A true legend in Northern Kentucky high school softball, Kirsten Allen is the first athlete from Ryle High School (Class of 2008) to be inducted into the LaRosa's High School Sports Hall of Fame. Twice during her incredible high school career Kirsten was nominated for the LaRosa's High School MVP of the Year award, winning it in her senior year. She earned nine varsity letters in her high school career in softball and volleyball. In five varsity seasons for the Lady Raiders, Kirsten compiled a remarkable 142-24 record, pitching the team to the Kentucky state championship in 2006. She set 10 Kentucky state records in her career, including pitching 41 career no-hitters, 15 perfect games and 110 career shutouts. She notched 1,865 strikeouts and once pitched 210 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run! Many of her records still stand today. Kirsten earned numerous honors for her outstanding accomplishments, including in her senior year being named Ms. Kentucky Softball and Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year. She also was a Northern Kentucky all-star volleyball player. Kirsten went on to pitch at the University of Oklahoma and today is the HPES Program Director and professor at Randall University in Oklahoma, where she lives with her husband, Jacob, and two children, Charlie and Andy.

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One of finest girls' basketball players to come out of Cincinnati in this century, Lakota West's Amber Gray is the first player from Lakota West High School to be inducted into the LaRosa's Hall of Fame. A 2008 graduate, Amber was regarded by The Cincinnati Enquirer as one of the top 50 best female basketball players in Greater Cincinnati history. She was also a heroic athlete who overcame life-threatening odds. A dynamic basketball player for the Firebirds, Amber set 11 school records, including career points scored with 1,931, and would help power Lakota West to the Ohio state runner-up finish in the 2007-08 season. The team compiled a 49-5 record during her final two seasons. She was named Ohio Ms. Basketball (2008), McDonald's All-American, Parade Magazine All-American, Nike-WBCA All-American and USA TODAY All-American (Third Team). She was twice named Cincinnati Enquirer and the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Women's Sports Association Player of the Year. As a collegiate sophomore playing for the University of Tennessee, Amber was recovering from surgery to repair her rotator cuff when her lungs filled with fluid and she suffered a stroke. The stroke eventually led to the discovery of a brain aneurysm. She survived a potential life-threatening surgery and later transferred to play basketball at Xavier University, where she played from 2010-12. Amber, who also played volleyball at Lakota West, is the daughter of LaRosa's Hall of Famer and NFL star Carlton Gray. She was the first female basketball player to be inducted into Lakota West's Hall of Fame and is a member of the Butler County Hall of Fame. Amber currently plays professional basketball in France.

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Mount Notre Dame became the first school in Ohio High School history to win four straight Division I state basketball championships and All-American Kendall Hackney - the LaRosa's Female Athlete of the Year in 2008-09 -- was the heart and soul of those teams. A four-year starter for the Cougars, Kendall was named the Ohio tournament MVP twice - as both a freshman and senior. In the final two games of the 2008-09 state tournament, Kendall scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds. During her career at MND, the Cougars compiled a staggering 101-10 overall record. Her awards and accomplishments were equally as impressive as she concluded her career at MND with 1,212 career points. Kendall was selected Ohio's Miss Basketball in 2009 and was named the Ohio Division I Player of the Year by the Associated Press. A preseason McDonald's All-American, she was also named The Cincinnati Enquirer's Player of the Year. Her basketball accolades didn't end there, however, as Kendall went on to enjoy stellar success at the collegiate level at Northwestern University. Kendall was selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team; she was a two-time all-Big Ten Honorable Mention selection and was Third Team All-Big Ten as a senior. She had 97-straight appearances in the starting lineup (114 total) and her 126 games played ranks third all-time in NU history. She scored 10+ points in 82 of 126 career games. Her 1,547 career points ranks in the top 15. Prior to the 2019-20 season, Kendall ranked sixth in 3-point field goals (147) and 3-point field goal attempts (424), ninth in 3-point field goal percentage (.347), seventh in rebounds (699) and 10th in blocked shots (75). Kendall was Academic All-Big Ten as a senior was named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. Currently, Kendall lives in Phoenix, AZ with her husband, Udeme Udofia, and their 14-month old son, Josiah.

