by Cassie Mattia
Loveland, Ohio – The Tigers’ 2019 Fall Sports Season marked one of the most successful Fall Sports Seasons in school history with 5 ECC Champions, 4 ECC Coaches of the Year and 2 ECC Athletes of the Year. With all of these accolades, this puts the Loveland Tigers in the number one spot in running for the All-Sports Trophy.
At the Fall Sports Awards ceremony on Wednesday, November 13 Athletic Director, Brian Conatser was sure to give praise to both the coaches and athletes for their designated seasons as he shared what each coach had written with the near-capacity crowd in the high school gym.
Coaches Highlights of the Fall Season – “Told through their own words…”
Cheer Team Accolades by Coach Emily Christman
Our cheer team had a fun, spirited, and successful season that all started at our annual summer camp. All three teams took home awards in the cheer, chant, band dance, and Game Day competition categories. We also had nine athletes selected for the honor of UCA All- American (Shelby Cline, Hannah Powers, Amy Keyser, Emma Scott, Caroline Staley, Courtney Keyser, Ellie Steinbrunner, and Anya Winfield. In addition to these awards, the entire program took home the coveted “Top Banana!” Although the name sounds silly, the award is given to the team or program who demonstrated exceptional skill, spirit, leadership, and enthusiasm throughout the entire 3-day camp.
During the season, the girls on all three teams demonstrated pride and commitment to this program all season long. Led by our seniors, the girls embraced the idea of being an ambassador for their school and that being a cheerleader is about more than just cheering on the sidelines. The vision statement of our program is to: Be a good cheerleader, but a great person. And the coaches this year believe these young ladies, especially our seniors, really demonstrated that this year!
Men’s Cross Country Accolades by Coach Steve Nester
The boys cross country team had a nice season filled with many accomplishments that hadn’t been done in the past decade or so.
Overall season record of 116-45 and 21-7 against ECC opponents.
Second largest roster in school history at 70 strong.
Highest Finish at the ECC Championships while finishing as Runner-up.
Placed Third at District Championships and posted the fastest time average in school history with all scorers running 16:59 or faster.
Qualified for the Regional Championships for the second year in a row. The first time that this has happened in over a decade.Â
The boys finish at the Regional Championships was their highest team finish in this meet since 2007.
Women’s Cross Country Accolades by Coach Steve Nester
The girls posted the best year of Cross Country in school history. Highlights include:
Season Record of 154-17. They were 27-0 against ECC opponents.
They won their first Conference Championship in school history.
Eight girls named All ECC.
The JV won their second straight ECC Open Championship in dominating fashion.
Finished as the District Runner-up for only the second time ever. 2005 was the first time.
Qualified for the Regional Championships for the second year in the row with their highest finish ever at 3rd place, fastest time average, and lowest regional point total in history.
Defeated power program Mason for the first time this century.
Qualified for the State Championships for only the second time in school history and the first time since 2007.
6th best team in the state out of 175 total.
Three girls were named Academic All Ohio – Ellie Carr, Jessie Gibbins, and Ansley Richards
Jessie Gibbins was named All Ohio Runner
Football Accolades by Coach Andy Cruse
Our Football program had success despite the season record. 2 players were all ECC and 1 was honorable mention. Many players 9-12 got
valuable varsity experience to help build for the future. They threw for over 2,000 yards and 17 different players touched the ball on offense this season. The teams played with relentless efforts and represented Loveland High School the right way.
Men’s Soccer Accolades by Coach Mike Dunlap
The Men’s soccer team finished the season 13-5. During the 16 game regular season the Tigers played 11 teams that were at one time ranked in the top 10 in either Cincinnati, Dayton or Kentucky during the 2019 season. The 13 wins also included an undefeated run through the conference. During conference play the Tigers outscored their opponents by a score of 25 to 2 on the way to
securing another ECC championship. This is the first back to back league titles since 2009 and 2010. During the 18 game season they outscored their opponents 45-16 with 8 clean sheets (shutouts). The foundation of the ECC championship was laid down when the then #4 ranked Milford Eagles brought their undefeated team to Tiger Stadium to face the #6 ranked Tigers in mid September. The 2 teams battled for a scoreless 76 minutes before the Tigers were able to score with 3 minutes left to play and then cling to a 1-0 victory. The Tigers finished the regular season ranked #3 in the city and 15th in the state in Division 1.
Women’s Soccer Accolades by Coach Todd Kelly
The Loveland Women’s soccer team finished the season with a 16-4 record overall and a 5-1 record in the ECC. They won the Sectional Title and District Title and battled all the way to the Elite 8 finishing as the Regional Runner-up losing to the eventual State Champion.
The girls were ranked as high as 2nd in the city during the season. Our four senior captains, Kaitlyn Andrews, Maria Bashardoust, Georgia Early, and Claire Massey led the program to an overall record of 72-8-4 record or an average of 18 wins per season despite soccer having a 16 game schedule meaning they have more wins than what is actually scheduled and have in effect played an extra high school season.
