By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of stories about past
teams leading up and into the 100th season of Highlands football.
It was the
offseason after the 1993 campaign. Highlands lost 29-26 in overtime to Conner
in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs in Tom Duffy’s final season. Duffy
took the job at Henderson County.
The man who replaced him took the bar higher over the next 20 years with an impressive record of 250-36 and he already lived in Fort Thomas. That was 1973 Highlands graduate Dale Mueller. He already had experience as a head football coach at Cincinnati Withrow and Sycamore.
“I was excited to apply for the Highlands Head
Coaching position when it came open,”
Mueller said. “I didn’t know many guys
at the high school, but I knew a lot of the guys in the elementary schools and
I wanted to coach them.”
Highlands
played a lot of Wishbone and Wing-T formations under Duffy. But Mueller and
staff ultimately switched to the Spread attack giving defensive coordinators
plenty of nightmares.
“The players adjusted well to the schemes that I was coaching,” Mueller said. “We have always
had an incredibly dedicated group of football players at Highlands and they did
a tremendous job of learning the new concepts.”
The first thing
Highlands needed to do when Mueller took over was regain the edge against rival
Covington Catholic. The Colonels won both meetings in 1994 in his first season
as head coach. They won the regular-season match-up convincingly, 42-6 before
winning the playoff game by a 7-3 count on its way to a 24-21 win over Bowling
Green in the Class 3A title game. At that point, the Colonels had won six of the
previous seven meetings in the rivalry.
But the
Bluebirds turned the tide in that series the following year. They handed
CovCath a 48-18 defeat in the regular season before beating the Colonels again
in the second round of the playoffs, 3-0. However, the Bowling Green Purples beat
Highlands, 28-12 in the 3A title game.
But the
1996 team came back and dominated the competition going 15-0 on its way to the
first of what would be 11 state championships under Mueller. Highlands finished
the season ranked 21st in the USA Today
Super 25 final high school rankings. The Bluebirds knocked off Hopkinsville,
21-14 in the 3A state championship that year.
“It set a precedent for what kind of team we were
going to be,” said Will Chambers,
former Highlands wide receiver and 1997 graduate. “One of the things Dale did was look at the team and look at the talent
he had and be able to develop the type of system around that.”
The
Bluebirds saw veteran senior starters Justin Frisk and Stephen Lickert start in
the backfield. Frisk rushed for 1,932 yards and 31 touchdowns. Toby Hlad
blocked for them on the offensive line and also played on the defensive line.
Scott Kuhnhein and Randy Stegman went on to play at Ohio State and Miami (Ohio)
respectively. Defensively, Brady Grimm led at defensive back with Ben Pogue and
Nathan Lindeman making things tough for opposing offenses at middle linebacker.
“Whether guys are a year or 10 years out of high
school, everyone always seems to migrate back to Fort Thomas,” Frisk said. “It
was more important for our kids at the time to not be a class that went all
four years without winning a (state) title. I’ve spoken to players at other
schools where making the playoffs in their four years was a goal.”
Quarterback
Jared Lorenzen and wide receiver Josh Hasson made history in a 55-7 win over
Campbell County. They connected for a 99-yard touchdown pass.
The
Bluebirds hoped to repeat as champions the following year. They had not done
that since the 1981 and 1982 seasons. Highlands entered the playoffs with an
impressive 9-1 mark having lost to just Cincinnati Moeller, 21-20 to open the
season. They’d beaten Covington Catholic, 24-22 in the regular season.
But things
changed in the Class 3A region title game. The Colonels prevailed by a 41-35
count in double overtime and won the state championship over Hopkinsville. That
game set things in motion for a tough offseason.
Highlands
put together another undefeated 15-0 season. The Bluebirds pounded Louisville
Waggener, 56-7 in the 3A title game. Highlands beat Louisville Male, 51-41 to
open the season in the St. Luke Hospitals Champions Bowl. No one came closer
than that. The Bluebirds garnered a 19th ranking in the USA Today Super 25 poll.
“We took it personally and every single time we were
together as a football team, we were pissed off,” Lorenzen said. “We
literally took that out on every single team we played. We made sure that when
we got up, we were going to finish teams.”
Lorenzen
won Mr. Kentucky Football that year and Derek Smith finished runner-up before
they landed at the University of Kentucky. Smith started three years at tight
end and defensive end.
The
Bluebirds set a number of Kentucky state records. Among them were the most
point in a season with 801, most points in a title game, largest state
championship margin of victory at 49 points, highest per-game yardage average
at 492.5 yards, most extra points in a year at 92.
Brennan
Jones booted 90 of them for Highlands for both a state and national record.
Highlands also set the state bars with 113 team touchdowns, 636 offensive yards
in a game and highest point-per-game average at 53.4. The state records for
most points and team touchdowns in a season remained intact until 2011 when
Highlands put up 849 points and 121 touchdowns.
“The game is changing. We were one of the first teams
to spread the ball around like that,”
Smith said. “You have to have a
quarterback who makes reads and knows where to throw the ball. Two seconds
means everything. Defenses try to disguise coverages.”
Highlands
scored 62 or more points six times that year including a school-record 88 in a
victory over Campbell County. Current Highlands assistant Nick Behymer returned
an interception for a touchdown in that game. Lorenzen said the lopsided scores
were a big reason the KHSAA installed the running clock in 2001.
Brent Grover led the Bluebirds in
tackles that year. Brian Ulbricht went on to play football at Mueller’s college
alma mater of Cornell University and Noah Gibson led Highlands at running back.
Current doctor Tyler Browning played on the defensive line despite a
5-foot-5-inch height for the Bluebirds.
The Bluebirds won the 3A state
championships the next two years equaling a school record for the most
consecutive state championships. Three in a row had been done just three other
times prior to then. Beechwood captured four in a row from 1991 to 1994 with
Pikeville (1987-89) and Louisville Trinity (1988-90) having won it three
straight times.
Highlands finished 14-1 both seasons.
The only losses in both seasons came to Cincinnati Elder. The Bluebirds beat
the Owensboro Red Devils, 48-10 and 48-27 in the 1999 and 2000 3A championship
games respectively. The 2000 team finished 13th in the USA Today Super 25 poll and beat Louisville Trinity, 42-29 in the
Recreation Bowl to open the season.
Gino Guidugli started at quarterback for
the Bluebirds. He threw a school-record 53 touchdown passes in 2000 before
going on to the University of Cincinnati. He is currently an assistant at
Central Michigan University.
“I didn’t really think about (following Lorenzen),” Guidugli said. “I
was just going out there trying to be the best player I could be. I just wanted
to compete in anything I did. I had a good role model in front of me though.”
Wide
receiver Brett Hamblen lit opposing secondaries up for the Bluebirds in 2000. Hamblen
had individual state records for most touchdown receptions in a season with 27
and most touchdown receptions in a game with six. The Bluebirds also threw a
state record of nine touchdowns in an 81-0 win over Covington Holmes. Guidugli
had eight of them. The other two Division I-A recruits on that team were Brent
Grover and Ben Scott.
“It was what we do every year,” Behymer said. “It’s
what Highlands football has been the last 100 years. You have a group of guys
that come together as a team. They try as hard as they can and work together.
They all spend all offseason together. When the games start up, it’s about
winning each game. You’re not looking on to any other week.”
The
Bluebirds did not make it back to the championship game until 2003. They lost
44-10 to Boyle County that year marking the fifth consecutive state
championship for the Rebels. But Highlands ended that streak with a 22-6 win in
the title game the following year. Running back James Hubbard led Highlands to
victory in that game rushing the ball 19 times for 70 yards and a touchdown.
The 2004
team finished 14-1 also losing just to Elder, 25-15. The Bluebirds posted six
shutouts that season.
Three
seniors from that team in Jordan Nevels, Mike Mitchell and Justin Auton signed
with Kentucky, Ohio University and Eastern Kentucky University respectively.
Mitchell still plays in the National Football League with the Pittsburgh
Steelers.
Mitchell
transferred in from Covington Catholic before the year. The Kentucky High
School Athletic Association declared him ineligible a few days before the title
game. The KHSAA also forced Highlands to forfeit all the in-state games that
Mitchell played in. But the KHSAA rescinded that decision in 2010.
Highlands
finished the first 11 years of the Mueller Era with five state championships
and two runner-up finishes. They set a tone for what was to come.
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