Hard work paying off for Waynesburg’s Knetzer
Waynesburg University junior forward Addy Knetzer, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, is averaging team highs of 16.6 points and 11.7 rebounds a game for the Yellow Jackets.
Waynesburg University junior forward Addy Knetzer, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, scored her 1,000th collegiate point Feb. 1 against Saint Vincent.
Addy Knetzer
Waynesburg University junior forward Addy Knetzer, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, is fourth in the PAC in scoring.
WAYNESBURG – When Addy Knetzer was a freshman at Chartiers-Houston High School, she played a total of three minutes on the varsity team.
After the end of her “terrible” freshman season, Knetzer contemplated the future of her basketball career. Rather than quit the sport, she decided that if she was going to continue playing basketball then she was going to become good at it.
“After my freshman year, and ever since, I’ve had this crazy, insane work ethic,” Knetzer said. “I’ve just worked on my game every single summer since then, hit the gym and gone outside and worked out an hour a day. I would play basketball as often as I could. That’s basically how I improved.”
Nearly six years later, Knetzer is still improving as a junior at Waynesburg University, Knetzer recently scored her 1,000th collegiate point – something she didn’t achieve in high school.
“I didn’t become a good player until my senior year,” Knetzer said. “That was probably the first time I actually shined. But when I came here, I recognized that I didn’t score 1,000 in high school, so I was very determined to score 1,000 here because I regret not doing it in high school.”
The junior forward, who is averaging team highs of 16.6 points and 11.7 rebounds a game for the Yellow Jackets, scored her 1,000th point Feb. 1 against Saint Vincent.
Many 1,000-point scorers reach the mark during their senior season.
“I’m happy it came early. It’s less stressful now that it’s out of the way – I don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Knetzer said. “It’s not hard to not think about it. I knew against Saint Vincent that I would get it, so I didn’t put too much pressure on myself. I was so relieved when it happened. I feel like I can just play basketball now.”
Waynesburg head coach Sam Jones said Knetzer is the second hardest-working player he’s had in his 22 years of coaching, behind only former Waynesburg 1,000-point scorer Hannah Hunter.
“Addy is the only one I would even have in the conversation with Hannah,” Jones said. “That’s what’s great about both Hannah and Addy. Hannah wasn’t our best player her whole career and Addy wasn’t our best her freshman year, but they made themselves into that with their hard work. I do think other people notice and she’s inspired other people to work hard.”
Jones said it’s unique to have the drive to want to be the best that Knetzer has.
“It’s hard to say this without her sounding selfish, because she’s not overtly selfish, but I think in the back of her mind she wants me to talk about her like I talk about Hannah Hunter when I’m talking to recruits 10 years from now,” Jones said. “I think she wants to be one of the best in the history of the school. I think she wants to be one of the best in the history of the conference.”
Many college coaches recruited Knetzer for track and field. Knetzer is a Presidents’ Athletic Conference champion in the shot put.
Jones knew Knetzer from camps she had attended at Waynesburg, but when Knetzer made her recruiting visit, it was through the track team and Yellow Jackets head coach Jason Falvo.
“It started off as just track. Once I was (on my visit), I asked Falvo if I could play two sports, and he said I could,” Knetzer recalled.
Jones said he recruited Knetzer but he gives the track team and Falvo credit for getting her to Waynesburg. Jones saw the “raw talent” that Knetzer had and knew what she could become if she put in the work.
“She was exceedingly athletic,” Jones said. “She’s got great body control for someone her size. I would almost use the term freakishly athletic, but very raw. Someone of that size and that athleticism, you just try to get them and hope they put in the work and create the talent to go along that athleticism.”
As a freshman, Knetzer played in all 27 games, starting 10, and was second on the team averaging 9.2 points per game and first in rebounds at 6.6 a game. Knetzer’s determination to become as good as she can be led her to being a selfish player her freshman season, she said.
“Skillwise, I definitely improved there,” Knetzer said. “The biggest steps for me have been mental steps. I was pretty selfish my freshman year, and I think I’ve grown out of that. I’ve realized that personal accolades are great, but what really matters is getting further as a team, and I really want to see that.”
Jones said Knetzer’s biggest problem as a freshman was her inconsistency. After playing 13 minutes and not scoring in a game against Saint Vincent, she scored 25 points on 12-of-21 shooting against Bethany. After scoring 18 points against Washington & Jefferson, she scored only two points in nine minutes the next game.
“She was super inconsistent. She’d have 18 points and 12 rebounds one game and the next game she’d play five minutes because I’d be so mad I’d send her to the end of the bench,” Jones said. “To her credit, she didn’t get discouraged. She just worked harder to become more consistent. The good nights were great and the bad nights were atrocious, and there were a lot of the nights in the middle of the road, not know what we’re going to get out of this kid.”
Knetzer’s sophomore season started the same way the previous one finished. After 11 games, she was scoring at the same pace she did as a freshman; she failed to score in double digits in five of the 11 games and didn’t eclipse double figures in rebounds in any game.
Then she scored 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting and had grabbed 15 rebounds in a win against Saint Vincent, and Jones saw something change in Knetzer.
“A light went on and she became a double-double machine,” Jones said. “I was able to trust her and I got better at dealing with her specifically. Between her choosing to trust us as a (coaching) staff and me figuring out how to push the buttons the right way coincided at that point and that’s when it took off.”
Knetzer had 12 double-doubles in her last 18 games, had 17 rebounds against Westminster and scored 28 points against Bethany.
In the last 18 games of her sophomore season, Knetzer averaged 17.5 points and 11.8 rebounds, leading to a second team All-PAC selection.
Knetzer said her performance started to improve when she saw a need to change her game and start playing more for the team.
“A reason I became more consistent is because I realized what I had to do every game,” Knetzer said. “I am a post player and I have to use my body and it’s about the team and not myself. Little things like that I started to realize, and when you’re playing for the team instead of yourself, you play better.”
This season, Knetzer is fourth in the PAC in scoring, first in rebounding and sixth in field-goal percentage, establishing herself as one of the top players in the conference.
She became the seventh Waynesburg women’s basketball player to score 1,000 points. She is poised to pass Brittany Spencer, who is sixth in school history with 1,101 points, before the season ends.
Bobbie Jo Graham is Waynesburg’s all-time leading scorer with 1,752 points. To surpass that total, Knetzer would have to average more than 21 points per game for the rest of her career.
Knetzer’s next goal is to eclipse 1,000 career rebounds, making her the first player in program history to do so. Heading into Wednesday’s game against Chatham, Knetzer had 691 rebounds, needing around 9.5 rebounds a game for the rest of her career to eclipse 1,000.
“No matter who you are you can always get better,” Knetzer said. “I’m not the best player in the conference, so I’m going to keep working until I am the best. I just constantly want to make myself as best as I can, and that’s not going to go away.”