Long time no see. But hey, let’s not waste any time, because news is happening so fast in Northern Kentucky. That includes all the coaching hires and college offers that are coming together quickly. We’ve got the latest on the area’s best teams and biggest stars, all here in the fastest 1,000 words in sports.
Menefee is so nice that Newport hired him twice
Newport High School has rehired Beau Menefee as head coach of the girls basketball team. Menefee returns to Newport after one season coaching his son’s AAU basketball team. In his previous three-year tenure, Menefee posted a 37-31 record. He replaces Marcus Harris, who led the Wildcats to a 7-24 record last season and is now at Boone County.
Menefee, a 1991 Highlands graduate, has coached both boys and girls basketball teams in Kentucky and Ohio. His previous coaching stops include Aiken in Cincinnati. In Kentucky, he has coached at Bellevue, Highlands and Campbell County. He was twice the 10th Regional Coach of the Year with the Camels.
Menefee’s career includes the position of head coach for girls basketball in Aiken. He added two seasons coaching the Bellevue boys basketball team. In total, he coached the Campbell County girls basketball team for five years. Menefee was the first coach from the 36th District to win a regional championship and a Sweet 16 game. He posted a 110-53 record in Campbell County and led the team to a No. 1 state ranking.
He has also coached the junior and freshman boys basketball team at Highlands and the freshman boys team at Campbell County. While coaching the girls at Campbell County, he led the Kentucky All-Stars in the 2018 Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game. Menefee has taught language arts and speech communication in Campbell County and most recently in the Newport Independent School District.
Menefee was captain of the basketball team his senior year at Highlands. He later attended Northern Kentucky University, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees. He received his master’s degree from Thomas More University. Menefee and newly hired Newport athletic director Kevin Reinhardt have common ties to Campbell County and NKU. Reinhardt was a multi-sport standout for the Camels and one of their best basketball players, going on to play at NKU.
In addition to his work as a teacher, Menefee has ties to Newport. Both his parents attended Newport High School. His grandfather was a salesman and had Newport stores as customers. Menefee’s wife is from Newport.
NKU HIRES NEW SOFTBALL COACH
Northern Kentucky University has named Morgan Gerak as its new softball coach, replacing Kathryn Gleason, who left NKU in July to become head coach at Northern Illinois University.
Gerak has served as an assistant at NKU for the past two seasons. She has been part of the two most successful Norse seasons in the NCAA Division I era. That includes NKU’s first Power Five victories over Michigan State in 2023 and Michigan in 2024. It also features the school’s first Horizon League tournament championship and first NCAA regional appearance in 2023.
Gerak is now the youngest head softball coach in NKU history and worked primarily with the pitching staff. She also helped with the offense, recruiting, academics and team travel in her first two years at the school. The Norse led the Horizon League in opposing batting average (.249) and shutouts (8) last season. They were second in strikeouts (267), wins (27) and saves (8).
Gerak came to NKU after a successful tenure as a graduate assistant at Northwestern University. Like Gleason, Gerak is an Illinois native and a DeKalb native. She graduated from DeKalb High School in 2015.
Gleason left NKU as the second-winningest female softball coach with 173 wins in nine years. She led the Norse to a Horizon League title last season and their first NCAA Tournament appearance. Gleason returns to Illinois with nearly 250 career wins at NKU and Boston University.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL OFFERS – BOYS
Newport’s Tay Kinney has received another offer from the NCAA Division I basketball team, adding Kansas to the list of more than 30 colleges. Kinney, a tryout for the USA Basketball U17 national team in 2024, also has a current offer from Florida State. The junior’s offer list includes Arkansas, Auburn, Cincinnati, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame and Ohio State. He also has offers from Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Tennessee, Villanova, Virginia and Xavier, to name a few. He plans to attend Kentucky.
Newport basketball player Yamil Rondon has received a college basketball tournament offer from Kentucky Christian University. Rondon, a 6-foot-4 point guard who transferred from Cooper as a junior, averaged 13 points per game last season. He has played internationally for Puerto Rico, most recently for the men’s U17 national team.
Cooper basketball player Andy Johnson has recently received offers from Division I colleges. They include offers from Boston University, Illinois-Chicago, Morehead State, North Florida and Youngstown State. The senior received his first D-1 offer from Eastern Kentucky University in July. Johnson, a 6-foot-5 combo guard, is back to 100% after a wrist injury that limited him to playing in just 10 games his junior season. He scored 15.3 points per game, the most on the team. He averaged 25 points in the first two games of the season before the setback.
Former Covington Catholic basketball player Caden Miller has received college offers from High Point University and Texas-Arlington. Miller, listed as a 6-foot-1, 220-pound forward, is originally from Arkansas. Before heading to college, he will pursue graduate studies at Moravian Prep National in North Carolina. He is the son of former Bengals linebacker Caleb Miller. In his lone season at CovCath, Miller averaged 15.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. He was named the ninth regional player of the year by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches, making him a candidate for the Mr. Kentucky Basketball award.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL OFFERS – GIRLS
Notre Dame Academy basketball player Emma Holtzapfel received her first Division I offer from Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. Holtzapfel, a 6-foot-1 forward, averaged 9.4 points and 3.6 rebounds last season. She was the Pandas’ best three-pointer, making 80 of 221 three-pointers, or 36.2%.
Haylee Noel of Cooper has received D-1 college offers from Northern Kentucky University and Western Kentucky University. Noel, just a sophomore, averaged 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season, the most on the team. As a freshman, she hit nearly 50% of her shots from the field, 40% on 3-pointers and 80% on free throws.
Jayden McClain of Ryle has received more D-1 offers, with the latest coming from the University of Central Florida and Southern Methodist University. McClain, a 6-foot-5 eighth-grader center, is the daughter of 6-foot-4 former University of Cincinnati post player Anthony “Biggie” McClain. Physically stronger, she could begin her ascent after playing in 26 limited games as a seventh-grader. McClain already has several Division I offers, including from Florida State, Kentucky and Ohio State.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL OFFERS
Beechwood football player Luke Erdman received his second offer to a Division I college football team this month, one from the University of Dayton. Erdman, a senior wide receiver and defensive back for the Tigers, caught 50 passes for 1,133 yards last season. He also scored 16 touchdowns. His sprint speed allowed him to average nearly 23 yards per catch.
Covington Catholic football player Andrew Huber received his first Division I offer from the University of Dayton. Huber, a senior, is a 6-foot-5, 250-pound two-way lineman for the Colonels and plays guard and tackle on offense.
Related