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It's always a special moment when you surpass a high school record and it may have been even more so for Katie Schwegmann when she set Bishop Brossart's all-time scoring record - previously held by her father, Greg! That was just one of many accomplishments in one of the truly great high school basketball careers in Northern Kentucky. Katie was named the 2000-01 LaRosa's Female Athlete of the Year and is regarded by The Cincinnati Enquirer as one of the top 50 best female basketball players in Greater Cincinnati history. All of that may have seemed unlikely when between her junior and senior years, she suffered what appeared to be a career-ending knee injury over the summer. Heaped with a multitude of awards as a junior - including being selected as a one of six finalists for LaRosa's Athlete of the Year -- Katie topped those accomplishments as a senior, when she was named Kentucky's Ms. Basketball, emblematic of the best player in the state. It was the crowning achievement after a season that saw her named Louisville Courier-Journal Kentucky Player of the Year, winner of the Joe Billy Mansfield Award and Gatorade's Kentucky Player of the Year. She scored 2,917 career points and was named 1st team All-Northern Kentucky five times, Northern Kentucky Player of the Year three times by both Kentucky Post and the Cincinnati Enquirer and earned 1st team all-state honors three times. As a sophomore she led Brossart to its first Class A state title, where she was named tournament MVP. She holds numerous other school records, including single-season scoring and single-game scoring.

In addition to basketball, Katie ran cross-country and track where she won three state titles and was named Northern Kentucky Runner of the Year as a sophomore. In track, Katie won a state title in track twice as a member of 3200-meter relay team and captured the 800-meter run as a sophomore. She was all-state three times and the team won three state titles during her career. Her time in the mile run (5:23) still stands at the Bishop Brossart school record. In cross-country, she finished third in the state in 1996 in Class A and was fourth in the state in 1997. She was named first team all-state four times and twice named first team all-Northern Kentucky. She was the team's top runner 53 times and had 18 first-place finishes. The team was a state qualifier four straight times - for the first time in school history. Katie went on to play basketball at Miami University but unfortunately suffered multiple knee injuries as a freshman, forcing her to take a medical hardship. She remained a member of the team for four seasons as "student coach." Currently, Kate Schwegmann Steffen and her husband Randy live in Bellevue, where she is a Certified Integrated Manual Therapist for OrthoCincy in Edgewood, KY. The couple is expecting their first child before the end of the year.

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A great all-around athlete and one of the best to come out of Covington Catholic High School, Bill Topmiller in his senior year (Class of 1971) was named first team all-state in both football and basketball and also was also a standout catcher and hitter in baseball. Bill was a consummate team player as he helped power the Colonels to three District and Ninth Region titles during his career. The 1970-71 basketball team went 30-4 with three of the four losses to eventual state champion Louisville Male. The team averaged 83 points per game in the era prior to the 3-point goal. Bill scored 1,156 career points in 96 games (12.03 average) as CCH compiled a 107-9 record during his final three seasons. He was named All-District, All-Region and was second team all-state as a senior. Bill was regarded as an even better football player. A three-year starter at wide receiver, he held or set numerous school pass reception records, including most receptions in a game (14) - a mark that stood for more than 25 years. He was named first team all-state as a senior, hauling in 41 passes and scoring seven touchdowns. He went on to become a two-year letter-winner in football at Vanderbilt University. Now retired, Bill and his wife, Peggy, have six children (Jamie, Matt, Michael, Michelle, Jennifer and Jeffrey) and 19 grandchildren.

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The former star athlete at Boone County High School in the early 1960s, Lynn Ray accepted a daunting task when he took over coaching duties of the Covington Catholic High School football program. A struggling program in the eight years prior to Ray's appearance, there was even talk that the all-boys school would do away with football all together.

By the end of the 1980s, Covington Catholic football owed its legacy to one man - Lynn Ray. Over the course of his 30-year career at the helm of the Colonels' program, Lynn Ray amassed a 234-132 record, five Class AAA state titles and eight AAA regional championships. His career record is so significant, consider that in the little over 600 total games played in CovCath history - Lynn Ray has coached 60% of those game; of the more the 375 school victories - Lynn Ray accounts for nearly 60% of those wins. His total victories rank in the Top 20 all-time in the state of Kentucky and No. 3 all-time in Northern Kentucky. The Colonels' five state titles were accomplished in the teeth of the toughest competition in the state in cross-town rival, Highlands. Between CovCath and Highlands from 1987 through 2000, those two schools won the Kentucky state Class AAA title 11 of 14 times. Ray won his first state title in 1987 when the Colonels, trailing, 6-2, at halftime, came back and scored 14 unanswered points to defeat Paducah Tilghman, 16-6. They did it again the following year, when - trailing Paducah, 17-3, at halftime, CovCath came back to score 21 points in the fourth quarter to force an overtime victory, 30-24. Coach Ray, who was President of the Kentucky High School Football Coaches Association in 1994-95, went on to collect numerous honors over the course of his career including being named head coach of the Kentucky All-Stars vs. Tennessee (1990), Kentucky State Coach of the Year (1992), Regional Winner of the National Coach of the Year (1996), and Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Football Hall of Fame (2005). Ray has been inducted into the Covington Catholic Hall of Fame and the Northern Kentucky Hall of Fame. He is retired and living with his wife, Patti, in Florence, KY.

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