Smyrna High School running back Will Knight poses for a portrait at the school’s football stadium on Monday evening, November 30, 2015.
Sophomore, Smyrna football
THE WEEK: Rushed 32 times for 270 yards and four touchdowns, plus three two-point runs, as Smyrna rallied past William Penn 30-13 in the DIAA Division I football semifinals on Saturday.
THE COMEBACK: The Eagles were down 13-0 with 40.9 seconds left in the first half when quarterback Nolan Henderson left the field on a stretcher. Knight started taking direct snaps and rushed for 221 yards the rest of the way as Smyrna scored the final 30 points. “Just a little adversity,” he said. “We lost one of our brothers. Just fight harder for him, and let’s get through this game.”
THE FRESHMAN: Knight rushed for 961 yards and eight TDs and caught 22 passes for 417 yards as a freshman last season. “I was very surprised, because that doesn’t really happen often,” he said of starting as a ninth-grader. “That was just a blessing for me to have, to take it and run with it.”
Smyrna High School running back Will Knight poses for a portrait at the school’s football stadium on Monday evening, November 30, 2015.
THE COACH SAYS: “He is mature beyond his years,” Smyrna coach Mike Judy said. “He stepped in last year as a 14-year-old young man. … The first thing that stuck out was his maturity. How focused he was, how driven, how hard he works.”
THE PROGRESSION:This year, through 12 games Knight has rushed for 1,960 yards and 31 touchdowns and caught 16 passes for 309 yards and four more scores. Add an eye-popping 50 two-point conversions and Knight has scored 310 total points – an average of 25.8 per game. “I’ve studied more, I’ve worked harder and I’ve executed, made sure I know what I had to do,” he said. “What I’m seeing now is actually holes opening for me. Last year, I was a little more hasty. This year, I’m patient, like they told me to be. It’s finally clicking.”
THE POWER: “He’s physically such a powerful young man,” Judy said. “He’s very strong. He works very hard in the weight room. He’s obviously genetically gifted, he’s very fast. But besides that, he’s focused. He stops at nothing to make himself a better player.”
THE CLASSROOM: “Math comes easy to me,” Knight said. “I was always just good with numbers. It just clicks for me.”
THE FUTURE: The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Knight would like to play college football, but as a sophomore he has yet to hear from recruiters. “I plan on majoring in sports medicine so I can stay in sports,” he said. “Or physical trainer, to prepare people’s bodies for sports.”
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