Kentucky
Bass fishing titles on the line for 5 Northern Kentucky teams at state
In these days of cell phones, social media and hundreds of TV channels, teenagers have a lot of distractions.
To be good in fishing, you have to set all of that aside and be locked in to what you’re doing for eight or more hours.
Ten Northern Kentucky high schoolers will take on that challenge this weekend at the Kentucky High School Athletic Association state bass fishing tournament. The event is a two-day competition, May 8-9, at the Kentucky Dam Marina in Gilbertsville, western Kentucky.
Anglers can catch a maximum of five fish per day. Teams win by accumulating the highest total weight of fish.
“I’m pretty excited,” said Covington Catholic junior Drew Berling, one of the competitors. “Fishing up in Northern Kentucky doesn’t get a lot of recognition and hopefully we can do pretty well.”
Berling and teammate Eli Scroggins are one of five two-person teams that will have a boat in the competition after qualifying from the Region 2 tournament in Jamestown. They finished 14th in the regional.
Grant County has two boats. Hunter Lilly and Kyle Lilly finished third in the regional, Brian Hamm and Raymond Hamm finished 27th. Bishop Brossart’s Cooper Lackey and Paxton Litmer finished sixth. Ryle’s Tanner Norman and Owen Miller placed 28th.
Berling and Scroggins finished 49th in the state meet last year. Scroggins is competing at state for the third straight season.
Northern Kentucky has never won a bass fishing state title. CovCath has a strong recent history of success, with three top-10 finishes in the past five seasons, including second place by Brandon Smith and Phoenix Parks in 2024.
Grant’s Hunter Lilly finished 14th last year with a different partner. Dixie Heights had a fourth-place showing in 2015.
Berling, who has been fishing since seventh grade, said constant communication is a key between the partners.
“I like being out in the water and hanging out with my buddies,” he said. “Being out in the water is fun.”
While it’s fun, you have to be laser focused on what’s going on in the water. Patience is key.
“You can’t just be screwing around in the boat,” Berling said. “You got to really lock in and focus on the goal, which is to win the tournament. If you’re not focused, you’ll lose fish. You might pass over something that potentially holds the tournament-winning fish.”
The closest competition water to Northern Kentucky is Williamstown Lake, where Berling and others compete once or twice a week.
Berling said like any other sport the ability to stay in the present after a mistake is also important.
“If you’re angry and frustrated it’s pretty easy to lose your focus,” he said. “You just have to move past it.”
Kentucky
Secretary of State launches statewide Kentucky Time Capsule Project commemorating America's 250th
In the dog days of the summer, there’s not a whole lot going on across college athletics. We are currently receiving some fun, short clips highlighting the upcoming team practices.
One recent piece of news that caught our attention is that all the main recruiting sites have updated their high school rankings recently. 247 Sports updated their rankings a few weeks ago, while ESPN and Rivals updated theirs on Monday.
Several notable names for Kentucky have moved around slightly, so let’s take a look at where they are now.
Kentucky’s lone commit in the 2027 class to this point comes in at No. 20 on ESPN, No. 19 on Rivals, and No. 12 on 247 Sports. He was also bumped down to 4-star status at ESPN and Rivals.
Hampton has been a polarizing player: Some are very high on him and think he could be the best scorer in the class, while others believe he will be a project piece and has some big-time growing to do before he gets anywhere close to his ceiling.
It appears Hampton will need a strong end to the AAU season if he wants to regain 5-star status at Rivals and ESPN.
Spears is the cousin of Kentucky commit Ryan Hampton, son of an NFL great, and a highly sought-after forward in this class. He’s still slotted at No. 1 on ESPN and 247 Sports, but shockingly, Rivals dropped him down to No. 7 overall as a 4-star prospect. Their new rankings only have a pair of 5-star prospects.
Still, Spears is one of the players that people are most confident in overall and see a pretty high ceiling for. With the 6’9 frame and a super versatile offensive bag, Spears Jr. is being pursued by almost every coach and program in the entire country so far.
Remember the guy that Mark Pope and Mikhail McClean went fishing with? Well, here he is. Rosser, similar to Spears with position and size, is a big-time target for the entire country. He’s 6’9 with a strong build and is very capable of translating right away at the next level with his physicality.
Rosser is now No. 4 on ESPN, No. 1 on Rivals, and No. 3 on 247 Sports.
Kentucky cast a pretty wide net for this class of 2027, across many positions. Some other notable names that Mark Pope and this staff have reached out to and talked to are PG Beckham Black (No. 2 on ESPN, No. 3 on Rivals, and No. 2 on 247 Sports), SF Demarcus Henry (No. 3 on ESPN, No. 5 on Rivals, and No. 5 on 247 Sports), CG Adan Diggs (No. 5 on ESPN, No. 2 on Rivals, and No. 4 on 247 Sports). That’s just a few of the top names that Kentucky has shown interest in, and has gone to watch play a time or two.
It’s only July, but the recruiting never stops, especially in Lexington.
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