Thursday, December 25, 2008

Boys Basketball Update From Last Weekend

Ryan Jones
WeAreColerain.com


It was a busy and successful weekend for the boys’ basketball team as they beat Fairfield 57-50 at home on Friday night and followed that up with a convincing victory at Harrison 61-27 on Saturday night to move to 5-1 on the season and 1-1 in the GMC.

Friday night’s game against Fairfield was a hard-fought contest that ended with Colerain earning their first GMC win of the season. Although Colerain led the game wire-to-wire, the lead was down to just 2 points with under a minute left in the fourth quarter when senior Dan Friedhoff hit a huge jump-shot from the baseline to put the Cards up by 4. And even though Colerain was horrendous from the free throw line all night making a paltry 7 free throws on 20 attempts, they were able to add on 3 points from the charity stripe in the final 30 seconds to give the Cardinals a comfortable 7 point victory over the Indians.

Despite a great game from Fairfield’s Phillip Harris, who had 20 points and 6 rebounds and – only standing at about 5’ 10” tall – also threw down a pair of slam dunks, Colerain was able to win by shooting an extremely efficient 61.5% from the field.

Saturday’s game at Harrison wasn’t nearly as close as Colerain dominated the Wildcats from start to finish. Harrison couldn’t handle Colerain’s full court press as the Cards played absolutely suffocating defense all night and held the Wildcats to a staggering 17.6% shooting from the field. Junior Ken Kunkel added 15 points and 13 rebounds while playing only 19 minutes as Colerain pummeled Harrison 61-27 and moved to 5-1 on the season.


Coach Higgins added these remarks regarding last weeks games:
So far we have been able to win a few close games. The Fairfield game was very big for us because it was a league game and it gives the players some confidence going into the last games of 2008. We established a goal for our kids after the Middletown game that we wanted to be 6-1 for 2008 and we are now one game closer to that goal.(The Kings game was postponed due to weather). Every win we can get helps these players believe they can compete with teams in our league.

Coach Higgins also wanted to point out that the boys freshman basketball team is also off to a flying start with a 5-1 record as they begin GMC play. Great job, Cards.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Boys Basketball Game Cancelled

AD Dan Bolden announced this afternoon that the Colerain home basketball game with Kings (Tuesday, December 23)was cancelled due to weather as icy conditions have made travel hazerdous especially in the I-71 corridor.
A make up date has not been announced at this time. Check back to www.WeAreColerain.com for information on a make up date when it has been announced.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Girls Weekly Update

Ryan Jones
www.WeAreColerain.com

Girls Basketball Week in Review 12/15 – 12/21

The Lady Cardinals basketball team suffered their first loss of the season this week as they fell to Mason on Wednesday night 65-57, but managed to rebound with a win at home Saturday afternoon over Oak Hills, 64-39.

Colerain was not able to avenge last season’s tournament loss to Mason as they lost to the Lady Comets in a tough game, 65-57. The Lady Cards actually led by a point heading into the fourth quarter but couldn’t close the deal as Mason’s offense was on fire in the final period. The usually stingy Colerain defense allowed Mason to shoot 47.8% from the field, which you rarely see against a Lady Cards D.

For some reason the Lady Comets seem to have Colerain’s number. Going back to last season the Lady Cards are 12-3 in their past 15 games with all 3 losses coming to Mason.

On Saturday afternoon the girls got back on track with a dominating win over Oak Hills, 64-39. Ten different Cardinals scored in this game as Colerain shot 51% from the field and held Oak Hills to 26.4% shooting. The victory moved Colerain to 6-1 on the season and 3-1 in conference play.

The Lady Cards are off this week until Saturday afternoon when they host Mount Healthy (2-3, 2-1) at 2:00. After that they travel to McAuley (1-5, 1-2) on Tuesday at 7:30.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Early Look at Future Colerain Opponent/School

By Chris Himonidis
(note: the contract for this game has not yet been signed but a verbal agreement is in place)

As previously announced exclusively here at WeAreColerain.com, Colerain High School football will take on DuPont Manual High School out of Louisville, KY in week 3 of the 2009 football season, pending a signed return contract from Manual. As anyone who follows Colerain football knows, finding opponents has been a real challenge for Colerain for many years so to lock down a potential 2-year, home and home commitment from anyone is a big deal. Below is a high level view of DuPont Manual High School for the Cardinal faithful. Enjoy!

