Sportswriting

The newest chapter in Wan’Dale Robinson’s football story is the best one yet

By 6:30 p.m. Friday, most of the 100 guests on a pass list, and about 100 more people who weren’t but got clearance to come through, had filed into the Terrace Ballroom at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort and Spa in Lexington. They were greeted by a seemingly infinite cash bar, 12 boxes of Mellow Mushroom pizza and three miniature arcade machines — “Street Fighter II,” “NBA JAM” and “Mortal Kombat II.”

The guest of honor, University of Kentucky wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, was a little late for his own party. But who could blame him? Hugs from every cousin, college teammate and high school coach he’d ever known were just brief retreats from nervous thoughts about the moment that they were all assembled to see, but that might not necessarily come on this night: his selection in the NFL Draft.

Six receivers were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, and that was a good thing, he and his agent thought, coming into the night. Privately, they’d been told the magic number was five — if that many guys went, it’d all but guarantee Robinson would be a day two pick. Still, nothing is guaranteed, especially when it comes to “The League.” Most mock drafts pegged the 5-foot-8 record-setter as a late third-round selection, maybe even a fourth-round guy.

So when Robinson got a call at 7:50 p.m., less than an hour into the second round, it took everything in him to not explode when New York Giants General Manager Joe Schoen said he’d be the 43rd overall pick. Nervousness morphed into the best version of joy, the version distinguishable from others by the speed and size of the tears flowing from one’s skull.

“Since I was 5 years old, that’s been a moment that I’ve been dreaming about my whole life,” Robinson said. “To have it all come to life, I can’t even put into words how I was feeling. It was great, though.”

Photo: Silas Walker/Lexington Herald-Leader

 The coldest party in Kentucky: UK hockey games are a one-of-a-kind experience

Waking up for a 5:30 a.m. practice isn’t atypical for most athletes at the University of Kentucky. Most look forward to it; you don’t become a scholarship athlete in the Southeastern Conference without having a work ethic that matches, or exceeds, your natural gifts.

That includes UK’s hockey team members, none of whom are on athletics scholarships and whose primary affiliation with the SEC happens at football games when they’re chanting it from the bleachers toward inferior competition. Their commitment to the university squad — officially recognized as a club team but not sanctioned or supported financially by the school’s athletics department — is done without any return on their investment beyond the thrill of competition, cheers from their own fans and the typical benefits one gets from exercising.

It’d be less grueling to wake up at 5:30 a.m. for a jog than to make the trek to the Lexington Ice Center for a two-hour practice before class, though. A lot of college athletes say they do what they do for the love of the sport; if that utterance was ever to be accepted without dispute, it would be when it comes out of the mouth of a guy like Drew Carlson, a sophomore who played high school hockey is his native Illinois but only learned about UK’s team just two weeks before he enrolled in 2020. He made it onto the roster following an open-tryout window.

“It would be nice to have funding and all that, but we play ‘cause we love hockey,” Carlson said. “No one’s gonna stop loving it. That’s about it. It’s worth it, I think, for everyone.”

Photo: Ryan Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader

‘Kentucky is home.’ From 1,400 miles away, Terry Wilson reflects on UK.

Terry Wilson is 1,400 miles from home. The most successful quarterback to play at Kentucky during Mark Stoops’ tenure is still playing college football, but not for the Wildcats. He started fall camp last week in Albuquerque with the New Mexico Lobos, and is having a ball, but Lexington left an impression on him that’s hard to shake. “I can’t wait to get back out there and visit,” Wilson said in a phone interview. “Kentucky is home. It’s funny, me and my girlfriend were just talking about it the other day, going through our memories on Snapchat, just looking. I definitely miss it.”

Wilson’s decision to transfer from UK and play out his additional year of eligibility, granted under the NCAA’s COVID-19 waiver, surprised some folks when it happened in January. Wilson during the 2020 season spoke as if it would be his last in the college ranks, and had it been, it was a good one on which to go out: As a senior, Wilson led UK to its first win at Tennessee since the 1980s, quarterbacked the Wildcats to their third straight bowl victory and became the first UK player to hit at least 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in his career.

By year’s end, though, he believed he could have done much more.

“Not to sound selfish, but I didn’t like how I ended my career,” Wilson said. “I feel like I had more to put out there.”

Photo: Alex Slitz/Lexington Herald-Leader

My first date with Kentucky’s biggest high school football rivalry

Brats.

Beer.

Basketball.

That’s a first date I’d sign up for in a second, even if it was happening in the parking lot of a college football stadium.

Parked in the tailgate lot ahead of the annual St. Xavier-Trinity football showdown was a basketball goal, complete with one-on-one participants decked out in St. X yellow. To the side a couple of ladies — one rocking a Trinity T-shirt — egged on the boys on the court.

