By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
High school golf season begins on Friday with the Cooper girls and Ryle boys as defending region champions, but one of those teams appears to be in a better position than the other to take another title.
The top three finishers in last year’s Region 7 girls tournament were Cooper golfers Reagan Ramage, Eva Maley and Kendall Brissey, who are all back in the Jaguars’ lineup.
Reagan Ramage
Cooper placed fifth in the 2021 girls state tournament with Maley and Ramage among the top 20 on the final leaderboard. Ramage was named second-team all-state for finishing 12th in the season point standings.
Two weeks ago, Ramage won the Cincinnati Met Junior Girls Championship at Walden Pond. She finished 36 holes with a 1-over par 145 to tie for first place and won a two-hole playoff for the title.
Ryle won last year’s Region 7 boys tournament with three seniors among its top four scorers. The individual medalist was also a senior as Rylan Wotherspoon of Cooper won his third consecutive title.
The only underclassmen among the top 10 on the boys leaderboard last year were Nathan Resing and Mitchell Gastright of Covington Catholic and Matt Schaefer of St. Henry.
Highlands senior Joel Craft is another one of the area’s top returning golfers. Last year, he was Region 8 medalist and tied for 52nd place in the state tournament with the fifth lowest score among local state qualifiers.
Region rivals were teammates in summer basketball league
Two girls who were opponents in the 9th Region girls basketball championship game last March played on the Kentucky Premier under-17 club team that posted an 11-4 record in Nike Elite Youth Basketball League games.
Abby Holtman
Abby Holtman of Ryle and Whitney Lind of Cooper played in all three sessions of the high-level league, including the national tournament July 10-12 in Chicago.
Holtman averaged 8.0 points in 15 games with 3-point goals accounting for 81 of her 120 total points. She shot 48 percent (43 of 90) from the field overall and 40 percent (27 of 67) from behind the 3-point line.
Lind averaged 3.8 points and 1.6 rebounds and shot 90.9 percent (10 of 11) from the free throw line in 15 games. In one of the team’s three national tournament victories, she had nine points and seven rebounds.
Both players have made commitments with Division I college teams. Holtman accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Cincinnati and Lind will be going to Lehigh University.
Postponed softball all-star games are scheduled for Tuesday
The Northern Kentucky high school softball senior and junior all-star games that were postponed in June due to an excessive heat warning are scheduled for Tuesday at Winkler Field in Alexandria.
The junior game is set for 5 p.m. with the senior game at 7 p.m. Admission is $5 cash only. The games will close out the annual high school all-star series sponsored by St. Elizabeth HealthCare.
Anna Greenwell was named Player of the Year by the Northern Kentucky Softball Coaches Association this year after leading Highlands to its first 9th Region championship since 2016.
