McKneely Receives Male Gamer of the Week Honors
Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald are pleased to present this week’s male Gamer of the Week to junior, Isaac McKneely of the Poca High School basketball team.
After a year long hiatus due to COVID-19, West Virginia high school basketball is back. Almost a year to the date that the state tournaments were cancelled last year, the first games of the new season took place. At the forefront of everyone’s watch list is Poca junior guard, Isaac McKneely. Isaac leads the Dots as the number 1 ranked team in AA to start the year and hope to continue their success from last season before everything was shut down. So far, the Dots have done just that. Poca has begun the year with a 3-1 record at the time of writing with wins over Chapmanville, Logan, and Sissonville with their lone loss coming against a tough Nitro team. McKneely has averaged 19.8 points/game in the 4 so far this year and passed the 1,000 career points mark in the March 9th loss to Nitro.
When asked the start to the season, Isaac made one point abundantly clear. “Our team is just blessed to get the opportunity to play,” noted McKneely. “There’s been so much uncertainty over the past year and just being able to get that opportunity has been amazing.” He went on to remark on how this current iteration of the Dots has several guys that can contribute and carry the load as evidenced by their season opening victory against Chapmanville on March 5 in which 4 players for the Dots scored in double figures and another finished with 9 points. “That’s what I love about our team. We have several guys that could go out and score 20 points in a game on any given night. We are unselfish and have a lot of guys that can contribute.”
Longtime Poca coach, Allen Osborne had this to say about McKneely’s status as a leader and special player for the Dots. “Isaac is a great example of being a student athlete. He has a 4.2 GPA while taking advanced and college courses. He works extremely hard and is very dedicated to the game. He has a great passion for it and is a great teammate. He is very humble and concerned about others.” Coach Osborne also echoed Isaac’s sentiments about how great it is to be back playing. “It feels great to be back and be around the players on a daily basis. We are extremely thankful and appreciative for all the hard work others have done to get us here, especially our school administrators.
This team has a track record of success and expects this season to be no different. Isaac expressed multiple times that one of the reasons for their success is that they are bought in to the system and are a very tight knit group that considers one another family. “We have unfinished business and a bit of a chip on our shoulder from last year. We feel that we have something to prove and hope to make another run at a state championship.”
Isaac has committed to play basketball at the next level for the University of Virginia under coach Tony Bennett. He states that Poca models a lot of their system on what Virginia runs, so he feels comfortable knowing he will have a baseline understanding of the type of system he will be playing in once he graduates. Isaac is a member of National Honor Society and FCA, and as mentioned above carries a 4.2 GPA through this stage in his high school career.
We are all so thrilled that all our local athletes are getting the opportunity to compete once again. Please look for other local high school athletes to be named in next week’s male Gamer of the Week Sponsored by Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald.