SmartHealthToday
By Rory Glynn

Northern Kentucky - St. Elizabeth Healthcare is the new title sponsor for the premier event in Kentucky high school girls’ basketball, the KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16. The tournament will be held for the first time in Northern Kentucky at the BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University.

Since the bracket starts next week, here are 16 facts about the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16:

1. St. Elizabeth Healthcare has signed on as title sponsor for the tournament for the next two years. The 2017 tournament also will be held at BB&T Arena.

2. “St. Elizabeth Healthcare will be a tremendous corporate sponsor for this tournament and will allow for the event to be a true showcase of the arena, the campus of NKU, the entirety of Northern Kentucky and our outstanding girls’ basketball teams,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said when the agreement was announced in November.

3. Two athletic trainers and one physician from St. Elizabeth Healthcare will be at each game, said Dr. Michael J. Miller, medical director for St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine.

4. “The St. Elizabeth Healthcare system will be ready to help at any of our sites and facilities, including our Sports Medicine Center and Urgent Care facilities,” Miller said. “Commonwealth Orthopaedic Centers will also be ready as needed.”

5. There will be four first-round games on Wednesday, March 9, and four more on Thursday, March 10. There will be four quarterfinal games on Friday, March 11; two semifinals on Saturday, March 12; and the championship game on Sunday, March 13.

6. It’s the first high school state championship to be held at BB&T Arena, which opened in May 2008 as The Bank of Kentucky Center. (BB&T bought The Bank of Kentucky in 2014.)

7. St. Elizabeth Healthcare will present a half-court shot contest during the championship game.

8. Teams from Northern Kentucky will represent the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Regions.

9. The Eighth and Tenth Region champions will play in the first round, at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 9.

10. The Ninth Region champion follows at 8 p.m. on March 9, playing the 16th Region champion.

11. Full-session ticket packages are $124 for lower arena and $80 for upper arena. Click here for tickets.

12. St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine provides athletic training services to area high school programs Bishop Brossart, Calvary Christian, Cooper, Conner, Covington Catholic, Covington Latin, Grant County, Highlands, Holy Cross, Newport Central Catholic, Notre Dame, Ryle, Scott, St. Henry and Villa Madonna.

13. Holy Cross, from the Ninth Region, is the defending girls’ Sweet 16 champion. The small school in Latonia last year become the fourth school in history to win All “A” and state championships in the same season.

14. Holy Cross became the first 9th Region school to win the girls’ Sweet 16.

15. Laurel County and Ashland Blazer have won the most girls’ Sweet 16 titles, five each (though Blazer hasn’t won since 1929).

16. St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine also provides training services to Top Flight Gymnastics, Kings soccer and Thomas More College.

SmartHealthToday is a service of St. Elizabeth Healthcare.