Midway through the season, Knoch's boys basketball team was in trouble.

Still recovering from the preseason loss of point guard Matt Lower, the Knights were 6-8 overall and 1-4 in section play.

Lower suffered a knee injury during an open gym scrimmage late in the fall, meaning that Mark Rupert was Knoch's lone returning starter from its 2002-03 section championship team.

"When Matt went down, I have to admit, I was pessimistic about what we'd be able to accomplish," Knoch coach Les Shoop said.

The Knights accomplished plenty, winning six of their final eight regular season games, reaching the playoffs and the first WPIAL championship game in the program's 47-year history.

For that achievement, Shoop has been named the Butler County Boys Basketball Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Shoop, 56, also becomes the second three-time winner in the award's history, joining former Karns City coach Jeff Loughry.

The Knights reached the WPIAL playoffs by virtue of a pair of narrow late-season victories, 56-55 at Deer Lakes and 53-50 in overtime over Hampton.

"The (mid-January) win at Deer Lakes kept us alive," Shoop said. "If we don't win both of those games, we don't even make the playoffs."

Ryan Hollihan sank a bucket with two seconds left against Hampton to force overtime and allow for the eventual win."We had our three scorers in Ryan, Jordan (Shoop) and Mark all year," Shoop said. "When Ryan Ziacik and Cory Wagner started scoring for us, we began to click."Add the production of Keith Samek and Noah Gammell off the bench and we became a complete team," he added.Shoop said Samek was the MVP of the Knights' WPIAL semifinal playoff win over Thomas Jefferson."We don't win that game without him," he said. "It takes contributions from a lot of people to make a successful season."Shoop is 477-327 overall in 35 years of coaching. He said he will coach for two more years - through his youngest son Jordan's high school career - and then retire."Most coaches never know when they're getting out," Shoop said. "I know exactly when I'm getting out."I coached my other boys, and I want to coach Jordan, too. And 500 wins is a selfish goal of mine. I'd really like to do that because I doubt many coaches have."Jordan Shoop is appreciative of his father staying in the game long enough to coach him."Being part of the team during the year he got to the WPIAL finals for the first time was a lot of fun for me," Jordan Shoop said."When we beat Uniontown in the playoffs, we knew we could keep going. We learned what could happen when we all played our roles and played together," he added.The Knights have three starters back next year and their junior varsity team was 20-1 this season."Things are looking good," Shoop said. "We should have a pretty strong team next year."