Junior year is hailed as prime time for college recruiting. It is the student-athlete’s chance to shine in their respective sport, get grades in order, begin a campus tour itinerary and dream big.

College football preseason rankings, whether the topic is teams or players, and no matter the level, draw from a deep talent pool.

High school football is an embattled sport in many parts of the country, and even in some rural corners of Kentucky.

In the aftermath of a stellar senior season at Great Crossing High School and a heavy-hitting summer with the Louisville Sluggers 18U club, Leilani “Nani” Valencia has been selected as a first team All-American in prep softball.

Cam Hill’s baseball journey since leading Scott County High School to its first two 11th Region baseball championships and a pair of KHSAA state tournament appearances has taken him all over the country.

The University of Kentucky softball program didn’t waste a second chance to secure former Scott County star Kennedy Sullivan’s services.

Scott County football may have dipped to Class 5A after advancing to the 6A state final in 2018, but coach Jim McKee hasn’t allowed the Cardinals to consider their lofty standards any differently.

Enthusiasm is rampant as Great Crossing kicks off the 2021 football schedule, with Warhawk players, coaches and fans anticipating that the third season might be the charm.

University of the Cumberlands softball catcher Meryn Livingston, a key component of Scott County High School’s 2018 KHSAA state championship team, has been named one of three finalists for the prestigious Patriot Award at the Mid-South Conference school.

Athletes who participate in one collegiate sport know how much time and effort are required to compete. Yet Michaela Reinhart managed the load in order to partake in three sports seasons during her four years at Duke University.

In an era that is often characterized by the public’s increased need for both instant gratification and to air out opinions, high school federations across the country have a harder time than ever to recruit, develop and maintain sports officials.

Scott County Youth Baseball Major League playoffs held to form this summer: The Rockies, best in the 11-and-12-year-old division all season, backed that up when it mattered most.

Billy Tom Sargent, two-time Mr. Kentucky Golf at Scott County High School and an All-American at Western Kentucky University, continues to chase his professional dreams all around the country on the PGA Korn Ferry Tour.

Earlier this summer, Great Crossing High School hosted what is shaping up to be a new marquee event in the county for middle school athletes.

If the A.W. Hamilton Basketball Camp were a sports car, you could say it went from zero to 141 in about four seconds when the state’s final COVID-19 restrictions were removed earlier this spring.

Three players stepped on the court for all 29 games of Eastern Kentucky University’s record-shattering 2020-21 men’s basketball season.

Michael Moreno’s towering 6-foot-7 frame, his familiar, majestic head of hair, ever-present smile and childlike appreciation for basketball made him a veritable Pied Piper at last week’s A.W. Hamilton Basketball Camp.

It was probably reasonable to wonder if Rylea Marcum would have to shake off some rust at this week’s 94th Women’s Kentucky State Amateur.

Zane Patton was a poster player for COVID-19’s domino effect on spring athletes who lost a full season in 2020.

For the first time in program history, Campbellsville University men's golf has an NAIA All-American. Justin Warman of Georgetown picked up the honor 

Somehow, we pulled it off.

Two state championships at Scott County and an integral role in Great Crossing’s district championship and top-10 ranking in its inaugural season already assured Leilani Valencia a prime place in the community’s softball legend.

Scott County girls’ tennis has a proven track record of staying stride-for-stride with the state’s best in the KHSAA tournament, and that tradition continued this year.

The battle for Kalib Perry’s future football services has crossed over into the mightiest of college’s Power 5 conferences.

LEXINGTON — With an unseasonably cool spring drifting deeper into the rear-view mirror, the intensity of Saturday’s sunshine and temperatures in the high 80s bearing down on the University of Kentucky track and field complex were magnified.

LEXINGTON — Bryce Chisley has a track and field sprinter’s typical habit of jerking his head right, then left, to see if any rival is within the length of a shoelace as he lunges his chest across the electronic finish line.

BEREA — With three of the state’s consensus top eight teams embroiled in the 11th Region softball tournament, Great Crossing not getting through to the KHSAA state tournament was a realistic outcome by any honest, dispassionate assessment. 

BEREA — Aside from flaunting its own flame-flinging ace, Scott County ran a regular-season gauntlet that should have alleviated all trepidation about the pitching it would face from any of the three top-10 teams in the 11th Region softball final four. 

Franklin County faced a choose-your-poison conundrum while trailing Scott County by only one run in the heat of a two-out, fourth-inning jam Saturday.

The most daunting draw on paper for Great Crossing baseball’s first-ever 11th Region playoff game played out that way on dirt, grass and under a crystal-blue, Saturday evening sky, too.

There was something odd, strange and curious about the barrage of extra-base hits from Great Crossing softball during the district tournament: Not many of them were off the bat of senior slugger Nani Valencia.

FRANKFORT — Minor deficits didn’t bother Great Crossing baseball much all season.

FRANKFORT — Male. Scott County. Butler. Ballard.

LEXINGTON — Four games into Scott County’s softball season, Frederick Douglass rallied for a walk-off win on its home field, unceremoniously ending the Cardinals’ 60-game, 12-year-old, undefeated run against district opponents.

LEXINGTON – However many softball teams in Kentucky have made it to every region tournament since the turn of the century, you can bet it’s a short list, and Scott County is still on it.

FRANKFORT – Double-digit runs and hits were common for Great Crossing baseball this season, especially against 41st District opponents.

FRANKFORT - It wasn’t a work of art by Great Crossing softball’s lofty standards, but the program’s first-ever playoff game was plenty smooth and convincing.

Pitching and defense looked playoff-ready for Great Crossing softball in Saturday’s unseasonable chill against two fellow top-10 teams the Warhawks could face again a little farther down the road.

LEXINGTON — Scott County senior Zane Patton was on the mound for all four 42nd District wins plus a grudge match against Great Crossing this season.

Tucked between its nail-biter last Monday against Scott County and its win-or-else district semifinal this Monday versus Frankfort, Great Crossing’s regular-season baseball finale Thursday night with Tates Creek had all the earmarks of a spring training game.

VERSAILLES — “You are what your record says you are” is a line attributed to an old-school pro football coach.

For every Battle of the Birds so far that may not have lived up to the hype or hopes, Monday’s long-awaited inaugural baseball clash between Scott County and Great Crossing at the end of year two finally shot the excitement meter into the red.

The teachable moments were twofold for No. 9 Great Crossing softball after the Warhawks’ weakest offensive output of the season last week at Anderson County.

LEXINGTON — Many high school coaches label Kentucky’s regular season as a series of scrimmages, and nowhere is it truer than track and field.

Scott County softball trailed Assumption by three runs before achieving its first baserunner Tuesday night. That deficit increased to five with only nine outs left to burn.

Scott County needed not only a win Friday night over Frederick Douglass, but one by a wide margin — four runs or more — to overtake the Broncos and claim the regular-season softball title in the 42nd District.

Senior night was earlier in the week, but Scott County baseball’s three seniors made a resounding statement on a much more important stage Friday evening in Lexington.