Moshier: Winning, not record, Knapp's priority

Vernon-Verona-Sherrill coach Al Knapp says the record he’s on the verge of setting is a “distraction” to his basketball team. “But it is not an excuse.”

 

Knapp wasn’t using it as an excuse Tuesday night, when Whitesboro’s Warriors denied him career win No. 521 with a 47-44 Tri Valley League victory over the visiting Red Devils.

 

Instead, he was praising the play of Whitesboro senior guard Junior Woodard, and crediting the Warriors for “surviving” and making the plays when they had to.

 

The record for wins by a Section III boys basketball coach, the one he currently shares with former Oswego coach Dave Powers, eventually will be his alone. That didn’t make losing any easier Tuesday night, not with his Red Devils’ chances of winning a TVL West Division title withering away.

 

“It bothers me that we lost,” said Knapp. “It bothers me that we might drop out of a No. 2 seed for sectionals. It bothers me that we’re not breathing down Oneida’s neck.”

 

Maybe not, but the record will soon be his, and his alone.