McNabb

JEFFERSON TWP — From worst to first.

Few teams even think about it. Knoch did it.

And for that, the Knights' Ron McNabb has been named Butler County Boys Basketball Coach of the Year. He edged out Mars' Rob Carmody and Butler's Matt Clement for that distinction.

“It's an honor and I appreciate the faith and recognition the (Butler) Eagle sports staff is showing me that way,” McNabb said.

“From one section win one year to nine the next ... yeah, that's hard to do. The credit goes to the kids. They never stopped working. They never stopped believing in themselves. I can't say I expected this drastic of a turnaround, but I can't say I'm surprised, either.”

Knoch finished at the bottom of its section in Class 5A in the 2017-18 season. The Knights were co-section champs of their section in Class 4A this season.

“We have a lot of good high-character kids at Knoch,” McNabb said. “With that comes leadership. We played a lot of guards and we pushed the ball up and down the floor.

“Even our big guys were in shape and were able to run with the guards.”

McNabb added that playing the likes of Moon and Mars in section play the previous year “helped make us a better team because you're bound to get better when you face competition like that.”

In moving to Class 4A, Knoch was reunited with familiar rivals Highlands and Freeport. The programs knew each other due to the close proximity of each other.

And McNabb likes it that way.

“We play Highlands and Freeport, we're playing in front of packed gyms and that's the atmosphere you want,” the coach said. “Playing West Allegheny on the road on a snowy night with nobody there watching ... There's no atmosphere there.”

Still, McNabb and his assistants had to get to know three new section foes this year — Derry, Yough and Mount Pleasant — they had not seen before.

That meant taking along a freshly-recruited person to videotape early-season games involving those teams.

“I had to take notes, so my wife (Kris Ann) came along to videotape,” McNabb said. “She was a good sport about it. She'd blackmail me into buying her dinner or something, but it was all in fun.

“I'm a nervous wreck if I go into a game without a good scouting report and those were section opponents. We had to get to know them.”

Knoch graduated starters Ben Lucas and Jesse Fessel from the 2017-18 team. But a number of familiar faces were coming back, including Julian Sanks, Adam Bajucik, Jake Scheidt, Scott Fraser, Cole Lassinger, Brady McKee and Jared Schrecengost.

“They all contributed and they all got better,” McNabb said.

Add in freshman guard Ryan Lang, who scored 190 points coming off the bench, the mist points ever scored by a Knoch freshman.

“We had enough confidence in him to put him on the floor in critical situations of critical games,” McNabb said. “He was important to us.”

So were assistant coaches Mike Fantuzzo and Ron Thomson.

“Those guys had every bit the impact I might have had in coaching this team,” McNabb said.

Sanks is the only senior graduating from the squad.

“We made major strides this year and we're excited about taking more positive steps next year,” McNabb said.