High school legends recognized by LaRosa’s High School Hall of Fame

Five outstanding area sports legends, representing basketball, football, wrestling and swimming, are the latest inductees into Buddy LaRosa’s High School Sports Hall of Fame. Joining them is a legendary Cincinnati basketball coach and two fabled high school sports’ teams representing basketball and volleyball.

The new 2021 LaRosa’s Sports Hall of Fame inductees are:

• 2004 Colerain Football Team
• 1980 Villa Madonna Girls’ Basketball Team
• Tara Boothe (Smith), Highlands High School, Class of 2002
• Pete Carothers, St. Xavier High School, Class of 2004
• Jason Druso, Anderson High School, Class of 1993
• Luke Kuechly, St. Xavier High School, Class of 2009
• Orlando Scales, Elder High School, Class of 2009
• Coach Jerry Doerger, McNicholas/Moeller High Schools, 1966-2009

The latest additions to the LaRosa’s High School Sports Hall of Fame will be officially inducted into the Hall in ceremonies in summer 2022. Now in its 47th year of recognizing outstanding local high school athletes and coaches, Buddy LaRosa’s High School Sports Hall of Fame has honored 289 athletes and coaches and ten top teams since its founding in 1975. It is the oldest and one of the only Halls of Fame of its kind in the country.

COLERAIN FOOTBALL 2004

(Coach Kerry Coombs)

Team Record: 15-0

Arguably one of the five best high school football teams in Greater Cincinnati history, the 2004 Colerain football team was a blitzkrieg through the regular season and post-season as well. Led by LaRosa’s Hall of Famer and MVP of the Year Dominick Goodman, the Cardinals were the Ohio Division I state champion and finished ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps and No. 5 by USA TODAY.  This team was so overpowering that its defense scored more points than it allowed during the course of the season.

Coach Kerry Coombs truly believes the groundwork was laid in 2003 when the Cardinals suffered a 24-23 loss to Elder in the regional championship. Elder went on to win the state title.

“I think that disappointment motivated the team all the way through the next year culminating with a state championship,” Coombs said. “I believe what made the 2004 team different from other teams was these guys played basketball together, worked out together, hung out together from the time they were 11 years old until their last game together in Canton.  They knew each other better than anyone else, and more importantly, they truly loved each other.”

After an inauspicious start in the state title game that saw Colerain lose three fumbles within its own territory and falling behind 13th-ranked Canton McKinley, 10-6, the Cardinals put on a record-setting show with a 50-10 victory over the Bulldogs. It was the most points scored and the largest margin of victory in the big-school title game, and senior quarterback Goodman rushed for a division record 259 yards and four touchdowns. Colerain, which outscored its five tournament opponents, 191-22, set a division state finals record with 463 yards rushing and held McKinley to 127 total yards.

In addition to Goodman, other key players on this squad included LaRosa’s 2005-06 MVP of the Year in offensive lineman Conner Smith (Ohio State), defensive lineman and LaRosa’s Hall of Famer Terrill Byrd (Cincinnati) and brother Tirdell, free safety Eugene Clifford (Ohio State), running backs  Mister Simpson (Michigan) and Terrence Sherrer (Minnesota), and linebackers Andre Revels (Cincinnati) and Cobrani Mixon (Kent State). This team set school records in: Most Points Scored/Season (504), Most Extra Points (Brad Schutte 62), Yards Per Carry (Sherrer, 11.8), Career TDs (Simpson 40) and Career Points (Simpson 240).

VILLA MADONNA VOLLEYBALL 1980

(Coach Carla Austin)

Team Record: 39-2

The script could have been called “Hoosiers”, but since this took place in Kentucky, the “We Are Family” Villa Madonna team wrote their own title – a championship title! The 1980 volleyball team clearly fit the bill as the “little” school in the “big” school matchup in the fall of 1980. It was only the second state volleyball tournament in Kentucky history. With an enrollment of only 158 girls, Villa Madonna Academy came away with the Kentucky state championship crushing Our Lady of Providence, 15-4, 15-1. The Kentucky state volleyball tournament is not broken into divisions, so an overall state title meant defeating notable schools out of Louisville and Lexington.

This Villa Madonna squad featured four eventual Division I college athletes. Both Lori Erpenbeck and Fredda Simpson went to the University of Kentucky, Lisa Warman to Florida State University and Stephanie Scheper (University of Tennessee). Cousin Jane Scheper wound up at Thomas More College. One of the teams’ two losses came at the hands of Mother of Mercy’s team, which went on to win the Ohio Class AAA state title (coached by LaRosa’s Hall of Famer, Rose Bauer Koch). Interestingly, team captain “Freddie” Simpson starred in the movie  “A League of Their Own” as Ellen Sue, the beauty queen and shortstop.

“As a coach, one could only dream of a team willing to learn the game of volleyball, to have athletic talent, determination and the intelligence to understand all the different aspects of the game necessary to be successful,” head coach Carla Austin said. “The team members always gave 110% at each practice and game,” she continued. “They all believed in the journey we were on, to work hard, to get along, and believe we could achieve the goals we set. This was without a doubt a dream team.”

Tara Boothe Smith, Highlands, Class of 2002

One of the most dominating girls’ basketball players in Kentucky, Tara Boothe seemingly could score at will as she powered Highlands throughout her career. Tara wound up at Highlands’ No. 2 all-time Scoring Leader with 2,286 career points behind another LaRosa’s Hall of Famer in the legendary Jaime Walz. Boothe also finished third all-time in rebounding. As a senior, she led the state of Kentucky in scoring (25.2 points), was ranked in the top five in the state in rebounding (13.4) and was in the top 10 in Field Goal Percentage (56.3%). She is one of only two female athletes to have her jersey retired at Highlands High School.

Her high school awards and honors with numerous. Tara Boothe was nominated as a McDonald’s All-American and finished as Honorable Mention All-American by Street & Smith. Selected to play in the prestigious Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Games, she went on to be named the Most Valuable Player in both the Kentucky-Ohio All-Star Game and the Kentucky Preps Classic. She was named First Team All-Northern Kentucky by both The Kentucky Post and The Kentucky Enquirer. She was a First Team All-State pick by both the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Louisville Courier-Journal. Boothe was three-time HM All-State by the Associated Press and was named as the Division II Player of the Year by the Kentucky Coaches Association.