Loveland, Ohio – Current Loveland High School District Director of Student Athletics Brian Conatser will move into the role of LHS Assistant Principal beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. Conatser will take over as Assistant Principal as Eric Fry moves to a similar position at Oak Hills High School.
“I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve Loveland City School District in a new capacity. We have an incredible student body, staff, and community, and I am very fortunate to have experienced this as a Loveland classroom teacher, coach, Athletic Director, and now as an Assistant Principal. I look forward to the new challenge and am thrilled to continue to be a part of an amazing district,” Conatser said.
Conatser has served as the District Director of Student Athletics for four years. He was Loveland’s Assistant Director of Student Athletics for two years and spent 15 years as a science teacher and coach at Loveland and Sycamore High Schools.
A search will now begin for the next Athletic Director.
In the meantime, it has also just been announced that Clay George, the current Assistant Athletic Director will be leaving to become the head athletic director at Ansonia JH/HS.
Loveland, Ohio – On Wednesday, November 13th, several Tigers were recognized for both their minds and their athletic abilities at the 2019 Annual Fall Sports Awards at Loveland High School! LHS Athletic Director, Brian Conatser invited friends, families, and Fall Tiger student-athletes to celebrate their 2019 sports seasons.
Loveland High School Athletic Director, Brian Conaster
Conatser began the heartfelt evening with a tradition of this ceremony at LHS…the senior athletes are announced and led into the gym by their head coach. Conatser invited LHS’s Site Manager and Facilities Coordinator, Jake Elfers to announce the 2019 Fall senior athletes and their coaches.
Next Conatser took the opportunity to thank everyone who made the athletes and coaches seasons so special! “Thank you, Seniors, for your leadership and laying the groundwork within our programs,” Conatser said, “This evening I would like to introduce the administration and members from the athletic department that have joined me in this celebration. Principal, Peggy Johnson, Assistant Director of Student Athletics, Eric Fry, Site Manager & Facilities Coordinator, Jake Elfers. And Finally…our Administrative Assistant in the Athletic Department, Kristy Brulport. A special thanks to all the individuals who support and assist the athletic department and our student-athletes on a daily basis. Parents, Student-Athletes please give your parents a round of applause for their support, feeding you, driving you to and from practices, and always being a part of your games and competition,” Conatser added, “LAB Team Liaisons please stand and be recognized. We appreciate your time commitment and efforts…as you are the link between our Boosters and our Athletic Programs. Thank you for all you do. Coaches, thank you for the tremendous amount of time you spend with our student-athletes. We appreciate you mentoring our young men and women and teaching them the life skills necessary to be successful both now and in their future. Thank you! We are “Extremely Proud” of our teams and programs this Fall season. You have all been Very enjoyable to Watch and Cheer on,” Conatser said.
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. Conatser was sure to give praise to both the coaches and athletes for their designated seasons as he shared the “Coaches Highlights of the Fall Season” told through the coaches’ own words during the ceremony.
Next on the Fall Sports Awards agenda was the recognition of all of the Fall sports athletes who received top ECC honors. You can read about which Tigers received ECC accolades in the Loveland Sports 411 With Cassie MattiaHERE.
Next in the ceremony, each student-athlete who participated in a Fall varsity sport for all 4 years were honored. Conatser announced the following Tigers to receive this particular honor.
Men’s Cross Country
Sam Dippold, Alex Ditchen, Kyle Griffin and Brady Jeffcott
Women’s Cross Country
Sofia Dillhoff, Lexi Duff, Alexi Funk, Sarah Hallock, and Kirstin Thomas
Women’s Golf
Allison Rountree
Women’s Soccer
Maria Bashardoust and Claire Massey
Women’s Tennis
Anna Svitkovich
Following the announcement of the athletes who played all 4 years varsity in their designated sport, was the presentation of the 2019 Fall “Sportsperson of the Season,” and shortly after the presentation of the “Edward Jones Community Student-Athlete Award.” Loveland Magazine plans on featuring these two very special awards and its winners in a separate article coming soon!
At the conclusion of the 2019 Fall Sports Awards ceremony, Conatser recognized individual student-athletes that received awards “beyond” the Eastern Cincinnati Conference. Below are the student-athletes who were recognized for these very prestigious awards.
