WKA VARSITY BASKETBALL REBUILD ON TRACK
By: Gerald Doolittle
Contributing Writer
Batesburg - Leesville, S.C. – The 2024-25 basketball season at W.W. King Academy will be another season of rebuilding both Girls and Boys varsity basketball.
Last season W.W. King did not have a varsity girls team because there was not enough participation from the upper grades to have a team. This year the program gets a new start with Jessica Anderson filling the coaching slot.
Coach Anderson is restarting the program with six girls. McKenzie Wannamaker is the only senior on the roster. Kenzie Morse is the only junior. The two sophomores are Milana Beale and Zoey Livingston. The two freshmen are Emily Manley and Grace Black.
The Lady Knights will enter the new year with a 0-1 record. They dropped their season opener to Pelion High School.
Dennis Gibson is coming out of retirement to coach the varsity boys team. He will have a young roster loaded with freshmen and sophomores. He will have Spencer McCormick (jr) and Wyatt Burbank (jr) as the experience leaders along with sophomores Colton Black, Elijah Hutto, Landell Anderson and Jacob Clamp.
Coach Gibson sees a bright future for the program in the eight freshmen coming up from the middle school program where they had a winning record under Scott Buzhardt.
The freshmen players are Jonathon Chapman, Bubba Buzhardt, Joey Bradley, Kai Hoover, Joseph Morse, Colby Buzhardt, Bryson Burnett and Joshua Oswald. The youngest player on the Knights roster is Tucker McGinty (8th) who is a star in the making.
The Knights so far in the 2024-25 season have loss three games to Anderson Christian, Cambridge and Pelion High School. Coach Gibson hopes to have a competitive team as his players mature with more playing time.
