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Lexington Catholic’s second year
Head Coach Brandon Salsman, coming off a successful 23-7 season and a #5
ranking in the state of Kentucky, has anointed this season as the Season of Fun. The Knights lost 4 starters and two
subs upon whom Coach Salsman relied on to graduation leaving only two
seniors and a flock of juniors to anchor this year’s team. Seniors, Zach Newton (shooting
guard) and Seth Hillenmeyer (Forward/Center) will have plenty of help and
experience from juniors Nathan Novosel (3 years varsity), Taylor Stewart
(3yr), Jordan Smart (3yr), John Tribble (2yr), Tyler Corvin (2yr) and
sophomores Taylor Botkin (2yr) and Andy Donovan (2yr). A very talented and dedicated
group of under classmen will be competing for any extra seats that may be
available on the varsity bench.
As part of the Season of Fun, Coach Salsman and first year Athletic Director, Andy
Listerman, have put together a varsity schedule that has to be one of the
most challenging and exciting in the nation for a traditional high
school. There is a mix of
extremely high profile out of state teams, along with eight,
very tough city games, with Lexington Christian Academy, Tates Creek,
Lafayette and Paul Laurence Dunbar. The schedule also includes games with the usual surrounding
counties of Scott, Clark, Madison Central and Mason. In addition, other distant in-state visitors to the brand new floor in
the Reverend Robert J. Bueter, S.J. Athletic Center are Wayne County,
Clay County, Casey County and Covington Holy Cross.
After six weeks of practice, the
Knights head off to Louisville to play in the PRP Scrimmage where we will
take on the Dragons of Doss High School; 19-7 and ranked 26th in the
state last year. The
following Saturday, the Knights host the Lexington Pan-O-Rama where we
will take on arch-rival and Lexington power Henry Clay in what will be an
electrified setting for 30 minutes of hoops excitement. Other match-ups this day include:
Henry Clay vs. Simon Kenton (girls) Wolfe vs. Garrard, PRP vs. Lexington
Christian, Harlan vs. Allen Co. Scottville, Christian County vs Seneca
varsity game, plus the Lady Knight will scrimmage Cincinnati Glen Este.
This year’s first two games are
against a pair of very talented teams. The Season of Fun opener has the Indians of Covington Holy Cross visiting the
Lexington Catholic campus and welcome they are. Last year, in Coach
Salsman’s first game as head coach, the Indians upset the Knights. This
year's squad remembers that and will try very hard to erase that
defeat. Next up is district
foe Paul L. Dunbar whom we defeated 55-52 in last year’s 43rd district
championship game, but these very talented and feisty Bulldogs will be
ready to play.
On Dec 2, the Knights travel to the
highly regarded Marshall County HoopFest where we are pitted against an
Illinois powerhouse; the 2001 Class A state champ Panthers from
Pinckneyville Community High School. This team was ranked last year as #24 in the state of
Illinois (out of 679 schools) and 707 nationally (out of 15,000 schools)
on MaxPreps.com.
The next three games should provide
a lot of excitement and FUN.
First up will be Lexington Christian Academy, coached by long-time
Lexington Catholic assistance coach Tommy Huston. These Eagles will bring
a pressing defense, as well as a fast break offense to the Knight’s
castle. Next, Coach Allen
Feldhaus will welcome the Knights to Richmond, KY. His 2006 defending champs from the
11th region (and ranked # 2 behind Scott Co. in kentuckypreps.com's 11th
region pre-season report) will be ready to roll. The Indians feature Aaron Morris,
one of kentuckypreps.com's 2006 Top 12 players of the 11th Region. The Commodores of Tates Creek
will come a knocking for a JV – Varsity doubleheader on December 14, with
Michael Sparks, also a Top 12 11th region pre-season pick.
