Notre Dame trying to gain momentum after slow start thanks to weather

BY MARC HARDIN | LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

The Notre Dame Academy softball team is ready to play, rain or shine. Unfortunately for the Pandas, they experienced more rain than shine during the first month of the season with almost as many rainouts as games played.

"When we played our eighth game, we had lost seven games because of weather and one due to illness," said Notre Dame coach Joe Stephenson, whose team won five of those first eight contests despite the weather and the majority of his youthful squad playing new positions.

Stephenson reached the 200-win milestone last season. His teams have won nine straight 35th District championships and three regional titles while advancing to the regional tournament final five times in 10 years. But the lack of sun has been putting the brakes on this season's hard-fought momentum.

One Panda who's been able to shine despite inclement weather is left-fielder Tori Danneman.

The left-handed leadoff hitter batted a team-high .517 during the first month, giving Notre Dame a nice 1-2 punch along with Ava McKinley, who bats fifth. Danneman, one of three seniors along with catcher Rachel Finke and infielder/outfielder Kayla Northcutt, also led the Pandas in plate appearances, hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases and runs scored after the first month. McKinley, one of two juniors, was second in batting average, doubles, RBI and steals.

"I like to lead in encouragement. And making sure we're all bonded," said Danneman, also a soccer player at Notre Dame. She played for a U.S. national softball team in the Netherlands in January. "But missing games is frustrating. I just try to get in some extra hitting."

It shows. She hit .342 last season batting mostly in the cleanup spot.

"I like it at leadoff," said Danneman, who enjoys setting the tone. "I want to bring up that fire for them."

Her top season batting average is .444 as a sophomore. Her career average is solidly north of .400. She was rarely below .500 in April while showering base hits on the opposition.

"Tori is having a great year," said sophomore ace Abby Turnpaugh, the winner in each of the first five victories with an earned run average around 1.20. "She gets on. She gets around. And we knock her in."

In addition to the rain and mental pain Turnpaugh is inflicting on baffled batters, Danneman's baserunning has also been a team theme. She was on base 15 times in her first 32 plate appearances and scored 12 times, thanks in part to six stolen bases in six attempts.

"She's got good speed and she's one of our stronger players. She hit two home runs (each of the last two years) so she's got some pop in her bat," Stephenson said. "And she is a great teammate, always encouraging the girls."

Danneman is the latest in a line of family members who have attended Notre Dame. Her grandmother, three aunts and some cousins also went to the academy.

"I am following in my family's footsteps. I was very influenced because they had such positive experiences at Notre Dame," said Danneman, who calls Fox19 TV Sports Director Joe Danneman "Uncle Joe".

Joe Danneman is a graduate of Covington Catholic.

"Yep, he's my uncle," she said. "My Aunt Lynsey played soccer at Notre Dame. My Aunt Amy cheered."

Tori Danneman is adding to the family legacy in all-around fashion. As a member of the school's Teen Leadership Club, she recently provided a few hours of service at Matthew 25: Ministries sorting medical supplies to be sent overseas. She joined a group of Notre Dame students and more than 100 others from the Diocese of Covington at the Catholic Convention of Kentucky in Frankfort.

She would like to add to the Pandas' softball trophy case, which holds six regional championship crowns, all of them won, oddly enough, in odd-numbered years: 1987, 1989, 1999, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

It's not lost on the Pandas that this is another odd-numbered year.

Turnpaugh was 10 years old when Notre Dame last won the region.

"Ever since I got to the school, that's been the main goal," the sophomore said.

The Pandas haven't been to the regional final since 2019. They've been outscored 4917 in their last four regional tournament elimination games. That's something they hope to remedy this year.

But, first things first. They need to qualify for the regional by advancing to the district tournament final. Stephenson is taking nothing for granted even though the Pandas entered the season with a 54-game winning streak against 35th District opponents.

He's hoping lineup mainstays Turnpaugh, Northcutt, Ava Auberger and Emmy Martin will come around at the plate once they get more games under their belts. Finke, the RBI leader after the first month, and Addie Zinser were holding their own at the plate. Finke was seeking improvement as the No. 2 pitcher.

"We need to see more live pitching, and we'll eventually get it as we make up games," Stephenson said. "Auberger, our new shortstop, hit .377 last year, so we know she can hit. But she's still learning a new position after playing second base for us as a freshman. We have practically a whole new infield that just needs to settle in and play more games to reach its potential."

CJ Fredrick headed to Cincinnati

University of Kentucky senior guard CJ Fredrick entered his name in the transfer portal on April 21.

On April 24, he found his new home.

