Eubank, Baker continue college-bound tradition at Ryle

BY MARC HARDIN | LINK NKY CONTRIBUTOR

Rising senior Quinn Eubank began her Ryle High School basketball career as a seventh-grader and a champion. She watched wide-eyed from the bench as the Raiders won the 2019 state crown. She received extensive game action the next season while making an immediate impact as an eighth-grader and finished fifth on the team in scoring and third in rebounding.

To say that Eubank’s Ryle career has been grand isn’t far from the truth. A 5-foot-11 combo forward, she eventually surpassed 1,000 career points and 1,000 rebounds, becoming just the third player in program history to reach 1,000 in both categories. The returning all-conference selection has scored 1,321 points and grabbed 1,024 rebounds in her high school career. After leading the Raiders in rebounding each of the past three seasons, she’s on pace to obliterate Ryle’s all-time record of 1,094. Eubank has a chance to reach 1,000 career assists. She averaged 14.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game last season.

Eubank reached another milestone in her basketball journey when she verbally committed to Belmont University earlier this month.

“I’m very happy for Quinn. She really wants to play basketball in college,” Raiders coach Katie Haitz said. “She’s talented. She works very hard.”

Eubank is not a Ryle novelty. She’s the lat- est in a line of greats who’ve made the college grade while plying her craft in Raider black and orange. Ryle has sent nearly 20 girls to college programs since Haitz became head coach in 2015. There were nine college-bound players alone on the 2019 state championship squad.

“We’ve had so many great ones,” Haitz said. “It started my first season in 2015-16. We had seven seniors, and they were wonderful leaders. They showed the rest of the girls what it takes to be successful.”

Of those seven seniors, five went on to play college basketball, including that season’s top three scorers: Mallory Schwartz (Bellarmine), Carly Lange (Indiana Wesleyan) and Madison Jones (Midway). They began their high school careers playing under preceding Ryle head coaches Patti Oliverio and Karra Jackson. Under Haitz, they kickstarted a college-signing legacy that continues to this day and was renewed with Eubank’s commitment to Belmont.

“Quinn is very deserving,” said Haitz, a former player under Nell Fookes at Boone County High School. “She’s versatile on both offense and defense. She can guard anybody. She’s a great athlete. She’s quick. She has an outside shot. She’s a good ball handler. She can score. She can rebound.”

That pretty much checks all the boxes when it comes to scouting reports, and you can add durability to the list. Eubank has missed just one contest in her 123-game career. Yet, Haitz could be talking about any number of her players, so uniform have their myriad qualities been on the court.

“I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of talented girls,” Haitz said. “Maddie Scherr was on that first team as an eighth-grader. Lauren Schwartz was a freshman. They learned so much from the older girls, and the girls kept passing it down every year. I’m really proud of all of them.”

Lauren Schwartz was an all-conference star who played college ball at Rice University before transferring to the University of Washington. Scherr went on to become Miss Kentucky Basketball of 2020. She began her college career at Oregon before transferring to Kentucky. On Haitz’s second team was another precocious eighth-grader, Brie Crittendon, a future 9th Region player of the year who played at Eastern

Kentucky University.

Talented eighth-graders kept coming. Austin Johnson arrived in Haitz’s third season, Abby Holtman in her fourth season. Holtman is heading to the University of Cincinnati, Johnson to North Greenville University. Quinn Eubank and Sarah Baker were eighth-graders in Haitz’s fifth season, but both were on roster in the seventh grade. Baker saw action in one game that season.

If she hasn’t already, Baker, a 6-foot-2 post player, will sign soon with a college from among nearly two dozen potential suitors, including Kent State, Wright State, Bowling Green, Delaware, Fairfield and Belmont, all of which have made offers to the returning all-conference standout. Baker averaged 11 points and 6.9 rebounds per game last season.

“Quinn and I talk about it. It’s exciting,” Baker said of the recruiting process. “We check up on each other and get updates.”

Baker, more of a late bloomer than Eubank, would also like to finish her Ryle career in grand fashion. She needs 72 points to reach 1,000. She needs 378 rebounds to reach 1,000.

Add in a potential first regional title since 2020 and a trip back to the state final for the first time in five years, and Eubank and Baker would have plenty more to talk about. Together, they’ve already won three district championships, two regional titles and the school’s one and only state crown.

“It would be so nice to win the region and state again,” Baker said. “That’s the goal.”

Arlinghaus steps down after 17 years at the helm of Conner baseball

With two kids starting to hit the age where dad doesn’t want to miss out, Conner High School baseball coach Brad Arlinghaus has resigned from his position.