Then, our next out of state
opponent is at the 26th annual Great Florida Shootout, a tournament that
our Knights won in our State Championship year of 2002. The Knights will face some of the
best teams the country has to offer. Last year, a non-Florida school, Westfield High School
from Houston, TX (the site of the main stage @ each summer's fantastic
Kingwood Classic AAU Tournament) 35-1, won the champship in a blowout
over Edgewater, FL 79-37.
The Knights will be trying to show that we can compete at this
level again in 2006.
After that, it's back to Lexington
for the 10th annual Fifth Third Bank Holiday Classic. This year’s field of 24 Kentucky
teams has attracted some of the biggest names in Kentucky basketball this
year. Chase Minnifield of
Henry Clay High school, who is a leading contender for Mr. Football and
has made a verbal commitment to Virginia, will be leading his very strong
Blue Devil team. Mason
County has filled the void left by Chris Lofton’s departure to Tennessee
2 years ago with their new junior star, Darius Miller (6-7), to whom
Kentucky head coach Tubby Smith has offered a scholarship. Miller has a
very good supporting cast.
June Buchanan, a Class A powerhouse (23-6 and 14th region semifinalist)
will bring its star, Clark Stepp, who has 1000 points and 500 assists
entering his junior year.
Always powerful Male comes in with a team that is very strong and
athletic and includes another Mr Footbal top runner, Doug Beaumont. During this summer's play Male
had a great run at the Derek Smith Shoot Out beating Lexington Catholic
by one point with the Knight's last second shot from the corner rattling
in and out. Joining Male
from Louisville will be the two powerful Catholic schools, Trinity and
St. Xavier. Additional
Catholic schools will be St. Mary’s from Paducah, Covington Catholic and
Bishop Brossart from Northern Kentucky. Russell High School brings its sharp shooting guard,
Jonathan Vanhooose, a former 16th Region player of the year and fresh from his commitment to the University of
Evansville. He had a stellar
AAU run this summer with the Derek Smith All Stars/East. George Rogers Clark will be
bringing their high scoring duo of Preston Knowles and Tristan
Jones. Other schools that
will be spending time in Lexington over the holidays are, Clinton Co.,
Pendleton Co., Boyle Co., Bourbon Co. and Lincoln Co., along with Simon
Kenton, Louisville Central, DeSales, Covington Holmes, Johnson Central,
Apollo and Doss to round out the field.
As the new year begins, the real
interesting portion of the Knight's Season of Fun starts. The NISSAN on Nicholasville
Shootout will bring to the Bueter Center many nationally ranked teams
like Norcross GA with their three elite players, Gani Lawal 6-8 (Georgia
Tech), Tony Nesmith 6-3 (Oklahoma) and Jordon Emery (Florida) who will
play the Defenders of Bryan Station and the Madison Central Indians. Another top team is
Christian Life Academy of Baton Rouge, LA last year's Class 2A Louisiana
State Champion and their star David Dumb 6-7 a prep All-American. Christian Life brings its
assistant coach, Ben Wilson, back home having played for the Knights from
1996 to 2000 and was on the Knights 2000 State Championship runner up
team. The Knights of Lexington
Catholic first play the Wheeler Wildcats and their prep All Americans
J.J. Hickson, 6-9 (NC State) and Trey Lang 6-7. The next night the Wheeler Wildcats will get a look at
the Cardinals of South Laurel; the 2005 Kentucky State Champs and Notre
Dame bound, Ty Proffitt.
That same night in an earlier game, the Knights hook up with a
possible #1 ranked team in the country, the Arlington Country Day
Apaches, and prep All American and Kentucky bound 6-7 A.J. Stewart.