The Covington Catholic alum announced his intentions to transfer to the University of Cincinnati via his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Fredrick has spent the last two years at Kentucky after playing two seasons at Iowa. He appeared in 26 games and made 15 starts during his time in Lexington, missing the first year due to an injury.

When healthy, Fredrick was one of the best perimeter shooters in the country, the nation’s leading returner in career 3-point field-goal percentage (46.6%) with a minimum of 150 attempts after his two seasons at Iowa.

Fredrick is set to graduate in May and will head to Cincinnati with a year of eligibility remaining.

He’ll have the opportunity on Wes Miller’s squad as a lot of minutes have become available for the Bearcats. Rob Phinisee and David DeJulius are out of eligibility while Landers Nolley declared for the NBA Draft and Jeremiah Davenport transferred to Arkansas.

Fredrick picked Cincinnati over West Virginia, Xavier, North Carolina, Indiana, St. John’s, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma, according to 247 Sports.

Taphouse resigns as Ludlow football coach

The Ludlow Panthers football team will have a new football field with red turf in the fall – and they’ll also have a new head coach.

Greg Taphouse resigned from his position after six years at the helm, the Panthers finishing 35-32 during his tenure. They won three playoff games in his stead, their first postseason wins since 2011.

Taphouse is also a physical education teacher at Ludlow and shared the director of athletics responsibilities with volleyball head coach Jodi Schmidt and head baseball coach John McMillen.

Taphouse said he resigned for personal reasons.

On top of a new coach and a new field, the Panthers will also play in a new district. Ludlow was realigned to the Class A, 4th District under KHSAA’s new football realignment, paired with Bishop Brossart, Holy Cross and Trimble County for the 2023-24 seasons.

Villa Madonna taps Hesse to take over for Demler as AD

Steve Hesse will become Villa Madonna’s newest athletic director.

Hesse teaches social studies at the school, and this is the first AD position he’s held in his 20 years in education. He’s served as a principal at Shawe Memorial Junior/Senior High School in Madison, Indiana, and has coaching experience. He coached tennis and served as an assistant football coach at Carroll County before ending up at Shawe Memorial.

Hesse said he’s aware of the challenges of building the programs at Villa Madonna. He admitted the Vikings may only be competitive with the likes of 34th District opponent Dixie Heights once every 10-15 years in many sports. But Hesse said he likes Villa Madonna’s no-cut policy and noted 75% of students participate in extracurricular activities.

Villa Madonna has had some success in recent years in various sports. The cross-country teams have been in the running for the Class A state championship for the last few years. The softball team won the All “A” Ninth Region crown and made it to the region quarterfinals in 2021 and 2022. The girls soccer team also made the Ninth Region Tournament in 2021 for the first time since 2012.

Jim Demler, the current AD at Villa, will finish the year and then head to St. Henry in June.

Norse will have plenty of new faces next season

The Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team will be filled with new faces as nine players from last year's team departed for either exhausted eligibility or transferred out of the program.

The Norse made waves recently by adding three via the transfer portal and made two incoming freshman signings official. It puts their roster at 12 scholarship players with two walk-ons and gives them flexibility with another scholarship and walk-on spot open.

The busy offseason started by snagging Marquette transfer Keeyan Itejere to Highland Heights, the 6-foot-9 forward spend- ing two years at Marquette before hitting the portal. He was rated as a three-star prospect out of the GRACE Christian School in Knightdale, North Carolina.

The next addition was Green Bay’s Cade Meyer, a Horizon League foe who will now make NKU his home. Meyer averaged 9.8 points and 4.7 rebounds, averaging 25.8 minutes per game during the 2022-23 season. He shot 52% from the field and 69% from the free-throw line.

Xavier Rhodes’ replacement looks to be Michael Bradley, a transfer from Division II Mercyhurst. Bradley is a 6-foot guard who brings a plethora of experience, 1,117 points, 386 assists, 305 rebounds and 131 steals in 101 games played.

The last two to be made official are incoming freshmen Fiston Ipassou and Bryce Darbyshire. Ipassou is a 6-foot-5 shooting guard and a native of Australia and played for the North Adelaide Rockets in Australia’s highest semi-pro league, the National Basketball League 1.

Darbyshire hails from Sycamore High School in Cincinnati, where he averaged 10.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists for the Aviators in his senior season. The 6-foot-4 hybrid guard/small forward shot 50% from the field and 33% from the 3-point line in his senior campaign. The two join a four-member freshman class that also includes Lloyd Memorial’s Jeremiah Israel and Randall Pettus II out of Bessemer City, North Carolina.

NKU went 22-13 in the 2022-23 season, winning the Horizon League Conference Tournament for the second time in four years and earning an NCAA Tournament berth.