Boys' golf rivals expect to keep on rolling

CovCath, Ryle set to vie for regional again

By Marc Hardin, Enquirer Contributor

Expect the neck-and-neck golf rivalry between Covington Catholic and Ryle to continue unimpeded this season.  "It's us and them every year for the title," Ryle senior Blake Hamilton said. "Last year, they beat us in the regional after we won three years in a row. We definitely don't want them to win twice in a row."

The Colonels and Raiders have represented the region at the state tournament each of the past nine years. Last season, CovCath ended Ryle's run as three-time Seventh Region champion, but Hamilton became the Raiders' fifth individual winner in nine years. CovCath won the team crown from 2001-06, but did not make the first-day cut at last year's state event, in which Ryle placed tied for eighth.  The Colonels, winners by four shots at the regional, lost three of their top five scorers. The Raiders are returning their top four players. Hamilton, 20th at state, is joined by fellow senior Chris Desmarais, junior Paul Clancy and sophomore Zach Adams. Sophomores Davis McNichol and Hunter Hughes and freshman Logan Gamm comprise a strong top seven.

"I like how a lot of our guys are younger," Desmarais said. "It means we'll still be strong after the seniors leave."

Ryle coach Jonathan Ehlen won the region as a Raider in 2002 before embarking on a successful golf career at Northern Kentucky University. He has been exposed to a variety of ways to improve play and evaluate talent. His Wednesday team tryouts at the Golf Ranch in Burlington involved a skills test featuring 15 playing stations at which each golfer had three swings to score. Each shot received a score of 1-3.

"Davis had the best score, so that says how deep we are," Ehlen said. "I think our top seven or eight guys are pretty close in ability and that allows me a lot of flexibility for all these tournaments we're going to be playing in."

By the time they reach the regional, the Raiders will have been tournament-tested. Ryle is slated to participate in 13 tournaments and an Aug. 17 18-hole event against CovCath at Triple Crown.

"We are not playing one 9-hole match all season," Ehlen said. "In college, I learned how tournaments help you get better. One of the things about a tournament setting is it allows kids to play against other golfers and on other courses that they don't see as much, in a college setting. And college coaches come to these tournaments."

The Raiders will begin their season Monday at the Shelbyville Invitational at Weissinger Hills Golf Course, and they will play in six events the first two weeks. They will have new uniforms and new gear.

"We let the team pick out everything, from shirts and pants to bags and shoes, and we let them design the bags," Ehlen said. "Everything is trendy, right down to the white belt that (PGA golfer) Rickie Fowler likes to wear. We think it boosts their confidence when they step to the tee and look the part of a successful golfer."

Also new is the Raiders' conditioning program, which focuses less on lifting weights and more on running and building range of motion and power through compound movements that simulate a golf swing. Workouts will begin at 6 a.m. each school day.

"The kids don't like me for it, but it will pay off in the end," Ehlen said.

Boys' golf rivals expect to keep on rolling

Ryle's Desmarais wins Jr. title

Written by Marc Hardin, Enquirer Contributor

Chris Desmarais continued a Ryle High School tradition during Tuesday's final round of the Northern Kentucky 7-Up Junior Golf Tour Championship at Boone Links by becoming the third Raider in a row to win the 18-under boys' title.

Desmarais, an incoming senior, shot a two-day score of 10-over-par 153. He edged runner-up Brad Litzinger (154) of Mason County. Incoming Northern Kentucky University freshman golfer Zach Wright (158) placed third among the six 18-under golfers who made the first-day cut.

Ryle senior-to-be Blake Hamilton won the 18-under event the past two years.  Desmarais carded five birdies for a 77 the first day at Lassing Pointe, but that was only good for a three-way tie with Wright and Dixie Heights' Blake Adkins. Desmarais had just one birdie during the second round. But he came in one shot better, with a 76, thanks to bevy of pars.

"The first day, I started well and I ended well," Desmarais said. "Usually, I start slower. But I birdied 4 and 5 and then I birdied 12, 15 and 18. That gave me momentum for the second day."  It was Desmarais' third birdie-propelled victory on tour this season. He won with six birdies at Fairways en route to a score of 4-under 67 and he carded five birdies while shooting 5-under 67 at Triple Crown.