Quickie Stats (from www.manualfootball.com):
Name: Dupont Manual High School
Location: Louisville, KY
Nickname: Crimsons
Colors: Crimson and White
Enrollment – Grades 10-12: 601 Boys, 798 Girls, total of 1,399 (as of 06-07)
Interesting fact: Manual has unique status in that it is completely a Magnet school, meaning it has no local school area, and every student there has to be accepted. While the school is basically downtown most of the student population comes from the suburbs.

Notable football accomplishments:
• 5-time State Champion (’25, ’38, ’48, ’59, & ’66)
• 2-time National Champion (’25 & ’38)
Recent Regular Season Record: 26-10 (‘06-’08)
Recent Playoff Record: 3-3 (‘06-’08) with all three losses coming against Lou. St. Xavier
Chief Rival: Male High School – Have played 126 times since 1893. Own a 41-79-6 record in the rivalry.

Prelim Team outlook for ’09: The Crimsons will have a change at QB for the first time in three seasons. Offensively, Manual has run the Wing-T in the past and this shouldn’t change in ’09. They are not loaded with D1 players but they are coached very well and play as a cohesive unit. They are consistently near the top of the class in 6A (big school) football in Louisville just behind state & national powers Trinity and St. Xavier. They compare very favorably to a school like Lakota West or Sycamore.

School facts (from www.dupontmanual.com):
duPont Manual-- The Magnet High School is an optional, comprehensive high school offering unique academic programs for qualified students with special interests, talents, and ambitions. The Magnet High School offers motivated students the opportunity to combine strong academics with specialized instruction in one of five component areas: University Academic Center; Visual Arts; Communications Media Arts; Youth Performing Arts School; and Mathematics, Science, and Technology. The Advance Program is also available for eligible students. Through a working relationship with the University of Louisville, qualified students in all programs may take college courses for credit while attending duPont Manual. Students have access to more College Board Advanced Placement courses at Manual than at any school in Kentucky.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Lady Cards Off to Fast Start

Ryan Jones
www.WeAreColerain.com

The Colerain Girls’ Varsity basketball team is off to an outstanding 5-0 start and is currently ranked sixth in the Division 1 Enquirer Coaches Poll. The Lady Cards have not lost a step under new head coach Christi Mack, who has led the team to its second consecutive season with a 5-0 start.

Colerain’s first three opponents couldn’t come within double-digits as they beat Ursuline 60-48, Northwest 76-40, and Middletown 57-22.

The first challenge of the season came at Harrison on Wednesday night in a game that came down to the final minute. With Colerain up by a point with under a minute to go, the Lady Cards played some stingy defense and forced a bad shot by Harrison. On the other end of the floor senior guard Katie Comello, who was having a fairly quiet night by her standards due to some foul trouble, hit two big free throws and then stole the in-bounds pass and hit two more free throws to put the team comfortably ahead with about 30 seconds to play.

The Lady Cards were led in scoring that night by junior guard Ashley Wanninger, who had 22 points and five rebounds including a few timely 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to help put Colerain on top.

Colerain followed up that win on Wednesday with a win at home on Saturday afternoon over Fairfield in an ugly game with a final score of 49-38. The win was aided by a huge performance from senior Kara Patterson who contributed 9 points and a remarkable 16 rebounds, including 7 offensive boards. This effort helped offset an enormous game from Fairfield’s Brittany Fisher who had 21 points and 9 rebounds in a losing effort.

Early in the season, quite a few of the Lady Cards are putting up impressive numbers. Junior Ashley Wanninger currently leads the GMC in scoring average at 19.8 points per game; sophomore point guard Alexis Fitzpatrick is second in the GMC in assists, averaging 4.8 per game; senior Kara Patterson, with help from her big game against Fairfield, currently leads the GMG in rebounding with 10.3 rebounds per game; and senior Katie Comello is tied for second in the league in the steals category, averaging 3.8 steals per game.

But more importantly, Coach Mack currently has the team at 5-0 and playing some pretty good basketball on both ends of the floor. Not only is Colerain playing well on offense averaging 61.2 points per game, but they are playing some aggressive defense, allowing just 41.4 points a game while forcing an astounding 21.8 turnovers per game.

