Ryle rides Elliott, defense to 43-8 win over Tates Creek

By Mike Fields — mfields@herald-leader.com

Travis Elliott was the offensive star for Ryle, but the Raiders' defense earned the spotlight, too, in a 43-8 victory over Tates Creek in the iHigh Football Frenzy at Lafayette late Saturday night.

Tates Creek's loss meant that Lexington's five public schools went 0-for-5 in the weekend showcase.  Elliott distinguished himself as one of the MVPs. The 5-foot-11, 215-pound bruiser rushed 21 times for 164 yards and four touchdowns. He took direct snaps on quite a few plays, leaving no doubt he was going to keep the ball.

Tates Creek still couldn't stop him.

Elliott only ran once in the second half — 25 yards for a touchdown.

Elliott, who has committed to Western Kentucky, has a shot at eclipsing former Boone County (and NFL) star Shaun Alexander as Northern Kentucky's all-time leading rusher. Elliott is about 2,000 yards shy of Alexander's career total of 6,662 yards.  Elliott also completed two passes for 34 yards.
Elliott is also a linchpin on defense at linebacker, along with Mac Vollett, Daniel Osborne and Jake Nutter.

Tates Creek had all kinds of problems moving the football against the Raiders. The Commodores' first-half stats had them with 10 yards, including minus three passing. 

Elliott got the Raiders off to a strong start with two TDs and a two-point conversion in the first quarter.  His 8-yard score in the second quarter staked Ryle to a 22-0 halftime lead. It would've been more, but Elliott had a 43-yard punt return for a TD wiped out by a roughing-the-kicker penalty.  Quarterback Nathan Davis had a long run that set up his short TD in the third quarter to make it 29-0.   Tates Creek had 11 total yards at that point.

The Commodores finally moved the chains in the fourth quarter against Ryle's reserves and wound up with 161 yards.  Casey Grimes got Tates Creek's TD on an 11-yard run. Martrell Berry threw to Taiwan Hart for the two-point conversion to make it 43-8.

Ryle finished the night just shy of 400 yards, 288 on the ground.


Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/08/28/1860166/ryle-rides-elliott-defense-to.html#ixzz1WITXOyle

Men's Soccer Team Defeats Scott HS 1-0

Last night at Borland Stadium the Raider soccer team shutout Scott HS 1-0 in front of a great student section decked out in neon.

A good win for the Raiders as they improve to 5-1 on the season.  Next up is a home game on Tuesday against NewCath. 

Go Raiders!

Ryle hands NewCath first loss in girls' soccer

By Marc Harden, NKY Enquirer contributor

Ryle girls' soccer coach Edmundo Echeverria did something Wednesday that three coaches before him could not do - he guided the team to a win over Newport Central Catholic.

The Raiders beat the Thoroughbreds 3-1 for their first win of the season and dropped their nemesis from the ranks of the unbeaten.  "I know we haven't beaten them in a long time," Echeverria said. "So it's a good win for us."

Junior Elise Duggins became the first player to score against NewCath this season when she connected from 15 yards with 30:47 to play in the second half.  Lauren Zembrodt made it 2-0 with 7:43 to play with a goal in the box off a pass from Meredith Murphy.  Duggins scored again for Ryle (1-3-1) with no time remaining after NewCath (3-1) closed to 2-1 in the final five minutes.

Senior goalkeeper Lindsay Otis collected seven saves for the Raiders. She received help from Olivia Coleman, who has stepped in as a replacement for all-region stopper Ellie Schmalzl. Center midfielder Jaclyn Zembrodt also made things difficult for the NewCath offense.

Schmalzl is out for the season with a knee injury. Zembrodt suffered a concussion during a July practice, her second in two years.  "We've had to change things around on defense and at stopper, but I think the girls have really stepped up with Ellie out," Otis said.  Both teams recorded seven shots on goal.

