On the mend, Beechwood’s Berger ready to ascend

BY MARC HARDIN | LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, will always be a day Mitchell Berger looks back on with a range of emotions as wide as the running lanes he burst through for the Beechwood High School football team.

Playing at home against Lloyd Memorial High School, Berger propelled the Tigers to a halftime lead with yet another do-it-all performance. It was early in the third quarter and Beechwood was leading 14-7 thanks to Berger, who already had nearly 200 total yards. He rambled for 156 yards on 20 carries with both Tiger touchdowns, a 9-yard run and a 36-yarder.

Berger added two receptions for 39 yards, converted both extra-point kicks, kicked off and played linebacker for the Tigers, who won, 34-7. But the play he’ll remember most is the one that ended his year prematurely after eight games.

Berger was running near the sideline. He was hit and landed awkwardly. There was pain in his left knee. Eventually there were all the emotions that come with learning surgery is required to fix an injury. Those emotions welled up within him and lasted for weeks.

When you’re 18 years old and considered one of the best prep football players in the state, the last thing you want to hear is you’re out for the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a meniscus tear.

It was an unfathomable outcome. Berger was a leading contender for Kentucky’s Mr. Football. With 1,119 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns, Berger was on a 15-game senior season pace for 2,098 rushing yards and 39 TDs. With a state-leading 162 points, he was on pace for 303.

The Tigers finished 14-1 and won the Class 2A state championship for the third straight year. Berger was on the sidelines for the final seven games. Even so, he was named first-team, all-area at running back and linebacker by the Northern Kentucky Football Coaches Association and the local Class 2A-3A-4A player of the year.

“They were heartbroken for me,” Berger said of his coaches. “It was really tough on everyone, especially my parents.”

Berger’s mother is a Beechwood booster. His father, Brandon Berger, is a Beechwood assistant football coach.

“I felt so terrible for Mitchell. That was as somber of a football stadium as I have ever been in,” he said. “It was easy to see how much Mitchell meant to his teammates, coaches and the community, with many tears shed by all. Our family was distraught, but the community rallied around all of us to help us get through this tough time.”

Add in that Mitchell Berger is also considered one of the best prep baseball players in Kentucky, heading to Eastern Kentucky University to play baseball, and his ordeal becomes a multi-part story that impacts several teams.

“Probably never felt more gut-wrenched in my life when I found out about the injury,” Beechwood baseball coach Kevin Gray said. “To me it was, why him? He’s a hard-working player. A great kid. I think he would have won Mr. Football. He was considered to be one of the top baseball players in the state. It was very, very, very terrible.”

Mitchell Berger and Gray shared a meal after Berger’s surgery.

“We were going to do what’s best for him,” Gray said. “I told him he was going to be there for us all season, help with the pitchers, and we weren’t going to push it. We hugged and we cried.”

The baseball team’s season ended with a

3-0 state tournament first-round loss to Apollo High School. Gray imagined alternatives with a healthy Berger, who was 7-0 as a junior with a 2.45 ERA. He hit .400 with six home runs.

“Our philosophy in the state tournament is you can’t win game two without winning game one,” Gray said. “Mitchell would have been our best option on the mound, and he would have been hitting. We had a moment after the game with Apollo. We both wondered what might have been.”

As the days go by, there’s more certainty for Mitchell Berger, who senses optimism creeping in. After such a plummeting low, he’s ready to return to soaring highs. The timeline for recovery is nine to 12 months.

“I’m so proud of Mitchell for the way he attacked his rehab,” his father said. “He is going to the gym six days a week and meal-prepping to make sure his body is where he wants it to be. Hopefully, he will be cleared in late July and be ready to go for fall ball at EKU.”

EKU coaches called soon after the injury to state their confidence.

“I’m just sticking to the path right now,” Mitchell Berger said. “I’m really grateful for the Beechwood community during this whole thing. I want to give a big shout-out to coach Kevin Gray and coach Noel Rash for helping me through it and doing what’s best for me.”

Covington Catholic captures team state tennis title, doubles title

Walton-Veronas boys, Beechwood girls win state track-and-field titles

The Walton-Verona High School boys took a tightly contested KHSAA Class A state track-and-field meet, scoring 64 points for the first state championship in school history. They edged out Louisville Collegiate School by eight points with seven high schools within 24 points of the top spot, including Bishop Brossart in third (53.5), St. Henry in fourth (48) and Beechwood in seventh (40).

The Bearcats opened the day taking second in the 4×800 relay in 8:23.26. Eighth-grader Wyatt Shearer, juniors Logan Pronk and Seth Cockrell and senior Carson Milner ran legs in that race.

Milner scored Walton-Verona’s other three points, taking sixth in the 1,600 in 4:33.17.

