(Photo Courtesy of Bill Caine)
Welcome to the 2024 KY High School Recap series. Throughout the summer Lacrosse Bucket will be recapping some of the top teams from the 2024 high school lacrosse season in Kentucky.
In this fifth and final article in the series, we head to Versailles and take a look at the CLL champion Woodford County Yellowjackets.
Head Coach: Ted Wilson
Record: 18-0
League: CLL
Key Players
Greyson Hodge (A, Fr.), Cole Humston (A, So.). Phillip Craig (A, Sr.), Charlie Twehues (M/FO, Jr.), Graham Hodge (D, Jr.), Parker Ishmael (G, So.)
Key Graduations
Phillip Craig (A, Sr.)
2024 Season Summary
The 2024 Woodford County Yellowjackets are one of the best stories and developments to come out of the Bluegrass in a numbers of years. The boys from Versailles went unbeaten and took down both of Lexington’s traditional powers twice en route to becoming the first team outside of Louisville or Lexington to win a championship in lacrosse.
In the regular season, Woodford County topped Henry Clay 13-12 and Lexington Catholic 9-8. The Yellowjackets would meet the Blue Devils and Knights once more each en route to a CLL title. In the CLL semifinals, Woodford County topped Lexington Catholic 7-4. They took down Henry Clay 13-10 in the title game.
Headlining the unbeaten season for the Yellowjackets was their youth. Attackman Phillip Craig was the only senior starter on the roster. The rest of the starters and major impact players were underclassmen. And maybe no younger player was as impressive as freshman sensation Greyson Hodge. The quick and athletic offensive weapon drew a ton of attention from defenses during what would become a 106-point freshman campaign for him. He had five goals and one assist in the title game. Sophomore Cole Humston had 77 points (39G/38A) while the senior Craig tallied 71 points (54G/17A). That trio helped lead an offense that averaged 14.8 goals per game.
On the opposite end of the field, it was sophomore goalie Parker Ishmael anchoring a defense that allowed 4.8 goals per game. Ishmael fills up the cage and moves well. He made 119 saves with a 61% save percentage last spring. Leading things out in front for that Woodford defense was junior pole Graham Hodge. A physical and disruptive pole, Hodge caused 54 turnovers and grabbed 52 ground balls.
The play and impact of Charlie Twehues for this Yellowjackets squad in 2024 cannot be overstated. As a junior, he went 63% at the faceoff dot while also causing 32 turnovers, grabbing 180 ground balls, and notching 38 points (15G/23A). He proved to be a total Swiss Army knife for Woodford.
Early Future Outlook
Next spring will begin the KHSAA era. As the game marches into a new arena in the Bluegrass, Woodford County may be the most intriguing program of them all. After a unbeaten season the Yellowjackets return nearly all of their production with only one starter graduating.
The Hodge brothers should be leaders at each end of the field once more while players such as Ishmael, Twehues, and Humston, as well as others, can be expected to play similar roles as impact players.
Woodford County has drastically improved on the lacrosse field in recent years and this past spring saw them reach the top of the mountain in the CLL. Now heading into the KHSAA era, and with as much young talent as this program has, it looks like the Yellowjackets could only be getting started in their quest to be one of the top dogs in Kentucky high school lacrosse.
Lacrosse Bucket 