"Scoring keeps me going," said Duggins, who took four shots. "It shows I can do it and help my team win."  The Thoroughbreds had outscored their opponents 15-0 this season. They were coming off a 2-0 win against Holy Cross, which followed a 9-0 rout of Russell.

"I think we won because we've been trying to play basic soccer," Echeverria said. "We want the girls to attack the way they're facing. Before tonight, we had a lot of empty crosses. But we were more successful with them tonight."

Duggins' first score, off a crossing pass, was just the fourth Ryle goal against NewCath in 10 years. Duggins has three goals on the season.  "I thought we played hard, played a really good game," Duggins said. "We were looking for scores."  Duggins, who plays for the Kings Soccer Academy club team, led Ryle with 11 goals last season, accounting for a third of the team's scoring.

NewCath and Ryle played to a 1-all score last season, their second tie in four years. They played to a scoreless tie in 2007. Even when the Raiders won back-to-back district titles in 2005-06, NewCath was able to come up with victories over them by a combined score of 5-1.

From 2001-06, NewCath won six consecutive matches, including four shutouts.  "We haven't had a lot of success against (NewCath)," Echeverria said. "I'm not even sure when the last time we beat them, but I know it's been a long time."

Ryle hands NewCath first loss in girls' soccer

Five questions with Travis Elliott

Written by Richard Skinner, NKY Enquirer contributor

Ryle senior running back Travis Elliott has been playing varsity football since his freshman year. Thanks in part to that early start, he is within reach of passing former Boone County standout Shaun Alexander for the most career rushing yards in Northern Kentucky high school history.

The 5-foot-11, 215-pound Elliott combines power and deceptive speed (he's been timed at 4.58 in the 40-yard dash). After rushing for 173 yards in three quarters in a season-opening win over Cooper Friday, he needs 2,087 yards to eclipse the record of 6,662 yards set by Alexander, the former Seattle Seahawk, from 1991-94.

Elliott, who rushed for 2,215 yards and 32 touchdowns last season, has committed to playing college ball at Western Kentucky.

The Enquirer caught up with Elliott after practice Monday to discuss his pursuit of Alexander's record.

Question: When did you first play running back?

Answer: Back in the third grade. I was a quarterback before that.

Click on the link to read the entire story . . .  Five questions with Travis Elliott

Elliott, Ryle overpower Cooper 41-17

Senior star scores five TD's by run, catch, return
Written by Richard Skinner, NKY Enquirer Contributor 
To read the entire article Elliott, Ryle overpower Cooper 41-17

UNION - After sitting out the entire first quarter and doing very little for much of the second quarter, Ryle standout senior running back Travis Elliott turned around his team’s fortunes Friday night against Cooper on two touches of the football: on the final play of the first half and first play of the second half.

Two plays after Cooper junior Tyler Morris returned an interception for a touchdown to tie the score at 7-7 with 14 seconds left in the first half, Elliott raced 62 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the half, then returned the second-half opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown as Ryle went on to post a 41-17 win at Borland Stadium.

Schedule Pick-Up

If you have not picked up your class schedule and paid your school fees for the new school year, just stop by the school office today or on Monday or Tuesday of next week. The school office will be open from 7 am to 3:30 pm each day.

If you need assistance or have a question, please call the school office at 384-5300.

Thanks and have a great school year!

Dieter family

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Dieter family as they cope with this terrible tragedy.

Ryle victim of grad rate formula

by William Croyle    wcroyle@nky.com

UNION - A new graduation rate formula that schools are now required to use has victimized Ryle High School.

The federally mandated formula, used for No Child Left Behind accountability purposes, produces the Average Freshman Graduation Rate.  Ryle's AFGR tumbled from 83.67 in 2008 to 69.37 in 2010, according to data released last week by the Kentucky Department of Education. 

The reality is that Ryle's 2010 rate was likely much higher than that, but the formula, combined with a state law, will not acknowledge it.

"It shows what nonsense some of these formulas are," said Randy Poe, Boone County Schools' superintendent.

