Lohr’s aim has always been on point

BY MARC HARDIN | LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

t age 17, Conner High School’s Ayden Lohr is already laden with lore.

“He’s a special guy,” Cougars baseball coach Brad Arlinghaus said of the multi-sport athlete and 15th-ranked member of this year’s Conner senior class, according to grade-point average. “He’s accomplished a lot.”

While playing sports and games with family and friends as he was growing up, Lohr noticed something about his various abilities that eventually led him to a special place in Conner history.

His aim is true.

“I guess I’ve kind of always been good at aiming things,” said Lohr, a basketball and baseball standout.

Whether it was a ball or any object that can be tossed, Lohr discovered over time he could throw or shoot something so that it goes pretty much where he wants it to go.

“Playing Nerf basketball. Shooting wads of paper in the wastebasket. Throwing plastic bottles in the trash can from long distance, stuff like that,” Lohr said.

It turned out to be good practice for a bigger stage.

Lohr, a 6-foot-2 guard on the hardwood and a pitcher/outfielder on the diamond, was the only Ninth Region athlete named a 2022-23 Northern Kentucky Basketball Coaches Association all-star and a preseason all-state selection on the 2023 watch list by the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association.

“It comes naturally to him, but he works really hard,” said Arlinghaus, last season’s Ninth Region baseball coach of the year. “In a world where most specialize in one sport, he excels in two. And he’s a really good student, a great guy, and that’s rare.”

More specifically, Lohr, the 2022 Conner homecoming king with a 4.357 weighted grade-point average, is a good aimer.

“He can put the ball in the basket. He can put the ball in the strike zone,” Arlinghaus said. “In his first game back after being a little banged up, he threw out a guy at home from center field.”

As a senior basketball player for the Cougars, Lohr posted solid across-the-board shooting percentages, converting 48% from the field, 42.4% from 3-point range and 73.6% on free throws while averaging 13.9 points per game. Those numbers were similar to his junior season when Lohr helped lead Conner to its first-ever district championship three-peat.

In baseball last year, Lohr helped the Cougars set a single-season wins record (29) and a team runs scored record (284). On the mound, he won six games with a 1.36 earned run average while striking out 29 batters and walking eight in 36 innings. He ranked second on the team in wins and ERA. He ranked fourth among starters with a .384 batting average and second with 12 doubles, 42 runs scored and 28 stolen bases and was named to the all-Ninth Region Tournament team.

Through the first three weeks of this season, the speedy leadoff hitter was second on the two-time defending district champions with a .385 batting average including team-high totals in hits, triples and runs. He ranked second in doubles and steals. Lohr is not easily thwarted or fooled. He was caught stealing a scant two times and struck out just 13 times in his first 167 varsity at-bats.

One of 13 Conner seniors, nine heading to college programs, Lohr got into one game on the mound through the first three weeks while battling injuries.

“He hasn’t even been fully healthy. He banged up his left non-throwing shoulder in the district basketball final, then he felt something in the other shoulder. And his back was bothering him, so we held him out a bit and played him some at DH,” Arlinghaus said. “I’ve got enough pitching, so I don’t need him on the mound. I do need him in center field. And I do need him at the top of the lineup. He makes our offense go.”

Lohr, a veteran of the Cincy Flames baseball organization, is taking the hardball path at the next level with a verbal commitment to NCAA Division III Ohio Northern. He hopes to hit and pitch. To that end, he added a knuckleball to his arsenal as an off-speed pitch, something that tested his penchant for accuracy. As knuckleballs do, they veered, sailed and hit the ground, but eventually hit their mark.

Just like everything else during Lohr’s sports journey, mastering the pitch was a collaborative effort.

“Nobody liked catching it,” he said. “But I was eventually able to control it just by playing catch with my dad and (Conner senior player) Brayden Stidham. Our catchers (Logan Tucker and Luke Hubbard), they’re calling it when it needs to be called and catching it when it needs to be caught. They all have helped me with it.”

That’s something else Lohr aims to do well: Keep spreading the love.

“I was raised to respect and appreciate everyone around you,” he said. “You can’t do it by yourself. That’s what I’ll miss most about high school sports, playing with close friends and supporting each other. It’s been a lot of fun.”

St. Henry promotes soccer coach, announces new AD

St. Henry’s girls soccer head coach Brian Bamberger stepped down from the position and the school promoted Jarrett Baston to the spot after Baston served as the junior varsity head coach for two years under Bamberger.

