Dan Weber Just Sayin’: Summer reunion, swimming in the Seine, winning football, hitting home runs

It’s the biggest and best get-together of the year. It’s the annual Summer Reunion for the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame that comes along Wednesday, Aug. 21, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Gardens of Park Hills. Tickets are $10 at the door. Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo , now the leader of his own band, will be the guest speaker and will sign autographs after the event.

Awards to be presented for their service and impact on Northern Kentucky sports begin with the Tom Fricke Service Award to the late Derrick Rhoden . Thomas More history professor Dr. Ray Hebert will receive the James Claypool Award. Pam Kordenbrock will receive the Pat Scott Award. The Bill Cappel Award will go to former Covington mayor Denny Bowman . And the Joe Brennan Leadership Award will go to – appropriately – the just-retired president of the NKSHOF, Joe Brennan .

NO SEINE SWIM MEDAL FOR WALTON’S DENIGAN

It was never going to be easy competing in the 10,000-meter open water swim in the cleaned-up-to-the-tune of $1.5 billion Seine in the Paris Olympics, especially when the health reports made it an on-again, off-again venue. But the Seine is where the open swim was early Thursday for Walton’s Mariah Denigan , the Indiana University swimmer competing for the USA. Veteran Sharon Van Rouwendaa l from the Netherlands beat out Australia’s Moesha Johnson by 5.5 seconds in what is almost a photo finish in the 10,000-meter swim.

Denigan came in 16th, right behind US teammate Katie Grimes , 3:08.07 behind the winner, in the first Olympics for the onetime Florence Swim Club competitor and Kentucky state record holder.

HIGHLANDS, KENTUCKY TEAMS TOP PREP FOOTBALL NATIONALLY

Who knew? According to Sports Illustrated , three of the all-time winningest high school football programs in the nation are from Kentucky. And they’re names you know. Louisville Male (948-340-49) is tied with Ohio power Massillon (948-299-36) for the No. 2 spot, just a game behind No. 1 Valdosta, Ga. (949-259-34). No. 4 is Beechwood rival Mayfield (947-264-32), the defending state championship team the Tigers have battled against for years in Kentucky football.

But sitting at No. 5 nationally is Highlands (932-262-26), winner of 23 state championships in Kentucky, after a 12-2 season a year ago. Interestingly, Male and Highlands scrimmaged this past weekend in Louisville in a meeting of teams with a combined 1,880 wins between them.

Y’ALLS WITH BIG ROAD WIN

It started Wednesday with a win against the first-place Washington Wild Things, ending their nine-game win streak on the road with the Florence Y’alls battling and batting their way to a 7-5 win and now with victories in four of five series since the All-Star break. Home runs from Stephen Hrustich, Sergio Gutierrez and TJ Reeves gave the Y’alls the punch to pull this one out with relievers taking down 12 straight batters between the fifth and ninth innings to hold off the Wild Things.

The Y’alls did it again and then some Friday against Joliet with a four home run night as Hank Zeisler, Justin Lavey, Dalton Davis and Hrustich , again, with a grand slam (the team’s seventh this season) that has them now at 37-39 after Saturday’s late 8-7 loss despite three more home runs from TJ Reeves, Zade Richardson and Brian Fuentes .

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com . Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.

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