Women’s Tennis
All-City (GCTCA) Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Award
Anna Svitkovich – 1st Team Singles
Tess Broermann and Hannah Wenger – Honorable Mention for Doubles
The Women’s Volleyball Team were ranked 6th in the city
Men’s Golf
District Academic Honors
Matt Rychlik and Luke Sence
Men’s and Women’s Cross Country
Both teams participated in OHSAA Regionals
Women’s Cross Country placed 6th at the State Meet
Jessie Gibbins was named All-Ohio Runner
Women’s Volleyball
All-District Recognition
Jillian Hayes – 2nd Team All-district
Men’s Soccer
All-Southwest City
Cole Harter and Connor Patton
1st Team All-State
Cole Harter
All-Southwest City Coach of the Year
Mike Dunlap
Women’s Soccer
All-Southwest Ohio and All-City
Kaitlyn Andrews, Lauren Donovan, and Clair Massey
2nd-Team All-State
Kaitlyn Andrews
Women’s Golf
Adopt-A-Team winner
Below are the Fall sports teams that received accolades within the ECC and in post-season play.
Women’s Soccer
OHSAA District Champions and OHSAA Regional Runner-ups (Elite 8)
Men’s Golf
2019 ECC Champs
Women’s Volleyball
2019 ECC Champs
2019 Coach of the Year – Brian Baugh
Women’s Cross Country
2019 ECC Champs
OHSAA District Runner-ups
Placed 6th at the State Meet
2019 Coach of the Year – Steve Nester
Men’s Soccer
2019 ECC Champs
2019 Coach of the Year – Mike Dunlap
2019 ECC Player of the Year – Cole Harter
Women’s Tennis
ECC Champs
2019 ECC Coach of the Year – Dara Hudson
2019 ECC Player of the Year – Anna Svitkovich
Loveland Magazine would like to take the opportunity to congratulate all of the Tiger coaches, student-athletes and their families for all the rightly deserved awards they received for the 2019 Fall sports season. I can say as former high school and collegiate student-athlete that your efforts have not gone unnoticed! The hard work, dedication, and motivation that all of you have put in during the season and off-season have paid off and for that, we are very proud to cheer loud and proud throughout the community of Loveland…..GO TIGERS!!!!
The Loveland High School Cheerleaders were dressed for Christmas at a recent basketball game
Cassie Mattia is a resident of Historic Downtown Loveland
by Cassie Mattia
Loveland, Ohio– Hundreds of parents and spectators will be cheering their way into a packed gym for the 2019 Eastern Cincinnati Conference Cheer and Dance Competition on February 2nd at Walnut Hills High school.
The ECC Cheer and Dance Competition will be held at the Walnut Hills High school gymnasium on February 2nd; where the dance competition will begin at 11 a.m. and the cheer competition will begin at 1 PM Admission will be 6 dollars for adults and 4 dollars for students and seniors. For more information visit the Eastern Cincinnati Conference website at www.eccsports.com.
Student athletes from Loveland, Milford and Kings, to name a few, will take part in one of the most important cheer and dance competitions of the season sponsored by the ECC beginning at 11 AM. Each school in the ECC will be represented in the competition that is said to be the highlight of the cheer and dance team’s year.
“It is the one time a year that these cheer and dance teams can come together as a league and compete in their sport. They do so much for the school throughout the year; it’s their chance to be highlighted,” Assistant District Director of Student Athletics at Loveland High school, Eric Fry explained.
Each cheer team can bring 30 cheerleaders and each dance team can bring 16 dancers. Fry says in the past this competition has been so well attended that there has been a line to get in the door.
“The past several years the gym has been packed! The crowd is cheering for the athletes and there is a great atmosphere all the way around,” Fry said, “Walnut’s gym has a great set up for this competition and has worked well the last couple of years.”
Loveland High School Cheer Team dressed for Christmas at a recent basketball game
Last year, Milford won the event in cheer, Loveland came in 4th in cheer and Kings won in dance. This year for the first time Loveland will be competing in the dance competition.
“I know that teams have been working hard for this competition. I know the Tigers will be there and represent well,” Fry said, “Kings has had a phenomenal dance program and Milford has been doing well in years past in cheer. This year is anybody’s championship to take!”
