Dan Weber's Just Sayin': Hall of Fame inductions message clear here, new home for NKU's Warrick - NKyTribune (2024)

Sometimes it happens like this.

No, more often than not it happens like this at the monthly Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame inductions. As it did in April’s ceremonies this week.

A theme develops. And one after another, the new Hall of Famers’ stories make the point.

April’s theme spoke of how interconnected we all are here through sports in Northern Kentucky.Even to the point of erasing the border between Ohio and Kentucky, or the line between NKU and Thomas More.

How well things go when we work together and help one another. After getting to know one another.

Notre Dame Academy alum and multiple sports star Melissa Marsh got things going with the kinds of thanks – to her “Mom and Dad and grandmothers and sisters and brother . . . teammates for life,” that we’ve come to expect here.

But then she also thanked her uncle, the late Tom Hukle, a Hall of Famer himself, for his interest and attention to her as a youngster starting out in sports. And that touched one of those connecting threads for so many of us who knew Tom as a Knothole player or those who knew him as an umpire, as his niece noted with a grin: “Any of you who played in a game he umpired probably got thrown out by him.”

That’s the kind of connective tissue TMU women’s basketball coach Jeff Hans was talking about when the Eaton, Ohio native noted that “it’s the people here, it’s a whole Northern Kentucky thing where everybody knows everybody.”

And helps everybody do their thing here. As Cincinnati Elder alum Jeff Hetzer, who like Hans moved from Ohio – “five hours from here,” Hetzer kidded of the distance from Price Hill to Crestview Hills — where his 18 baseball seasons at TMU produced championships and All-Americans after given a chance as a 26-year-old.

“The youngest coach in the nation,” he said, thanking the man who gave him his start – Hall of Fame NKU baseball Coach Bill Aker – “Akes” Hetzer called him. And the man who took a chance on him – TMU AD Terry Connor.

If Hetzer, now a certified Northern Kentuckian with three children in three different schools here is from “five hours away,” TMU’s Hans, currently the NCAA’s winningest active women’s basketball coach, admitted with a grin that he was “from 10 hours away.” And could not be more at home here, where he’d had “a 91.1 percent” winning record, said presenter Kenney Shields, the former NKU, Highlands and St. Thomas coach who has won more basketball games in Northern Kentucky than anyone ever.

“Jeff, I’m close to canonizing you,” said Shields right before Hans thanked him for “using last year’s numbers” before a young TMU team’s 18-11 mark in the switch to the NCAA’s Division II after three straight national championship game finishes – and one national title – in the NAIA. An assistant at NKU before making the move to Thomas More, Hans thanked Hall of Famer Nancy Winstel, whom he assisted at NKU, and retired AD Jane Meier, “who is getting a lot of love here today . . . and well-deserved,” said Hans, who joined Hetzer in endorsing the kinds of mentoring and opportunities they received at NKU on their way to TMU. Include Meier’s husband, Steve, a longtime NKU leader in campus sports, there as well for the Hall of Fame couple.

James Pouncy, the three-sport Holmes star, Boys Club youth sports coach and leader of three decades of holiday gift-giving and homeless programs not to mention well-respected high school and college basketball official and assigning secretary in Northern Kentucky, to that list of those thanking Jane Meier. “She actually got me started in college basketball,” said Pouncy – “a great referee,” Shields called him — who has made it all the way from four Sweet 16 championship games to calling a national finals in the NCAA’s Division II. “I wouldn’t be here without her.”

Holmes High AD Ken Ellis, a Ludlow High alum, is a “river cities” guy coming by way of Dayton to Covington, coaching track, football and girls’ basketball while officiating football for 30 years. One of eight children of a railroader, Ellis’ mentors are two of the most impactful to leave their mark on Northern Kentucky he worked with at Dayton – Jack Moreland and Stan Steidel – whose imprint has been felt in so many ways across our region. With a great deal of emotion, Ellis used a Mark Twain quote to explain his life in sports: “The two most important dates in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.”

Lloyd Memorial’s Marc Collins’ played three sports in high school – football, basketball and tennis, in an unusual trifecta – before going on to an All-America career as a punter and place-kicker at Eastern Kentucky University. He had the good fortune to play for Rudy Tassini at Lloyd and College Hall of Famer Roy Kidd at EKU.

But “There’s no I in TEAM,” Collins said, “I wouldn’t be here without my parents.” They made it to 49 straight EKU games to watch him play, Collins said, “to Florida, Louisiana and even Montana.” Now the president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NFL Players Association, the former Seattle Seahawk and Buffalo Bill is still in the game, working with former NFL players to understand their retirement benefits after they’ve left the game.

Let Hans sum up April’s inductions for everyone here: “You’ve got to have a great support system.”

And be part of one.

NO NEED TO CHANGE HIS COLORS

With NKU’s all-time leading basketball scorer Marques Warrick announcing that he will move on through the transfer portal to Missouri in the Southeastern Conference for his final season of eligibility as a grad student, the Lexington native won’t have to leave any of his NKU gear at home. He’ll still be sporting gold and black at Mizzou. And he’ll be playing for a program that needs a great deal of help as the Tigers were a winless 0-18 in the SEC last season.

Nor will he have to change his game as he’ll be playing for former Horizon League Coach Dennis Gates, whose Cleveland State teams Warrick played against four times in his college career. “Missouri was just the best option for me. It just felt right, just having a connection with Coach (Dennis) Gates . . . ,” Warrick told PowerMizzou as the third transfer to Missouri this postseason.

“He already knew my game, so he knew what to expect from me,” Warrick said. “So I think I’ll definitely be able to thrive at Mizzou. They play fast, you know, offensively, they want quick shots, like transition. That’s part of where I played the best, in transition.”

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.