlands (1996), Katie Schwegmann of Brossart (2001), Erica Hallman of Holmes (2002) and Sydney Moss of Boone County (2012).
In cooperation with the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches, top senior players from each of the 16 regions in the state were nominated for the Mr. and Miss Kentucky Basketball awards. Grant Disken of Covington Catholic was the male nominee in the 9th Region. Maggie Jones of Simon Kenton was the female nominee in the 8th Region.
High school teams entering third phase of summer workouts
On Monday, Kentucky high school sports teams will enter the third phase of summer workouts under allowances and restrictions put in place to protect athletes and coaches amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
For the last two weeks, teams were able to conduct conditioning workouts if they adhered to basic preventive guidelines set by the governor’s office and the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. The guidelines include coaches wearing masks, temperature readings for participants, hand washing, social distancing and separating athletes into workout groups.
Those guidelines remain in effect during the third phase that lasts until July 12. But coaches will be permitted to run practice drills in small groups because equipment can now be shared providing it’s frequently sanitized.
“This period is specifically low-touch, medium sharing per the guidelines and as such, there is only minimal, necessary physical contact permitted between athletes, or between coaches and athletes,” reads one of the instructions on the khsaa.org website.
That’s good news for football, soccer, volleyball and lacrosse teams preparing for the upcoming fall season. But contact between football players is still limited and there will be no use of tackling dummies or blocking sleds.
Golf and cross country are no-contact fall sports and teams must continue to follow the basic preventive guidelines as they prepare for the season.
Lloyd announces hiring of new boys head basketball coach
Lloyd High School has hired Mike Walker as its new boys head basketball coach to replace Sam Volpenhein, whose teams posted a winning record the last two years.
Walker has been on the staff for three years at Lloyd and was previously an assistant coach at Columbus State and Cincinnati State, according to a post on the school’s Twitter account.
Volpenhein compiled a 42-39 record over the last three seasons as Lloyd’s coach. After his first team finished with an 11-16 record, the Juggernauts went 16-10 and 15-13 the last two seasons.
Last February, Lloyd lost to Dixie Heights, 71-49, in the 34th District semifinals. The Juggernauts played that game without senior forward Treshawn Cody, who finished the regular season with a team-high 20.3 scoring average.
Lloyd won’t be the only 34th District boys basketball team with a new head coach next season. Villa Madonna recently hired Trevor Gould to take charge of its program.
Tennis champ among Highlands Hall of Fame induction class
Todd Clements, the last Highlands tennis player to win a state singles championship in 1980, is one of 10 people to be inducted into the Highlands Athletic Hall of Fame during ceremonies scheduled for Oct. 23 and 25 at the high school.
The other nine inductees earned varsity letters in multiple sports while they attended Highlands. The list includes Deron Blasingame, Dana Dedman Barry, Melissa Dunham-Freer Derry, Ted Finneseth, Stephanie Sandfoss Graves, Herb Hilgeman, Dave Hudepohl, Doug Martin and Phil Scherrer.
This year’s Team of Distinction Award will go to members of the 1994-95 Highlands swimming and diving team.
The inductees will be recognized at the homecoming football game on Oct. 23. There will be an induction ceremony open to the public on Oct. 25 in the performing arts center followed by a banquet. Tickets for the banquet will be available in August.