"My irons have been better and I'm hitting a lot of greens. I'm a good putter, so that helps," said Desmarais, who relies on accuracy off the tee as a way to compensate for a still-developing long game.

"A win like this gives me a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum for the high school season."

Ryle's Desmarais wins Jr. title

Ryle grad scored national Word honors

By Justin B. Duke • jbduke@nky.com

A Ryle High School grad’s word processing skills earned her national recognition.  Kathleen Langsdale, who just graduated from Ryle, was named a finalist in the United States Competition on Microsoft Office for using Word 2007.

Langsdale got into the competition through a program at Ryle that would help her become certified in the software.  Langsdale’s teacher Lora Evans told her a company named Certiport offers a competition along with the certification.  “I thought, ‘Sure, I’ll try it,’” Langsdale said.

Langsdale was one of 72,000 students who competed.  The competition involved tests on a number of skills needed to make use of all that Microsoft Word does.  “It’s just a bunch of different things,” Langsdale said.

Langsdale took her test during the school year, and didn’t hear anything for some time until she was on vacation after school ended. She was notified she won third place in the U.S.  “I was really surprised,” Langsdale.

Langsdale is getting ready to head to the University of Kentucky where she plans to study marketing. She’ll take advantage of her Word skills a lot over the next few years, she said.

“It’ll be pretty useful, I think,” Langsdale said.

Ryle grad scored national Word honors

Former Ryle standout flourishing on UK’s golf course

By Adam Turer • kysports@communitypress.com

When you’re comfortable playing against PGA Tour pros, facing off against the country’s top collegiate golfers is not quite as fearsome as it would otherwise be.

For Ryle High School alum and University of Kentucky golfer Cody Martin, playing against the best helps him improve his game.

Martin was a five-time letterwinner for the Ryle golf program and graduated in 2009. He redshirted his first year at UK and was one of the team’s top players last season.  Martin spent part of his offseason trying to qualify for the U.S. Open.

For the second time in three years, he advanced to the sectional qualifier, the second step in qualifying for the Open. In June, he competed in the sectional qualifier in Columbus. Martin was in a grouping with PGA Tour pros, but was not intimidated by their play.

“It was definitely a good learning experience,” said Martin, who shot a 67 in the first round before fading over the next two days. “The pros are a little more polished than I am. Our good shots are the same, but their bad shots are better than my bad shots. I’m close, they’re just a little ahead of me now.”

It is no surprise that Martin feels at home competing against professionals considering that his father, Doug, spent nine years on the PGA Tour. The elder Martin was a three-time All-American golfer at the University of Oklahoma and has been Cody’s personal coach since the son picked up his first club.
Living in Lexington, the biggest challenge for Cody has been not having his father nearby to help him with his game. When he was in high school, Martin could come home from school or practice and ask his dad to critique his game. Now, that assistance comes primarily over the phone.

“The biggest difference now is that I can’t see my dad every day,” Martin said. “I’ve learned how to figure things out on my own and become a student of my own game.”  There are several other differences between the college game and high school that Martin has noticed. If you were the best golfer on your high school team, as Martin was at Ryle, chances are each of your teammates and opponents was the best player on their high school team as well.

“In high school, most of us were the big fish in a little pond. Now, it’s the opposite,” said Martin. “In high school, I could have an off day and still win the tournament. Now, I can play three great rounds and still finish out of the top 10 if I have one bad round.”

The courses are also much nicer and more consistent at the college level, said Martin. He particularly enjoys playing Bulls Bay in South Carolina each year. Martin had his best tournament last season at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Ala.  “The worst course we play in college would probably be one of the best, if not the best, courses we played in high school,” Martin said. “That’s definitely one of the best things about playing college golf.”

The Wildcats play their first tournament in September, but Martin said he has been preparing for this season since February. Entering his redshirt sophomore season, Martin has high expectations for himself and his teammates.

“I think this will be our best team since I’ve been here,” he said. “We return our top three players from last fall. I think we’ll be a deeper and more consistent team this year.”