The Beechwood girls scored 100 points in the Class A KHSAA state track-and-field meet on their way to the second title in program history.

and Counts finished third by just .41 seconds behind Brauch. Kocan took third in the 100 in 12.53 seconds and the 200 in 22.99 seconds. Counts added two points. taking seventh in 26.92 in the 200. Beechwood’s other four points came in the field events. Tigers senior Sarah Sizemore took fifth in the high jump going up 4-feet-10 inches.

Defending state champion Bishop Brossart High School took second with 68 points and St. Henry District High School finished tied for ninth with 28.

After winning its 21st straight regional tennis title and finishing state runner-up three times, Covington Catholic High School finally broke through on the state level.

The Colonels won the KHSAA team title at the state tournament at Top Seed in Nicholasville on June 1, while Kalei Christiansen and Alex Yeager won the first boys doubles title in program history.

Christiansen and Yeager won the state championship with an improbable comeback. After dropping the first set to Greenwood High School’s Dylan Dethridge and Gary Zheng 6-2 and falling in a 5-1 hole in the second set and a game away from defeat, the duo rallied to take the second set 7-5 and win the third set tiebreak 10-7.

Helping the team’s cause was Brady Hussey, who made it to a second straight state semifinal. Hussey battled through an ankle injury and didn’t really get onto the court until the latter part of the season. Playing for his third straight day, Hussey admitted the ankle wasn’t up to his liking and dropped the semifinal match to Whitefield Academy’s Landon Ecarma, 6-1, 6-2.

The Bearcats scored most of their points in the relays with 26. Junior Jackson Smith won two sprinting events, capturing the 100-meter dash in 11.07 seconds and the 200 in 22.18.

Senior Grady Shay won the 110 hurdles in 15.32 seconds and captured fourth in the 300 hurdles in 42.2 seconds.

Shay and Smith also helped the Bearcats win the 4×200 relay in 1:31.49. Freshman Hunter League and eighth-grader Tyson Smith had the other two legs. The same four helped Walton-Verona to a runner-up finish in the 4×100 relay in 43.76 seconds.

A number of the runners that helped the Beechwood girls win their first state championship in cross-country in the fall helped the Tigers take the top spot on Thursday.

The Beechwood girls dominated in the relays, distance and sprinting, combining for 96 points in those events. Beechwood placed first or second in all four relay events.

The Tigers put the punctuation mark on the meet winning the 4×400 meter relay in 4:11.10. Juniors Maddy Brauch and Maryah Counts, freshman Lily Parke and junior Catie Hazzard ran the legs. Beechwood also won the 4×200 relay in 1:45.81. Brauch and Counts ran legs in that one along with sophomore Lana Holt and junior Katie Kocan.

The Tigers had two girls place in a number of distance and sprinting events. Parke and Charli Gerrein took runner-up and fifth in 5:18.28 and 5:27.14, respectively, in the 1,600. Parke also finished third in the 800 in 2:22.17. Beechwood captured 14 points in the 3,200. Freshman Nora Wilke finished second in 12:02.11. Sophomore Isabel Ginter followed her, taking third in 12:04.57. The Tigers took the second and third spots in the 400. Brauch took second in 1:00.31

Golfer Carl returns to Notre Dame as AD

Former Notre Dame Academy Pandas golf coach Janet Carl is heading back to Notre Dame Academy as the new athletic director. Carl returns after a 22-year absence. She guided Panda golfers from 1999-2001 before eventually becoming the women’s golf coach at the University of Cincinnati, where she coached for 19 years.

Carl succeeds Myanna Webster, who announced her resignation in February.

In her new role as athletic director, her primary focus will be to provide leadership and guidance to coaches, fostering a culture of excellence, sportsmanship and holistic development among student-athletes.

Carl, who ran the junior golf program for the Cincinnati Recreation Commission from 1993-96, gives private lessons at Stephens Golf in Burlington. She is an LPGA class A member specializing in instruction.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, marks the date of June 19, 1865, the day a group of enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were free.

Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but it wasn’t until two years later that the news had finally circulated all the way around the country.

Today, communities around the country celebrate this federal holiday with food, family and joy.

Here are some celebrations to participate in around Northern Kentucky.

Boone County

Florence

Where: Florence First Annual Juneteenth Event – Stringtown Park, 7340 Burlington Pike

When: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday, June 19

What: Hosted by For Family By Family and the city of Florence, the event features a proclamation, memorial and education event at 10 a.m. at the site of the first African American church in Florence at 21 Girard St. (First Baptist Church). The theme is “Discover Your Roots,” and festivities follow in Stringtown Park with a DJ, food, community agency and vendor booths, face painting and arts activities.