By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Back in the days before COVID, and the rise in postage, Dave Faust used to send a season schedule to all his former St. Henry players.
But that double-whammy stopped him from officially inviting everybody back in recent seasons.
Dave Faust thanks his St. Henry players after his record 461st Nine Region win Friday. (Photo by Dale Dawn)
Friday night, he didn’t have to bother. Social media and word of mouth did it for him.
“It was pushing 200,” Faust said of number of his basketball alumni after his Crusaders’ 84-45 win over Lexington’s Bluegrass United home school team. “Most of them were here,” he said, “my 1993 group was here,” he said of his first team.
So was Ken Shields, the man Faust succeeded as the Ninth Region’s all-time winningest coach. “I’m just so happy for him,” Shields said in a scenario that played out over and over and over and over after the game from current players, past players, fans, teachers, opposing coaches, game officials, players’ parents.
You name them, they were here and happy and hugging Faust, with him hugging back. “Thank you,” they would tell him. “Thank you for coming,” he would say.
St. Henry’s Braden Fedders (40) battles inside with Bluegrass United’s Liam Hanssen (Photo by Dale Dawn)
But it was hard to know whether he was happier about reaching the record – or the fact that it was all over. Chasing the record that is. Not winning games.
“We’ve got a huge one next week,” Faust said looking ahead at cross-town rival Lloyd in a district-seed-deciding showdown.
“And now I can read all the stories,” Faust said. He’d done the interviews, graciously as always, but had pledged that he wouldn’t get caught up in all the hubbub about the record until after it was over. And now that it is, he’s back to coaching like he always has.
One of the greatest athletes in Covington Catholic history, Bill Topmiller, first-team all-state in football and basketball before helping Vanderbilt to its first bowl game in decades, talked about how much he likes the way Faust goes about his business and how five of his six children chose to go to St. Henry.
“The thing I like is how he always gives his seniors a chance to play,” Topmiller said. There are seven on this year’s roster. “And he doesn’t schedule to get wins, but to get better.”
Yep, the winningest basketball coach ever in the Ninth Region didn’t care about wins as a number, with Friday’s victory getting the Crusaders above the .500 mark at 10-9 with wins in eight of their last 10 games.
St. Henry’s Jack Grayson (11) drives past Bluegrass United’s Eli Anderson (Photo by Dale Dawn)
“I just do what I did when I played,” he said of those strong NewCath teams that played everybody. “I just carried it on.”
Which is why he won eight All “A” Ninth Region titles and three All “A” state championships.
Brian O’Conner, Dave’s four-year teammate at Thomas More and one of that school’s all-time great players, came on board six years ago when he stopped traveling for work and joined the Crusader staff.
“It’s been so great to come here and coach with my best friend,” O’Conner said. “I kind of see Coach (Jim) Connor coaching through him,” he said of their legendary college coach at Thomas More.
O’Conner also noted that when Faust comes out of the locker room, “He’ll be wearing a different shirt, the players got him,” and sure enough, he was. A red St. Henry jersey had replaced the button-down shirt and tie that’s his standard game-day uniform but had been soaked in the postgame celebration.
Beechwood baseball coach Kevin Gray was here. “He was my high school baseball coach,” Gray said of their NewCath days. “He was a players’ coach all the way. I love him. He’s a hell of a man.”
Shields said he was “just happy they asked me to be a part of it . . . you can tell how much his players love him.”
But Shields was getting a great deal of love as well from the St. Henry fans.
“I wish you two could share it,” said former Crusader star, Kevin Shea, father of starting St. Henry guard Carson Shea, of the record.
Previous Ninth Region winningest coach Ken Shields presents Dave Faust with the game ball for his record 461st win (Photo by Dale Dawn)
And as it turned out, they did. “For a night we did,” Shields said with a laugh.
And for a final night, Faust had to endure the kind of spotlight he’s never sought. “Yesterday was more hectic than today,” he said of the record-tying win at Boone County.
But he had a bit of time for reflection as the crowd headed home after a post-game reception.
“I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 31 years here,” Dave said with a shake of the head at the compression of time, like when his St. Henry principal, Grant Brannen, walked by and bragged that “I was Coach Faust’s waterboy (at Newport Central Catholic).”
And ringing in our ears were the last words of the St. Henry P.A. person: “. . . the Ninth Region’s all-time wins leader with 461 . . . and counting.”
It’s that “and counting” part that has Faust’s attention now.
BOX SCORE
ST. HENRY (10-9): Fedders 15, Grayson 9, Kaiser 7, Lemmond 4, Ravenscraft 8, Reis 11, Resing 14, Shea 4, Flanagan 2, Hammond 8, Lubert 2, TOTAL 84.
BLUEGRASS UNITED (11-14): Burnett 7, Hanssen 13, King 19, Tighe 3, Anderson 3, Stiefel 0: TOTAL 45.
St. Henry’s Carson Shea (3) on a breakaway layup past Bluegrass United’s Caleb Burnett. (Photo by Dale Dawn)