After a round of missed three-pointers by the fellas, the girl in the Trinity tee stepped to the top of the key and demanded the ball. She took her shot. Swish.

“It’s all about the form,” she said with a grin.

So, too, was Trinity’s victory later in the night, a 28-0 demonstration of why the Shamrocks are likely to repeat as the champions in Class 6A. They were quick to the ball on defense and efficient with it on offense. Unbeaten St. Xavier looked mighty in the five weeks prior; against its archrival, it looked meek. But hope prevailed before kickoff.

“We’re both undefeated this season,” said Ethan Hands, a St. Xavier senior who was playing basketball. “And we come to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium to duke it out. Who’s the better team? Obviously St. X.”

Photo: Alex Slitz/Lexington Herald-Leader

They were gonna take limos to Rupp Arena. Now a small, speechless county waits.

Speechless.

The head coach. The players. The superintendent. The fans not old enough to remember the last time the county’s only high school went to the Boys’ Sweet 16. The fans old enough to remember when the county had two high schools, one of which, Inez High School, reigned over all others on the hardwood — twice. They all struggled to find their breath, let alone words, to describe how good it felt for their home — and in the interest of full disclosure, this writer’s home — to earn a place on Kentucky’s biggest basketball stage.

KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett announced postponement of the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 six days before Martin County was scheduled to play Owensboro Catholic, the 3rd Region champion, in the first round.

“I just wanted to do something good for ’em, man,” businessman Tommy Maynard told the Herald-Leader in a phone interview. “When somebody does something good for the community, you oughta support ’em, y’know? You gotta show ’em they’re respected. … You look at us, and we’re in this rural area, and then you look at places like Lexington Catholic, Louisville Ballard, they got all these nice schools, nice facilities, and we’re just as good as them. We want to show them that we’re as first-class as they are.”

Photo: Ryan Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader

Former Kentucky star Leah Edmond has two careers: Teacher and pro athlete

Like many young people, Leah Edmond holds down two jobs.

The former All-America volleyball player graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in elementary education and loves children, so it was a no-brainer to get into teaching. Over the last two falls, she has served as an instructional assistant at William Wells Brown and Glendover elementary schools in Lexington.

Her side gig isn’t at Starbucks. Edmond this week will complete her second season as a competitor in Athletes Unlimited, an upstart professional sports organization that emphasizes individual player performance, plays all its games in a single city and eliminates the traditional notion of how a pro team is constructed.

“I’m trying to keep it going for as long as I can,” Edmond said of her time as a pro athlete.

Photo: Michael Clubb/Lexington Herald-Leader

‘Thanks Uncle John.’ Nieces glorify former UK football coach on basketball court.

“Kay, she’s a special kid,” Cooper head coach Justin Holthaus said. “She’s tough as nails. She’s never going to tell you that she’s hurting, that something’s affecting her. We always want to do what’s best for all of our student-athletes and there’s sometimes where she’s probably pushed herself, but it’s always about the team.”

She’s just like her uncle, John Schlarman, in that respect. The former University of Kentucky football coach and player, who battled a rare form of cancer until his death in November 2020, continued showing up to practices and games until the final weeks of his life. The lasting impact he left on the school’s football program is evident in many ways — that three UK offensive linemen will get drafted into the NFL in April is one of them — but the effect he had on his family has been less documented.

When Kay tore her ACL in 2020, Schlarman leaned on firsthand experience to lift her spirits. “He also tore his ACL a few times being a lineman, so when I tore mine, he was always like, ‘You’ll be good, you’ll get through it. I got through it, I was back out on the field,’” Kay said. “So I was like, ‘All right, thanks Uncle John.’”

Photo: Ryan Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader

State softball tournament: Middle school stars align for South Warren’s present and future

This could be South Warren’s year to win a state softball championship. If it’s not, though, the Spartans’ long-term outlook is blinding.

An 8-0 victory over Highlands late Saturday night at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington was their 29th straight dating back to March, and their first in the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop KHSAA Softball State Tournament. South Warren (37-2) came into this year’s event ranked No. 3 by state coaches, behind undefeated Ballard (36-0) and perennial contender McCracken County (33-2).

It figures to be near, or at, the top of the poll for a while. South Warren’s starting pitcher, Courtney Norwood, is a seventh-grader playing her first varsity season. The team’s next-best pitcher, Layla Ogden, is in eighth grade, as is lead-off batter McClain Hudson, who leads the state in hits and runs scored.

Norwood and Ogden pitched the Spartans out of one of the state’s toughest softball districts and regions despite not yet having stepped foot in a high school classroom. They combined to allow just three hits in their state-tournament debuts. It was South Warren’s first time playing at state since 2017.

“I knew we had it from the first pitch I threw,” said Norwood, who got the start and had four strikeouts in five innings.

Photo: Silas Walker/Lexington Herald-Leader