W. W. King Knights Open Defense Of Title

By: Gerald Doolittle

Contributing Writer

Batesburg-Leesville, S.C. – The W.W. King Academy Knights coached by Brian Kneece opened the 2026 football season with a 38-2 victory over the Wardlaw Academy Patriots.

The Knights are working hard to defend their 2025 SCISA 8-Man Championship where they posted the schools first undefeated season with a 12-0 record.

“We are excited about the 2026 season,” said Coach Kneece. “Our guys have put in a lot of work over the summer. We have the approach that we are attacking everything and are going to do our best to be the best WKA that we can be.”

Joseph Morse (jr) who led the 2025 offense with 2018 rushing yards started the 2026 season with 235 yards on 9 carries scoring 4 touchdowns. One of those was an 85- yard romp to the end zone. Last season he scored 33 touchdowns for 244 points.

Elijah Hutto (sr) again will run the offense from the quarterback slot. Last season he completed 45 or 60 passes for 1084 yards 21 touchdowns. He opened the new season 1/7 for 43 yards that was a touchdown pass to Landell Anderson (sr).

Jacob Bussey (so) again will be a defensive leader. Last season he led the Knight defense with 151 tackles. He started the new season with 13. He also had 9 yards rushing against the Patriots.

After Bussey the Knights had five other players with at least five tackles. They were Evan Collum (jr) with 9, Colton Black (sr) with 6, Casen Buzhardt (sr) with 6, Drayton Wannamaker (so) with 5 and Jackson Hutto (so) with 5.

Wannamaker also recorded a sack. Walker Buzhardt (fr) also had a sack. Anderson also had two pass interceptions along with his 4 tackles.



Coach Kneece hopes his team can stay focused on the task at hand to meet their goal of making at back to the SCISA 8-Man Title.