Loveland High School Cheer Team dressed for Christmas at a recent basketball game
Those who attend cheer and dance competitions as spectators are of course entertained by the athleticism and musicality of the student athletes, but many don’t truly understand how technical the competition itself actually is and how intensely the teams are scored. Tournament Manager, Heather Kaiser, says judges for the ECC Competition are selected based on experience and have to be licensed cheer and dance judges from the Universal Cheerleaders Association and Universal Dance Association organizations.
“This is a pretty competitive event so we use some of our very best judges. Judges are looking for an overall well executed performance routine,” Kaiser explained, “Difficulty comes into play as well. Cheer has to compete in two different categories, Game Day and Performance. Dance performs in two different categories as well, Pom, Jazz or Hip-Hop. For both the cheer and dance competitions two scores are then averaged to pick an overall winner,” Kaiser said.
Last year, Milford won the event in cheer. This photo is from January 4th during player introductions when the Loveland Men traveled to play Milford H.S.
Seems simple enough right? Wrong! On the ECC website I found score sheets for both the cheer and dance competitions and the judges really have to pay close attention to every single detail as the points given to the teams are broken down into subcategories. For example, on the Cheer overall score sheet judges are expected to score “Jumps” out of 15 points. They must look at proper technique, form, height, synchronization, type of jumps, connections, combos and variety. Judges also look deeper into
Loveland High School Cheer Team dressed for Christmas at a recent basketball game
“Dance,” which is out of 10 points. In this category judges look at technique, sharpness, placement, timing, spacing, use of levels, overall choreography and visual appeal. Lastly, on the overall score sheet for Cheer judges score the “Overall Impression,” which is 5 points. The judges base this score on routine creativity, flow, use of formations and transitions. This is just one of the score sheets involved in the Cheer competition! There is also a “Game Day and Crowd Leading” score sheet, which is 50 points, a “Game Day, Fight Song and Band Chant” score sheet, which is 50 points, and a
Loveland High School Cheer Team
“Tumbling” score sheet, which is 35 points. While the Dance competition is one individual score sheet the subcategories on the score sheet are just as intense! Judges look at “Execution” of movement, skills, synchronization, uniformity, spacing, communication and projection for a total of 50 possible points. The score sheet also includes “Choreography,” where judges look at creativity, musicality, routine staging, complexity of movement and difficulty of skills for a total of 40 possible points. Lastly, the judges will score the “Overall Effect,” which is based on the overall impression of the music, costume and choreography for a total of 10 possible points.
Loveland High School Cheer Team
“Teams can stand out if they really focus on the difficulty category,” Kaiser said, “For cheer; crowd leading routines are very appealing. Tumbling and dance also play a big part. For dance; choreography plays a huge part. If they include turns and lifts the judges find that really appealing as well,” Kaiser explained.
The Loveland High School Cheer Squad dressed in a Christmas theme at a December basketball game
As the competition draws nearer athletes are fine tuning their final routines and, according Kaiser, couldn’t be more excited to show their parents, friends, coaches and the judges the final product.
The athletes take extra pride in this event because it’s against the teams they see all year long.
“The athletes take extra pride in this event because it’s against the teams they see all year long. Conference Championship games are always a big deal in every sport plus they get so many fans to come to this particular event and the support is HUGE,” Kaiser said.
This will also be the first year the ECC will include cheer and dance to be counted towards the All Sports Trophy Title.
“The competition is fairly new, so the league wanted to get it right before it was included in the ECC All Sports standings,” Fry explained.
The ECC Cheer and Dance Competition will be held at the Walnut Hills High school gymnasium on February 2nd; where the dance competition will begin at 11 a.m. and the cheer competition will begin at 1 p.m. Admission will be 6 dollars for adults and 4 dollars for students and seniors. For more information visit the Eastern Cincinnati Conference website at www.eccsports.com.
Loveland, Ohio – To assist newly named Loveland Athletic Director Brian Conatser, the Board of Education approved Eric Fry as assistant director of student athletics. Fry has been serving students as a coach since 2001 and as a teacher since 2002, and most recently served as the athletic director for Turpin High School in the Forest Hills School District (2012-2018).
Fry earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Ohio University in 2002, he earned his master’s degree in education in sports administration from Xavier University in 2007, and his license in school leadership and administration from Xavier in 2014. He additionally attended the Alpaugh Scholar Leadership Program at the University of Cincinnati in 2016.
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