The 72 wins is the most for any Division I High School in Ohio over the past 4 years. They amassed an ECC record of 24-1-1- losing just one game in their 4 year career. Their 72 wins are the second most in program history over 4 years and their 8 losses are tied for the fewest in 4 years. They finish a remarkable four year run that saw go 22-1 in 2017 to win The Division I Ohio State Championship, make 3 Elite 8 Appearances with one Regional Title, 4 District Titles, 4 Sectional Titles, 3 ECC titles, and 3 City Championships finishing the year ranked #1 in the City in three of their four years. They were ranked #1 in Cincinnati for 25 of the 36 weeks there was a poll during their 4 seasons. Offensively they scored 242 goals over 4 years and were shutout just 5 times in 4 years, the fewest times over 4 years in Loveland history. Defensively, they surrendered just 39 goals or 9.75 per year despite averaging playing 21 games per year. In the 84 games played during their 4 years, they recorded 57 shutouts or almost 70% of the games they played.
Kaitlyn Andrews was named Second-Team All-State, and Kaitlyn, Lauren Donovan, and Claire Massey were named All-SW Ohio. Kaitlyn, Maria, Georgie, and Claire have left this program better than when they entered and the coaches are extremely proud of the 2019 team for just being the best they can be.
Men’s Golf Accolades by Coach David Allan
The 2019 boys golf team had another thrilling and decorated season. In dual matches the team had a record of 10-2, going 5-1 in league play, two of those wins coming down to just 1 shot. They claimed the ECC season long title by winning the preview tournament at Glenview with a sizzling score of 302 and finished off the regular season at the ECC Championship with a 307 to claim the league title.
Individually, Jeffrey Main, Tyler Vallee and Joe Jankowski were all named first team ECC and honorable mention All District. Tyler finished with the team’s lowest stroke average at 39.07, taking medalist honors at the ECC preview tournament.
In the post season the Tigers advanced out of sectionals shooting a 308 at Sharon Woods on a tough, baked out and windy day, securing a birth to Districts. Unfortunately the season ended with a 6th place finish at Districts and no trip to the State tournament.
The future is strong though, and the tradition of excellence on the course will continue. The outgoing group of senior leaders will be sorely missed, but the team will return a solid core of players next year including Tyler, Joe and Aiden Callahan. It will be great to see what these men and the team can do to represent Loveland next season and beyond.
Women’s Golf Accolades by Coach Barb Orsinelli
In a very competitive ECC the girls golf team finished 5th in the league. We had a very young group of golfers with 2 sophomores and 7 freshman making up the JV and Varsity Teams.The lady tigers were led by Senior Allison Rountree, who earned medalist honors in 5 matches, named to 2nd team all conference, and honorable mention All City. Allsion signed today to play college golf at Ohio Northern University. Throughout the year we made big strides in our individual and team scoring. We had tremendous leadership from our seniors and look forward to seeing the development of our underclassmen next year.
Women’s Tennis – Accolades by Coach Dara Hudson
Girls tennis had an excellent year in 2019. These athletes worked hard all summer in Open Courts and clinics at Harpers and it paid off. All 3 teams competed well all year with JV A finishing the season with a 17-3 record. Varsity girls were co-champs in the ECC this year by winning the ECC tournament with all 5 courts winning medals at 1st or 2nd place. Congratulations to our Anna Svitkovich who is ECC Player of the Year!!
Other ECC honors included 1st Team All-Conference for Anna Svitkovich in singles and 1st Team All Conference for the doubles team of Hanna Wenger and Tess Broermann. Freshman Grace Haught was voted to Second Team Doubles for Singles and Alex Hytree took the Honorable Mention award. With a 15-2 record to cap off the year, Varsity is ranked 6th in the city.
The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association also honored our team by voting Anna Svitkovich to First Team singles in Cincinnati and Tess Broerman and Hanna Wenger were voted to the city Honorable Mention Team. We ended the year with our doubles team of Tess and Hanna finishing 3rd in sectionals, qualifying for districts and winning the first round there. A great year for the Loveland Lady Tiger Tennis team!
Women’s volleyball – Accolades by Coach Brian Baugh
The girls volleyball team finished the season with a record of 20-5 (12-2) and were ECC co-champions and reached the sectional finals. This is the third straight (4th overall) ECC title for the girls volleyball team. This also marks the 4th straight season the girls have reached 20 wins in a season.
This season featured many great wins including defeating Lakota East, Turpin, Anderson (2x), Kings (3x) and Milford. The girls volleyball team had four girls recognized on All-ECC teams, and one individual was All-District.
We had a few players make their way into the record books. Jillian Hayes is now second all-time in blocks, broke the school record for blocks in a match (9), and is sixth all-time for career kills and efficiency. Audrey Planner is now 6th all-time in career aces. Diana Clark is third all-time for serve receive in a season. Abbie Miller is second all-time in career assists.
Overall it was another great season for the Lady Tigers!
Here are photos from the Fall Sports Awards ceremony.
You can click on the photos below to view them larger. All photos are © protected, however they can be purchased by sending an EMAIL.