After a few home games with Casey
County Rebels and city foe and 2001 Kentucky State Champ Lafayette, the
Knights will go on the road to Memorial Coliseum on the campus of the
University of Kentucky to take on the 2 time defending West Virginia
State Champs, the Highlanders of Huntington High School, featuring top
five national recruit and prep All-American O.J. Mayo 6-5 (Southern Cal,
Florida and Kansas State) and his prep All-American teammate Patrick
Paterson 6-8 and top 14th player in the nation according to rivals.com
(Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, Wake Forest and West Virginia). As Coach Salsman said during the
press release announcing that Huntington and Arlington (could be ranked
#1 and #2 nationally) would be coming to play his Knights in
Lexington: “If nothing else,
these two weeks should prepare our Knights for post-season play” The two
time defending State Champ Lady Knights will also be in action as the
opening game of the 2007 Lexington Catholic Showcase against national
ranked Towson Catholic MD featuring prep All-American Marah Strickland.
In the season's first 14 games,
half of our games will have been against national competition. What a Season of Fun so far, but we have plenty more to go.
There is a Tuesday to Tuesday run
of four games, three with city rivals Lexington Christian, Tates Creek
and Dunbar and then take a trip up to Maysville, KY where the Knights
will visit the Royals of Mason County, Kentucky State Champs in 2003, in
their 6,200 seat Mason County Field House for what should be an exciting,
fast - paced contest. This rivalry dates back to the 2003 classic game at
the Fifth Third Holiday Classic (think Demetrius Green, Willie Graham,
Harrison Morton vs. Chris Lofton, Jarrod Litzinger, Dustin Grutza) when
the fire marshals locked the doors with hundreds still waiting to get in and
with Chris Lofton nailing a 40-footer @ the buzzer in OT and then the
re-match in the near sell-out and TV - covered game at UK’s Memorial
Coliseum. This year's
match-up will be against Mason Co.'s 2010 Mr. Basketball candidate &
UK recruit, 6'7" Darius Miller.
Next up is the Chad Helm Kentucky
Challenge, in its 7th year and an event that our Knights have never lost
to an out of state opponent.
In the 6 years the Kentuckians have a 29 to 16 advantage. Go Kentucky.
This year’s event matches
Kentucky’s Rose Hill Christian, the school made famous by O.J Mayo,
against the number 11th ranked team last year in Ohio, Cincinnati Oak
Hill. The next match up
features the Blue Devils of Henry Clay against the always nationally
ranked (#24) Eagles of Brentwood Academy TN. The Knights will then take on the Falcons of O’Neal
School NC in a tune up for closing out the season strong with five more
W’s. The Lady Knights will
also be taking on North Canton Hoover a high ranked team from Ohio.
In the final month of the regular
season we will be facing a re-match with the Generals of Lafayette at
their house, a visit from far off Clay County, a road trip to face 40th
District Champs and 10th Region runner-up Clark County, “the biggest in-state
game of the year” and a visit from our friends down in Wayne County to
close the season and celebrate our two seniors for their Season of Fun.
Now for the BIGGEST IN-STATE GAME
OF THE YEAR
Last year, our northern neighbors
in their scarlet clad uniforms had their way with the Knights and
eliminated us from the 11th Region Semi-Finials. These two groups of boys, mostly
juniors, have been matching up for 6 years since middle school, AAU play,
Freshman and JV ball and there will be no quarter given and none asked
for. Scott finished the year
rated # 1 in the state by Maxpreps.com even after they fell to Madison
Central in the 11th Region final.
Two years ago, in what may be the greatest 2 days in Lexington
Catholic basketball history (except winning the State Championship) the
Knights on consecutive nights knocked off #1 rated South Laurel on the
road and came back home the next night and took #2 Scott County down.
That was fun and a win at home over the
Cardinals will help make this truly a Season of Fun. Scott Co is ranked # 1 in the 11th Region & by many
polls # 1 in Kentucky going into this season. They are loaded with talent
with senior Matt Walls, junior Indiana committed Bud Mackey, junior Tyler
Portwood, junior Cam Hundley, & junior Jordan Lee.
March Madness starts with the
Districts from Feb 26 to March 2 and then the 11th Region from March 7 to
13 and on to Rupp Arena for the National City Bank/KHSAA Boys Sweet 16
from March 21 to March 24.
Winning the District, Region or
State would top off this
Season of Fun
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