Best Girls Athletes - 2025-26

This is part of the Simmons superlatives - a recap of the top high school athletes in warren county chosen by Jeff Simmons.

This is usually the category where I make everybody mad. Honestly, I'm probably still going to make some people mad.

That's part of the deal when you're trying to compare a wrestler to a runner or a basketball player to a flag football star. But unlike some years, I never really struggled with who belonged at No. 1. I knew that before the season ended.

The rest of the list took some work, but the top spot never did.

Let's get to the picks.

Ariyanna Rippy, WCHS flag football

Ariyanna Rippy is the most dominant athlete I saw this school year. And that's probably across both boys and girls sports.

(Spoiler alert!!) - The only athlete who could rival her ended up winning my boys athlete of the year award and hanging a gold medal around his neck last month.

For the old-school football fans reading this, I say it all the time: Rippy has a Lawrence Taylor effect on games.

You have to know where she is at all times - Every snap, every possession . . . every single play.

Because if you don't, she's probably about to wreck whatever you had planned.

Her statistics don't even feel real. Try these on for size: 137 flag pulls and 57 sacks. Seriously, 57! That's the kind of number that makes you check the stat sheet twice because it sounds like somebody accidentally added an extra digit.

But if you watched her play, it makes perfect sense.

Rippy was a one-woman pass rush. She changed protections. She changed play calls.. And, for most coaches, she changed entire game plans.

And when she wasn't terrorizing quarterbacks, she was making plays with the ball in her hands too.

I don't think we've seen the ceiling yet.

Cumberland University is getting an incredible athlete this fall, but I wouldn't be shocked if that's just a stop along the way. As Division I schools continue investing in flag football and the sport keeps growing nationally, I think Rippy has a chance to become the highest-level athlete Warren County has ever produced in the sport.

That may sound bold, but I have at least 57 reasons why I think I’m right.

Maci McBride, WCHS flag football/Soccer

There are athletes who put up great numbers, then there are athletes whose numbers make you stop and wonder if somebody made a typo.

McBride falls into the second category and here’s why: 20-plus touchdowns and 20 interceptions.

Again, this stuff is insane! A true 20-20 season in her first year every playing flag football.

I've covered sports in Warren County for a long time and I don't know that I've ever seen a stat line quite like it.

What's even crazier is football wasn't supposed to be the sport.

I wrote this before, but it’s worth mentioning again - For years, if you asked people around Warren County who the next great Lady Pioneer was going to be, McBride's name always came up. Most people assumed she'd become a basketball star. Others thought soccer would be where she made her mark.

Things happened - mostly injuries - and McBride could’ve let it stop her from shining. Instead, she found flag football and flag football found a superstar.

She became the first Lady Pioneer to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards. She turned herself into one of the state's most dangerous playmakers. She recorded six interceptions in a single game against Oakland. And every week it felt like she was doing something nobody had ever seen before.

The thing I enjoyed most about watching McBride this year was seeing the smile come back.

Anybody who watched her battle through injuries knew how much she missed competing. Watching her fly around the field, make plays on both sides of the ball and become one of the faces of a region finalist felt like seeing an athlete finally get the spotlight she'd been destined for all along.

Emma Woodlee/Maya Reagan, cross country/track and wrestling

You can't leave kids who make state off a Best Athlete list. I just can't. That's the rule (And yes, I may have just made it up specifically to make sure these two made the list).

I don't care because these are my lists.

Emma Woodlee is halfway through what I believe will eventually become the greatest cross country career in school history. Honestly, you could probably argue she's already there.

The 5K school record belongs to her, she’s already made three state appearances (two in cross country, one in track) and it seems every time I look up, Woodlee is doing something that hasn't been done before.

And we still haven’t seen her as an upperclassmen yet.

Most athletes spend their careers chasing records, but Woodlee is going to spend the rest of hers deciding how much lower she wants to push them.

Reagan's story is different.

I remember coach Josh Harris telling me about a match where Reagan absolutely rag-dolled an opponent and would've won a tournament championship last season if not for what I still think was a pretty questionable injury call.

What stuck with me wasn't the result - It was her reaction.

Reagan wasn't looking for sympathy or focused on the controversy. She was just mad she didn't win.

Sure, she didn't want anybody hurt, but competitors are wired differently. They want to win. And in that moment I remember thinking, "Yeah, she's going to be a star."

That's exactly what happened.

Reagan became a sectional champion and state qualifier while establishing herself as one of the toughest athletes in Warren County. And if I'm being honest, I feel sorry for anybody who draws her this winter.

Because my guess is she's spent the entire offseason thinking about the matches she didn't win. That's usually a dangerous thing for opponents.

Woodlee and Reagan may compete in completely different sports, but they share the same thing all great athletes have: They made state and they aren't satisfied by it.

Brooke Kesey, Boyd Christian basketball/flag football

Again, another kid I coached.

And I could tell you all the ways in which Brooke is more than deserving to be here, but honestly her résumé will do plenty of the talking: TSIAA Miss Basketball finalist, NACA national champion, Boyd's all-time leading scorer (boys or girls), a chance to score 3,000 career points and, most likely, she’s going to finish with 1,000 rebounds too.

The thing that's always impressed me most about Kesey isn't the scoring. From the moment she put on orange and blue, everybody noticed the scoring.

But instead of just relying on brute strength and sheer size, Brook gets in the gym every summer looking for improvement. Every year she has added something.

Before her freshmann year, it was better footwork. By her sophomore year, it was better shooting range. Last season, it was better passing and a better understanding of the game. By the time this season rolled around, she wasn't just dominating games - She was controlling them.

I’m very anxious to see what she’ll add this summer. I know she’s already working on trying to improve her conditioning (I guess 30 minutes a game wasn’t enough last year). But she’ll add something else before next year.

Maybe we’ll play her at point guard or she’ll decide to hit 100 3-pointers as a senior. If she decides she wants to do it, I won’t put it past her.

Brynlee Chisam, WCHS volleyball/basketball/flag football

This is one where I think you have to understand the category. This isn't best basketball player or best volleyball player or best flag football player either.

It's Best Athlete. And Chisam absolutely fits that description.

How do I know? Well, in the fall she was a major contributor for a Warren County volleyball team that won 16 matches and finished third in the district. In the winter she developed into an all-district basketball player, becoming one of the toughest and most important pieces of the Lady Pioneers' lineup.

Then came spring. Chisam was on track to be part of the softball program, but ultimately decided to focus more on AAU basketball. So she spent more time working on her hooping before deciding right at the end of the year that she may want to give flag football a try next year.

Wouldn’t you know it, Chisam made the team. So if you're keeping score at home, by the end of her junior year in 2027 she'll have already lettered in four sports. And honestly, if Chisam decided tomorrow she wanted to pick up a tennis racket or spend a winter on the wrestling mat, I wouldn't be shocked if she found success there too.

Some athletes are great because they dedicate themselves to one thing. Chisam is great because she can seemingly do all of them.

Something tells me she won't be done adding accomplishments to her résumé before she walks across the stage at Nunley Stadium in 2028.