The 37-year-old Baston owns the Triumph Strength and Conditioning Gym in Florence and already had a lot of the JV girls working out with him.

Prior to his two years at St. Henry, Baston served as the freshman head coach at Notre Dame in 2019 and ‘20 under former Pandas head coach David Gronotte.

The man who made the decision to promote Baston, St. Henry Director of Athletics Matt Schneider, has also decided that he will step down in June, citing the same reasons as Bamberger – to spend time with family.

St. Henry has found a veteran to take over as Director of Athletics as Jim Demler will take his place, bringing 22 years of AD experience. Demler, a 1987 Dixie Heights graduate and former Northern Kentucky University baseball player is finishing his fourth year at Villa Madonna after serving as the second AD in school history at Ryle from 2001-19.

Demler said the plan is to finish strong at Villa Madonna, and hit the ground running at St. Henry in June.

Kentucky sweeps Ohio in ‘Battle of the Border’ All-star basketball game

It was a clean sweep for Kentucky in the “Battle of the Border” All-Star basketball games April 8 at Thomas More University’s Connor Convocation Center.

The girls started the evening off with an impressive 117-94 victory while the boys rallied in the second half for a 93-83 triumph.

Danville’s Love Mays was named the girls

MVP for Kentucky while Madison Central’s Jaylen Davis won the MVP for the Kentucky boys All-Star team.

In the girl's game, Cooper’s Whitney Lind led NKY scorers with 18 points, 15 of them coming in the second half.

Walton-Verona’s Grace Brewer added eight points, Ryle’s Abby Holtman with six points and Notre Dame’s Noelle Hubert with three.

The win moved the Kentucky girls to 16-13 all-time in the All-Star series. In the boys game, trailing by as much as nine in the first half, Kentucky won a physical battle in the second half and used a 20-5 second-half run to pull away from Ohio for the victory.

Leading 77-73 with under four minutes to play, it was Davis providing the knockout blow with a triple from the wing to give Kentucky a seven-point lead and Ohio would get no closer from there.

Simon Kenton’s Gabe Dynes had four points for the Kentucky team, both off dunks and pick-and-rolls.

Newport’s Marquez Miller also participated for Kentucky, grabbing a couple of rebounds.

Kentucky’s boys improved to 12-18 in the All-Star series.

NKU women’s basketball team adds pair from WKU

Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball coach Camryn Whitaker has brought in a pair from her old stomping grounds.

Whitaker, a former Western Kentucky University basketball player, added two Hilltoppers from the transfer portal to the roster for the 202324 season in Mya Meredith and Macey Blevins.

Meredith, a Scott High product, thrived in her high school career with the Eagles and then went to the Hilltoppers and made an instant impact winning Conference USA Freshman of the Year. She averaged 12.7 points per game and 5.1 rebounds before missing the final eight games with a knee injury in her freshman season. In her sophomore campaign, she started 26 games and averaged 8.5 points and 5.0 rebounds.

Blevins also comes to Highland Heights with plenty of experience. She started 33 games in two seasons with WKU, averaging 4.5 points per game this past season. Her freshman season came with 26 starts and knocking down 1.53 three-pointers a game.

NKU finished 17-14 this past season, losing to Cleveland State in the Horizon League Conference Tournament semifinals.

Johnstone earns distinctive NFHS Coach of the Year honors

Conner boys’ cross country coach Ian Johnstone earned 2021-2022 Section II Coach of the Year honors from the National Federation of State High School Associations Coaches Association.

During the 2022 cross country season, the Cougars won the 3A Region 5 Championship and 3A State Championship. It marked the second year in a row that the Cougars have won the state championship and the third year in a row they have won the regional title.

The NFHS has recognized coaches through a comprehensive awards program since 1982. Johnstone, along with Ballard softball coach Alan Jones became KHSAA’s 37th and 38th NFHS Section II Coach of the Year selections since 2001-02.

Johnstone teaches biology at the high school. The fall accomplishment for the team helped Conner become the 30th boys program in KHSAA history to earn multiple state championships.

The NFHS Coaches Association has an advisory committee composed of a chair and eight sectional representatives. The committee evaluates state recipients, then considers the sectional candidates in each sport, ranks, and determines a national winner for each of the 20 sport categories.