Arlinghaus has been the head coach in Hebron for 17 seasons, taking the program over in 2007.

The Covington Catholic High School grad won 327 games in his tenure with a region championship and four district titles. He’s a five-time Northern Kentucky Baseball Coaches Association Coach of the Year and has had 44 of his players go on to play in college.

Widely regarded as one of the top teams in the region year in, year out, the Cougars reached their pinnacle in 2014 with a 26-10 record and won the 9th Region tournament. They went on to reach the state quarterfinals, winning their first-round state tournament game over Boyd County.

Outside of his primary job, which is teaching AP European history at Conner, Arlinghaus' primary focus will be dad.

As he departs, so do 13 seniors. It’s a senior class that won 75 games over the last three seasons, essentially paving the way for a new era of Cougar baseball.

State champion head soccer coach takes over Highlands boys

Suli Kayed said it would have to be the right fit for him when he stepped down as head soccer coach from the Notre Dame Academy Pandas in March.

About three months later, Kayed found that right fit, taking the same spot with the Highlands Bluebirds boys soccer program. Kayed takes over after Brandon Ponchak resigned recently after one season to take an assistant coach position for the Jacksonville State women’s program.

The Denmark native brings four years of head coaching experience to Fort Thomas. He led Notre Dame to a 45-4-3 record the past two seasons, including a 28-0-1 mark in 2021 that culminated with the fourth state championship in program history.

Kayed has experience leading boys and girls programs. Kayed spent two seasons coaching the Boone County boys program in 2019 and 2020, leading the Rebels to a 12-13 record.

Kayed takes over a program that finished 14-5-3 last year, winning its seventh straight 36th District Tournament championship. The Bluebirds have made it to the region semifinals the past three seasons.

Highlands graduated 16 seniors from the 2022 squad. The Bluebirds do return the likes of senior goalkeeper Jack Wilson along with senior midfielders Chad Gesenhues and Jack Haggard. Gesenhues is the team’s leading returning point-scorer with seven goals and seven assists. Wilson made 45 saves and recorded three shutouts.

Kayed plans to put together a staff of six to eight coaches with two to three on the varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels including goalkeeper coaches. He said the assistants will come from his previous staffs at Notre Dame, Boone County and the club level.

Kayed said he’s looking forward to working with the man he succeeded at Boone County in Highlands, girls soccer head coach Chris Norris. The two coached against each other the last two years, facing off on opposite sides in the last two 9th Region championships. Highlands beat Notre Dame, 3-2 (4-3 on kicks from the mark) in last year’s region championship game after Notre Dame shut out the Bluebirds, 4-0 in 2021.

Kayed played striker and midfielder for the Ryle Raiders and longtime head coach Stephen Collins before graduating in 2015 and going on to have a successful career at Thomas More.

Highlands last won the 9th Region championship in 2019, losing to eventual state champion Henry Clay in the state quarterfinals. The Bluebirds have state runner-up finishes in 2008 and 2018.

Camels pair wins StudentAthlete of the Year awards

Campbell County head baseball coach Scott Schweitzer said he has submitted players for the annual Midway College/Kentucky High School Athletic Association Student-Athlete of the Year awards for years. But it was not until this year when he finally heard back about it. Campbell County not only won it this year with senior Aydan Hamilton for baseball, but twice with senior Paige Stewart for softball. The award is based on academics, community service and athletic ability.

Both led their teams to 37th District championships this year. The Camels softball team (20-6) has won it six years in a row, and the baseball team (29-10) has won it the past two years.

Hamilton doubled as a basketball star for the Camels, finishing his career as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,216 points.

Hamilton finished his baseball career batting .415 (114-for-275) to go with 107 runs scored, 93 runs batted in, 11 home runs, 23 doubles and one triple. He dazzled on the base paths, stealing an impressive 69 bases on 72 attempts.

Hamilton also did well in the classroom, earning a 4.0 grade-point average as a senior. He’s headed to the University of Kentucky in the fall on a baseball scholarship.

Stewart expressed gratitude for winning the award. She’s been a major contributor for the Camels softball team the past three seasons, finishing with a .469 batting average (119-for-254) with 51 runs scored, 79 runs batted in, 28 doubles, six triples and five home runs. Stewart played second or third base when not pitching.

Stewart finished her pitching career with a 31-10 record, recording 149 strikeouts these past three years. She recorded her career-lowest 4.56 earned-run average this past year.

Stewart is taking her talents to nearby Thomas More University to play softball for the Saints.