Mid-October Sports Wrap Up

Senior+ozone+leaders+pose+with+the+Highlands+Bluebird.

Lexie Crawford

Senior ozone leaders pose with the Highlands Bluebird.

From October 10-19th, a lot of exciting events happened within the realm of Bluebird athletics. Between golf, soccer, volleyball, football, and cross country, the different teams made Highlands proud through their dedication to their sport. 

Starting out with golf, the State Tournament was held from Thursday October 10th to Saturday October 12th. The tournament was located at Bowling Green Country Club and golfers from both the girls’ and boys’ teams made it to state. On the girls’ side of things, sophomore KJ Toole and junior Ellie Rowland qualified, but were eliminated after the first round. Both girls shot a 91 for 18 holes. On the boys side, juniors Luke Muller and Justin Gabbard qualified as well for state and made an excellent run, with Gabbard finishing in 22nd (+9) and Muller in 55th (+22). 

Girls’ soccer has also been impressive recently with their double victories over Dixie High School on October 16th and Notre Dame on the 19th. The game versus Dixie proved to be an exciting one as the score was still tied at 0-0 after regulation time was called. In the first five minute overtime period, with a minute and fourteen seconds left on the clock, senior Maria Broering made a corner kick to her sister sophomore Faith Broering who scored the game winning header. This win allowed the girls to move on to the regional final on Saturday where they faced Notre Dame. Previously in the season, the girls had tied them once and lost once, but they were able to pull off a 2-1 win, advancing to the state tournament.

The boys’ soccer team is also heading down the road to state after their double victories against Ryle High School on October 15th and Covington Catholic High School on the 19th. The boys crushed Ryle with an impressive 5-0 win, with two of the five goals scored by senior Porter Hedenberg and the other three scored by senior Alex Foubert, junior Ben Fischer, and junior Brayden Gillman. Junior Max Farris was also cleared from his foot injury and returned to play on the 19th.

 Athletic director Kevin Nieporte states, “The Bluebirds will get much needed help from Farris who returns from a foot injury.” 

The Birds got much needed help indeed as they triumphed against Covington Catholic 3-2, advancing with the girls along to the state finals for a second consecutive #doubledatetostate.

Volleyball had an exciting night on October 17th, where the JV and Varsity teams took on Conner High School. The Varsity team took home an 3-0 triumph against Conner, keeping them in the first place ranking for Region 9. The game on Thursday was also senior night, and seniors Rylee Kirschenbaum, Brooke Biltz, Casey Dunn, Audrey Graves, and Ava Hockney were all recognized for their dedication to the sport.

Cross country also had a great week, competing in both NKAC Conference and Freshman Regionals. Conference was held on October 12th at Idlewild Park. Both teams had a nice showing with the girls coming in 2nd and the boys in 3rd. Freshman regionals was held this year at Scott High School~ an unfamiliar course to most of the runners. However, despite the unfamiliarity, both the girls’ and boys’ teams won. The girls were led by freshman Alyssa Harris, who won the race. The boys were led by freshman Sam Hopper, who won his race as well. Other notable performances were freshmen John Laskey (2nd), Ruby Smith (3rd), and Eden Brumer (2nd).

To sum up the week, Highlands played their longtime rivals, the Covington Catholic Colonels, in football on Friday, October 18th. In order to get the schools hyped up, a friendly competition was held in which the schools competed in bringing the most money to donate to Kick it for Cancer. Each advisory class also competed head to head in trying to build up their spirit chain the most, with a promise of a pizza party for the winner. Highlands ended up crushing CovCath in donating the most money, bringing in over $4000. The game itself ended up a 13-0 loss which, although it was a bit disappointing to the pinked out ozone and other fans, was still a good game as CovCath’s team is very strong this year.

This past week and weekends proved to be a very exciting time for all of the Bluebird athletes. As many seasons conclude or wind down, the Birds will hopefully continue making their school and peers proud in the world of Bluebird athletics.