Former Ryle standout flourishing on UK’s golf course

Slicing ACT scores three ways

The link to the Prichard Blog below discusses the 3 ways that a student's ACT score can used for "career & college readiness".

1. To be counted as college-and-career-ready by the Kentucky Department of Education, high school students will need ACT scores of 18 in English, 19 in mathematics, and 20 in reading. Those are the scores that will count under the state's new accountability rules that will be applied to scores for 2011-12. The new Kentucky Board of Education regulation on that is not yet final, but it's far enough along to treat those rules as about to be come official.
2. To avoid developmental courses, students need those same scores when they enroll in public community colleges or universities. With those scores, they can start their college career taking classes that can earn credits toward graduation, saving time, money and work on the way to their degree. For Kentucky public higher education, those scores the "systemwide standard" set in Council for Postsecondary Education regulation.
3. To be admitted to some colleges and universities, students will need higher scores than that. For example, University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville expect higher performance. Students should check the websites of schools they may want to attend.
4. To meet college-readiness benchmarks identified by ACT, Inc., students need an 18 in English, a 22 in mathematics, a 21 in reading, and a 24 in science. Those results show scores that give students a 75% chance of earning a C and a 50% chance of a B in selected entry-level college courses, based on combining results from a variety of schools.

Slicing ACT scores three ways

Kentucky graduation rate likely to drop as state uses new way to calculate

By Jim Warren — jwarren@herald-leader.com

The Kentucky Department of Education will release the latest report on Kentucky's high school graduation rate this week, and officials say the numbers will be lower than in previous years.  That doesn't necessarily mean fewer Kentucky students are finishing high school. Rather, education officials say, it reflects a different method of computing the rate of graduations.

The most recent available Kentucky graduation rate, for the 2008-09 school year, was 83.91 percent.
"You can expect this new rate to be a lower number than that," Lisa Gross, spokeswoman for the state education department, said last week. "I wouldn't say you'll see a 20- or 30-point drop. But you might see a 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, maybe 8-point drop.  However, you really can't compare the numbers with previous years because they're based on a different way of calculating the rates."

Kentucky will use that computational method this year and next year before adopting a new, uniform national system for calculating graduation rates starting in the 2013-14 school year. Many states will start using that system this year, but Kentucky isn't ready.

It's all part of a general move toward a more accurate measurement of high school graduation rates across the country, and educators predict many states will see their rates fall sharply as the new system goes into effect.

Accurately knowing high school graduation rates is crucial as a measure of how well the education system is doing in keeping students in school.

In earlier years, states used various methods for computing their graduation rates. And critics often contended that many states employed formulas that undercounted the number of school dropouts, artificially inflating their graduation results.

Liz Utrup, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, recently told The Associated Press that graduate-rate numbers probably will go down "across the board" as states adopt the new uniform system.

"Through this uniform method, states are raising the bar on data standards and simply being more honest," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP.

According to Gross, Kentucky previously computed its graduation rates by totaling the number of high school graduates in a given year, then considering the number of students who dropped out of school during the previous four years and certain other factors.

The report that will be released Tuesday for the 2009-10 school year will be based on what's called an "averaged freshman graduation rate," according to Gross. It's intended to provide a clearer picture of graduation rates while meeting requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.  The state also will release an "adjusted" graduation rate this week that includes students with disabilities who receive "certificates of completion" rather than high school diplomas.

Both those systems are only an interim step while Kentucky prepares to start using the new uniform national system in 2013-14. Gross said the state's computerized student information system isn't ready to do the kind of record keeping the new "cohort" uniform system will require.  According to Gross, the new system basically will be able to follow each child from the time he or she enters ninth grade until graduation.

Susan Weston, an educational analyst with the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, says the interim computing system that Kentucky will use this year and next year to compute its graduate rate "may make things look a little worse than they actually are." But she foresees major improvements in computing the graduation rates when Kentucky adopts the new uniform national system — even though the more accurate rates are likely to show that the state still has much to do to increase graduations.

"I'm inclined to think the number two years from now is going to be a lot better, a lot more accurate," Weston said. "I think it will look a little less like a screaming disaster ... but still like something that we really want to change."


Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/31/1829562/states-graduation-rate-will-be.html#ixzz1TieRgObb

Heat Advisories

Please be careful during the next few weeks as we are predicted to have some extremely hot weather.

Our athletic programs will follow the KHSAA policies on heat.  You can view them and other heat related information at http://www.khsaa.org/sportsmedicine/heat/.

During the day our athletic trainer will be taking taking heat and humidity measurements in order to calculate the heat index.  The head coaches will then be notified of the conditions.  The steps taken at that point may vary from a simple precaution to water breaks every 30 minutes to the cancellation of activities until the conditions improve.

Ryle Alum Receives Fulbright Award

July 8, 2011                                                                      Judy Hughes (502) 852-6171

                          Judy.hughes@louisville.edu

 

UofL alumna from Union receives Fulbright award

Julianne Nguyen is graduate of Larry A. Ryle High School

 

        LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Julianne Nguyen of Union is one of 14 University of Louisville scholars selected this year to study abroad through the U.S. Student Fulbright Program, a prestigious international exchange scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

 

        Nguyen, a spring 2011 graduate, received a Fulbright English teaching assistantship to Spain, where she will teach students in metropolitan Madrid.

 

        Since 2003, UofL students have received 60 Fulbright scholarships, more than any other university in Kentucky. Last year, also with 14 student winners, UofL was ranked in the top 20 Fulbright-producing schools in the nation.

 

        While at UofL, Nguyen majored in English. She was a National Merit finalist and received a Trustees Award Scholarship to UofL. She also has studied in China and Chile.

 

        Nguyen, a 2007 graduate of Larry A. Ryle High School, is the daughter of Quynh Phan of Louisville and John Nguyen of Akron, Ohio. 

 

        The Fulbright program is a federally sponsored international educational and cultural exchange that recognizes academic merit and leadership potential. The program promotes mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those in more than 155 countries throughout the world. Fulbrights are considered one of the most prominent awards in academia.

 

 

Congratulations Julianne Nguyen, Ryle Class of 2007!

 

NKY Enquirer Spring Sport All-Stars

The NKY Enquirer recently named their annual spring sport all-stars.  The article link is attached below: 
NKY spring all-stars named

Special congratulations go to Haylee Smith of the Lady Raider softball team.  She was named the NKY Enquirer Softball Player of the Year in addition to being a NKAC Division 1 first team selection.

Congratulations also goes to the following Ryle student-athletes that were named NKY Equirer All-Stars:

Cassie Hamilton - Softball
Honorable Mention Softball: Kate Cremer, Kate Rouse, Bella Steinle
Yushi Okita - Boys Tennis
Honorable Mention Boys Tennis: Logan North, Kento Akita, Evan Wagner
Honorable Mention Girls Tennis:  Harlee Hornsby, Maddie Lucas
Honorable Mention Girls Track:  Gabby Gonzales, Ashlee Howe
Travis Elliott - Boys Track
Jeff Huntley - Boys Track
Honorable Mention Boys Track:  Tanner McConvey
Honorable Mention Baseball:  Matt Gorbandt, Conner Hempel, Caleb Lonkard, Leiff Clarkson, Tyler O'Bryan

Congratulations also go out to Patti Oliverio for being named the NKY Enquirer Softball Coach of Year.  She led the Lady Raiders to a 32-10 record, their second consecutive 9th region championship and second consecutive top 8 finish at the state tournament.

Congratulations to these award winners and to all of our spring sport student-athletes for a great year.  Thanks to all of our parents, community members, and coaches for their hard work in supporting our students!

Ryle High School: Creme-de-la-creme

Check out this article from WLEX in Lexington.

http://www.lex18.com/news/ryle-high-school-creme-de-la-creme/

Happy Fourth of July!

On Independence Day we would like to thank and honor the people, past, present and future, that have served our country in the military.

We would also like to honor the men and women that serve our country in other ways.  Our country needs strong people to serve in federal, state, and local government and others are needed to volunteer for service and activities to help everyone in our communities.

Enjoy your 4th of July with friends and family!