Holy Cross High School

Lynsey Hazelwood Lynsey Hazelwood, named MaxPreps/AVCA High School Player of the Week Holy Cross volleyball team fends off Male There's no question that Mercy Academy's volleyball team -- winner of two straight state championships -- is the favorite to pick up another Sixth Region title this season. Kentucky H.S. Football Preview | Class A, District Two It can't be said that Holy Cross took the easy way out when putting together its nondistrict schedule. Making a difference The girls Holy Cross volleyball team is performing charity work for the second year. The profits are being split between the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and also a young girl named Cheyenne Taylor. Kim Mingus in Q-up Holy Cross Student Doesn’t Give Up Dean Wells Camp On Thursday, July 15th, nearly 100 young men attended the Dean Wells Free Football Camp at Holy Cross High School.  Dean is a 1988 graduate of Holy Cross High School. Cougar Football Preview Holy Cross saw their 2009 season end with a crazy loss to Crittenden County in the second round of the playoffs, marking the second year in a row the Cougars have failed to reach the region title game.

  

GIRLS’ COACHES OF THE YEAR

Veterans Kyser, Copass credit teams

By Jason Frakes

jfrakes@courier-journal.com

 
The Courier-Journal

In his second stint as the Jef­fersontown High School girls’ basketball coach, John Kyser is enjoying his finest season.

The Lady Chargers are18-8 entering Friday’s 28th District championship game against Christian Academy, and they par­layed a 13-2 start into a berth in the Louisville Invitational Tourna­ment this season.

The Seventh Region’s coaches have taken notice, voting Kyser as their Coach of the Year.

“It’s quite an honor because there are such great coaches in the Seventh Region,” Kyser said. “But it’s about more than the head coach. It’s about the people around you, and I have an excel­lent staff.”

Kyser received 6½ votes from the 15 coaches who participated. Mercy’s Mark Evans and Whitefield Academy’s Jacob Saltsman tied for second with two votes apiece.

Holy Cross’ Fred Copass, who led his team to a runner-up spot in the All “A” Classic, took Sixth Re­gion Coach of the Year honors. He received five of 11 votes to edge Bullitt East’s Chris Stallings, who earned four votes.

Kyser coached J’town for eight seasons in the 1990s, leading the Lady Chargers to the Seventh Region title in 1998. He returned in 2006 and has had four straight winning seasons.

The 18 wins this season mark a high since Kyser’s return, but the coach noted his players’ attitudes after a loss as a sign of their com­mitment.

“We lost to Bryan Station (74-71 on Jan. 16) in overtime, and it was a heartbreaker,” Kyser said. “But the team showed a lot of re­siliency to come back the next day and be ready to go in practice. I’ve had teams in the past that would get down after something like that and you couldn’t get any­thing out of them.”

In his third season, Copass, the longtime boys’ coach at Valley, has Holy Cross at 23-7 entering Friday’s 21st District final against Pleasure Ridge Park.

“These players have worked hard for three years, and the coaches have worked hard for three years,” Copass said. “The key has been how well the girls all get along with each other.”

A Sixth Region title remains the goal, but the highlight of the season so far was the All “A” run that saw the Cougars reach the final for the first time since 1996. Newport Central Catholic won the championship game 56-40.

Copass was named Coach of the Year at Valley but said this honor means more.

“It’s been so long since I start­ed, you might second-guess whether you can still do it,” Co­pass said.

By Jason Frakes

jfrakes@courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal


For all her talent and hard work, Robin Deckard will tell you there’s something much more important that has allowed her to have a successful basketball season. A seat belt.  “It pretty much saved my life,” the Holy Cross High School point guard said

A first-team All-Sixth Region pick last year, the 5-foot-7 Deckard is on her way to repeating the honor as a senior. She averages a teambest 15.9 points and 4.5 assists for the Cougars (21-7) and might even play in college — Indiana Universi­ty Southeast and Spalding Univer­sity are showing interest.

But on Oct. 24, there was some concern about whether the 17-year-old Deckard would even be able to play this season. Driving home from Wal-Mart,Deckard was involved in a head-on collision on Third Street Road in southwest Jef­ferson County.

The other car’s driver, 27-year-old Melissa Walker, was pronounced dead at the scene. According to a police report, witnesses saw Walker’s 2001 Mazda cross the center line and collide with Deckard’s 1998 Toyota.

Deckard was taken to Kosair Children’s Hospital with several bone bruises to her right leg. Police told Deckard the results could have been much worse had she not been wearing her seat belt.

It’s a message Holy Cross coach Fred Copass frequently uses when teaching his health classes at the school.

“I tell them, ‘We have a student­athlete that’s still with us because she used her seat belt,’ ” Copass said. “She would have gone through that wind­shield. … Those kids see her and she’s beat up a little, but she’s still alive.”



And Deckard is taking advantage — although there have been struggles.  She was released from the hospital the night of the accident and returned to school two days later, but she faced three weeks of physical ther­apy. Most of the damage was the result of Deckard slam­ming on her brakes during the accident.
“It was driving me nuts not being able to play,” she said.

Even though Copass ini­tially figured Deckard wouldn’t be available until Christmas, she played in the Dec. 4 season opener against Whitefield Academy and scored 27 points.

But with her right leg still bothering her, Deckard be­gan favoring it and suffered a bone chip in her left ankle. That injury forced her to miss all four games in the Pleasure Ridge Park Lady Panther Winter Classic held Dec. 18-20.

She returned to the line­up Dec. 27 against Owens­boro and hasn’t missed a game since. She scored a ca­reer- high 31 points on Jan. 15 against Spencer County and has scored 27 points in three other games this season.

All of this while playing at about “80 percent” efficien­cy because of the injuries, she said.

“She was a little quicker last year, and she probably gets a little more winded now,” senior teammate Oli­via Moore said. “But that’s understandable. … She still comes out and contributes a lot.”

Added Copass: “She’s a lot quicker than what she shows now. But she’s a cou­rageous little girl. She’s played with a lot of pain. I just wish she could have played her senior year at 100 percent.”

But Deckard’s coaches and parents weren’t just con­cerned about her physical well-being after the acci­dent. There also was con­cern with how she’d deal mentally with a fatal crash.

“It was really hard finding out,” Deckard said of learning about Walker’s death. “I was sad because I didn’t want anybody to get hurt. That could have been me. … It took at least a week to get it all together. I just thank God that I have good friends and family who helped me get through it.”

Deckard’s mother, Joyce, said her daughter rarely talks about the accident.