Wall Steals 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, Daven Wall of the Winfield High School basketball team.
The Winfield Generals boys’ basketball team got off to a slow start this season, losing their first two games of the year. Since that time though, Winfield has won five games in a row and are one of the hottest teams in all of AA. The first 4 of those games were all away with wins over Ripley (62-50), Wayne (79-27), Hurricane (64-45), and Point Pleasant (64-56). The win streak was continued on Friday night with a 43-30 home victory over Chapmanville. One of the team’s biggest spark plugs has been junior wing, Daven Wall. Wall put together a hot scoring stretch with a team-leading 14 points in the March 11 victory over Ripley, 18 points the following night against Wayne, and 16 in the third game in three days against cross-county rivals, Hurricane. Over the five-game winning streak, Winfield has been holding teams to an average of 41 points per game, which is also a direct credit to the team defense they have been playing.
Daven has stepped up from a more limited role as a sophomore last year to providing the team with instant offense and shooting in extended minutes this year. Head coach Chris Stephens praised Wall’s impact on the team thus far. “He can be very deadly from the 3-point line as well as provide a very good midrange game that a lot of players don’t have. He has put in time on his game in the offseason and that has shown with some of his shooting performances this year.” Daven himself credited the team with gaining a lot of momentum after picking up the season’s first win. “We started off with a lot of nerves and jitters at the start of the season and also played two really tough opponents in Wheeling Central and GW, but once we picked up our first win, we started to gain a lot of momentum and we could feel things turning around as we all started to settle down and play our game. Our chemistry this year is something that I haven’t ever seen or been apart of on any team in the past. It’s incredible the way we mesh together. Our defense is really starting to click and we are just working hard every game.”
I joked with Daven that the early season nerves could have came from not actually playing in a basketball game in a year. He echoed that and stated how excited everyone was to be back playing and enjoying the game they love. Coach Stephens commented on the layoff and stated, “It was very exciting to get started, especially for our seniors who had their junior year cut short. It felt good to finally get out there and compete after not being able to do the normal summer and fall leagues we’ve been accustomed to in the past.” Daven stated that team’s goal wasn’t necessarily to make the state tournament or any tangible goals like that, but more to keep working together as a team, progressing forward, and playing hard and that everything else will take care of itself.
Daven draws inspiration from his church youth pastor, who he claims always displays a positive, sunny attitude and that he wishes to be that same type of positive light for people. He has maintained a 3.5 GPA through this point in his junior year, but has yet to decide what his future will look like after high school. However, he has expressed interest in playing basketball at the collegiate level if possible.
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.