By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Newport boys basketball player Taylen Kinney is a young man on the move this summer.
Kinney spent the first three days of June at the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy. On Saturday, he’ll report at the USA Basketball under-17 national team tryouts in Colorado. If he makes that team, he’ll be going overseas once again to play in the 2024 FIBA World Cup that begins June 29 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Those opportunities came his way because Kinney is ranked among the nation’s top 10 high school point guards in the 2026 graduating class.
College recruiters are keenly aware of the 6-foot-1 junior’s talents. He has received scholarship offers from a long list of NCAA Division I teams.
At the Adidas Eurocamp, he received instruction and guidance from some of the world’s best coaches and players. There were also international games that gave him a chance to gain exposure on a global scale.
Kinney played on a U.S. select team that had a 1-2 record at Eurocamp. His three-game totals included 28 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds and six steals. He shot 60 percent (15 of 25) from the field overall and had a team-high 18 points in one game.
This weekend, Kinney will be among 36 high school players attending the U17 national team tryouts. Twelve of them will be selected for the FIBA World Cup team. The U.S. has won the U17 boys gold medal at each of the World Cup tournaments dating back to 2010.
According to the USA Basketball website, most of the players at the tryouts have previous national team experience, but this is the first time that Kinney has been invited to participate in tryouts at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
During his sophomore season at Newport, Kinney averaged 17.5 points and four rebounds for the 32-4 Wildcats who won a second consecutive 9th Region championship. He saw limited action in the team’s final two games due to a strained hamstring muscle, but he recovered nicely for his busy summer schedule.
There’s a good chance Kinney will pick up more college offers to add to ones he has already received from Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois, Indiana, Rutgers, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, Xavier and Dayton.
Two schools fill boys basketball coaching vacancies
The carousel of coaching changes in Northern Kentucky continued this week when Boone County and Villa Madonna named new head coaches for their boys basketball programs.
Todd Humphrey is taking charge of the Boone County boys team after spending the last three seasons as girls head coach at the high school. His girls teams posted records of 7-20, 7-22 and 2-26.
The Boone County boys team finished last season with an 18-10 record to snap a six-year string of losing seasons. But all four players with double-figure scoring averages were seniors who graduated.
James Meyers is the new head coach of the Villa Madonna boys basketball team. He has coached on the middle and high school levels as well as served as a basketball, football and soccer official.
“I am eager to use my skills and knowledge to further elevate our program,” Meyers said of the Villa Madonna basketball team that had a 14-15 record last season. One of the seven seniors on that team was center Henry Thole, who averaged 17.8 points and 15.4 rebounds.
CovCath shortstop named first-team all-state
Covington Catholic junior shortstop Jackson Reardon was the only local player named first-team all-state by the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association.
Reardon finished the season with a team-high .463 batting average for CovCath. The University of Cincinnati recruit also led the Colonels in hits (56), run scored (47), RBI (36) and extra base hits (34) during their 31-6 season.
One of the second-team all-state selections was Ryle sophomore outfielder AJ Curry, who had the state’s second highest batting average at .571 (72 of 126). He helped Ryle win its first 9th Region championship since 2013 and make it to the state quarterfinals.
The third-team all-state selections included Ryle senior Sam Eppley, Cooper senior Mark Nowak and Campbell County sophomore Tyler Schumacher.