This week the Lady Cards travel to Mason (2-2, 1-1) on Wednesday where they have a huge score to settle with the Lady Comets. Last year Colerain’s season was ended early when they were upset by Mason in the state tournament in an exciting game that ended in heartbreak for the highly-ranked Colerain squad. They will be looking for a little revenge this week and could use some help from the fans, so make sure to show up and cheer on our undefeated Lady Cardinals this week at 7:30 up in Mason.

Also later this week Colerain will be hosting Oak Hills (3-2, 0-2) on Saturday at 2:00. So if you can’t make it to the Mason game this week, be sure to come out and support the team at our home gym.

Cardinals Thumped by Middletown

Colerain took one on the chin Friday night at Colerain as the second ranked Middies used a balanced offensive attack and suffocating defense to maul the Cards 82-42.
Game notes to be added later.

on a side note: Colerain's Ryan Foster leads the city in steals with an outstanding 3.7 per game average.

We were able to catch up with head coach Kevin Higgins for a few comments about the upcoming week in Colerain basketball.

WAC: Coach, you have a week off before your next game. Is there anything you can take away from the Middletown game to improve/build upon going foward?

Coach Higgins: We gathered a lot out of the game. It gave us a great indication on our weaknesses as a team. Some of them we can get better at and others we have to do a better job of hiding. We will focus on a lot of fundamentals and conditioning early in the week, focus on getting us better. With the Middletown game being the 4th game in 7 days, this week off gives us a chance to focus on ourselves and getting better as a team.

WAC: Coach, you mentioned the week off, but you follow that up with a brutal stretch of three games in a four day period before the holidays. How important is this stretch and how do you prepare for it as a team?

Coach Higgins:This next set of games is very important to us. We mentioned that right away to our team after the Middletown game. We feel we can compete and win each of the following games as long as we focus on getting better and improving in what we do as a team. We have to defend better and become more diverse on offense and have some players step up because of the recent losses from the team. Playing that many games is difficult because the ability to prepare for the opponent is limited so the players have to be able to adapt to different styles and players in short amount of time

WeAreColerain.com thanks coach Higgins for taking the time to give us insight to the Colerain basketball team. Come out and support your Cardinals. They'd love to hear the 'WE ARE COLERAIN' chant, too!

Go CARDS!Cardinals Thumped by Middletown

Friday, December 12, 2008

Booster Stag Information: Updated 12/30 with new date

Colerain Boosters 14th Annual Stag
When: Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Where: Kolping Center (corner of Mill and Springdale Rd.)
Guest Speaker: Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Marty Brennaman, the radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds.
Agenda: Social Gathering - 6:00 p.m./Dinner - 7:15 p.m./Program - 8:15 p.m.
Tickets: $50 each ($500 for a table of ten)
Available at Colerain High School's Athletic Office
741-5054 or 741-5068
osteda@nwlsd.org or boldda@nwlsd.org
Office Hours: 8am - 4:30pm

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Week 3 2009

Colerain has reached a tentative agreement to play Louisville DuPont Manuel next season. Game time and location was not disclosed as the contract for the game has not been completed.

Below is a link to Manuel's football website. Pretty good information and video posted. Louisville Male is Manuel's chief rival.

www.manualfootball.com

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cardinal Week in Review

Colerain defeated Ross, Mt. Healthy and Talawanda this past week.

Here are some tidbits from the week that was:

Highlights:

1. Record ( 3-0) through Dec. 9th
2. Individual Performances
- Ken Kunkel ( Junior): 21.3 pts., 6.7 reb., 2.7 stl., 81.8 ft%, 40.9 3pt%
- Josh Quigley ( Junior): 14.3 pts., 86.7 ft%
- Brandon Hunter ( Senior): 11 pts., 3.0 ast.
- Ryan Foster ( Senior): 3.7 stl.
- Jovante Harrison ( Junior): 4.7 ast., 2.0 stl.
3. Team Stats:
- Forcing 22 Turnovers per game
- Shooting 71.2 ft% ( Including 28-32 vs. Talawanda)
- 37.8 3pt %
- Averaging 66.7 pts. per game

Colerain takes on 2nd ranked Middletown on Friday at 7:30 @ Colerain. Please come out and support the Cards!