Ryle posted the fourth-highest composite ACT score (21.1) last year among its juniors out of 22 Northern Kentucky public high schools and has generally had a good academic reputation statewide.

So what happened in regard to the formula?

When the new Cooper High School opened five miles from Ryle in 2008, more than 200 of Ryle's freshmen were reassigned to Cooper. That knocked Ryle's enrollment down 11 percent.  According to state law, a school can be classified as "reconfigured" when it has a population shift of 20 percent or more. When a school is considered reconfigured, not all formulas used in acquiring data on it are applied since the data can be skewed by the large population change.

For example, more than 20 percent of freshmen at the district's Conner High School were also moved to Cooper in 2008, so Conner's 2010 AFGR was not reported last week.  But because Ryle didn't meet that threshold, the formula had to be used. The rate is basically determined by dividing the previous year's ninth and 10th grade enrollments by the number of diploma recipients in the current year.

"We had 206 kids leave, and they don't count in the formula as graduating from our school," said Ryle Principal Matt Turner.

Lisa Gross, spokeswoman for the state education department, acknowledged Ryle is a "victim of circumstances that are out of its control."  "The (formula) has its downsides. At the heart, it's an average, and averages are not forgiving," she said. "But this is the rate the U.S. Department of Education is making us use."

Poe said changes must be made to No Child Left Behind.  "You can't give much credence to No Child Left Behind when something like this happens," he said.

The good news is that the formula is temporary. A new one will be used in three years by all states nationwide, and it will track each child (even if he or she moves to another school) rather than using averages.  But that's in three years.

District and school administrators sent letters to parents this past weekend, explaining what happened.
"The parents know they have a good school and good school system, and that this is nonsense," Poe said. "We're not going to change course because of a faulty formula."

Ryle victim of grad rate formula

Advanced Placement Scholars

Congratulations to these Ryle students for earning an AP Scholar Award for 2011.  These students have demonstrated achievement at the college-level through AP courses and exams.

National AP Scholar (Scored 4 or higher on 8 or more AP exam; at least 4.0 avg on exams)
Emilie Garnier

AP Scholar with Distinction  (Scored 3 or higher on 5 or more AP exams; at least 3.5 avg on exams)
Alanna Briggs
Jonathan Crase
Amber Deja
Meredith Eckstein
Marshall Fegenbush
Emilie Garnier
Gabby Gonzales
Liz Johnson
Samantha McKeough
Matt See
Andrew Tursic
Andrea Wilhoite

AP Scholar with Honor  (Scored 3 or higher on 4 or more AP exams; at least 3.25 avg on exams)
Desirae Carron
Andrea Howes
Tyler Lawson
Lindsay Otis
Hannah Rosenberg
Kelcy Tobey
John Walker
Jessica Wilson

AP Scholar  (Scored 3 or higher on 3 or more AP exams)
Jessica Ankenman
Victoria Aulick
Erin Bellhorn
Christina Bennett
Joseph Bloom
Erna Blythe-Reske
Michael Carlton
Darby Cochran
Olivia Coleman
Jessica Coots
Erin Deja
Alice Deters
Duong Do
Ashley Dunsing
Leonora Edwards
Aaron Elam
Hannah Gamble
Mallory Gardner
Tabatha Gregory
Carl Groathouse
Cassie Hamilton
Jessica Harden
Jacob Hart
Sarah Hodge
Jacob Hughes
Leonard Hydera
Nathan Jacobson
Meredith Johnson
Brina Joiner
Dylan Judd
Robert Kidd
Francis LaRosa
Chris Lower
Elliot Maynard
Taylor McGlasson
Amber Mercedes
Michaela Mullikin
Lauren Nolan
Katie Ollier
Nathan Otero
Grant Palmer
Robert Parmele
Amanda Postolowski
Kim Rymers
Jenna Sander
Alissa Stieha
Austin Stinson
Scott Stuckenschneider
Ryan Trostle
Sarah Truskot
Jessica Wagner
Renee Wilson
Sara Wood
Kara Worley
Elliot Yoakum