By Mark Carpenter
After an outstanding sophomore season in which he helped lead the Peebles Indians to the championship of the Southern Ohio Independent League, quarterback Zane Knechtly has received another postseason accolade. In a ceremony held at McCoy Park in Peebles on Dec. 4, the soph signal-caller and outside linebacker, received the first-ever SOIL Black Bull Player of the Year Award. The nominees for the award came from the league’s coaches and Knechtly was a unanimous choice in the final vote,
“The Black Bull Player of the Year for the SOIL is a new thing this year,” said Shawn Hudgel, director of the Peebles football program. “Scott (McFarland) from the SOIL and Aaron Davis from Black Bull Capital Partners got together and discussed and Black Bull chose to sponsor the award.”
Knechtly’s 202 statistics were nothing short of impressive. On the offensive side, the sophomore captain played a role in 37 touchdowns, 20 rushing and 17 passing. He compiled over 1,300 yards passing and finished just short of 1,000 yards rushing. In his dual role as outside linebacker, he hauled in 10 interceptions, returning three of those picks for touchdowns.
“Zane is an exceptional athlete and extremely coachable,” said Hudgel. “While playing on both sides of the football this year, Zane also ran cross-country and was part of a cross-training competition. He does all this while maintaining an excellent academic record.”
“His hard work can definitely be traced back to his family. His mother Mandy is one of the team’s most avid supporters and his father Danny (and his cowbell) is a Marine veteran who volunteers with our team in different capacities. His younger brother Grady was part of the junior high championship team and his younger sister Kole is always on the sidelines.”
“I’ve been talking to Scott a couple of years and I finally got with Black Bull as a sponsor,” said Davis. “We wanted a kind of Heisman Trophy thing and we came up with this ‘Bull of the Year’ . We wanted to give the award at an awards ceremony but of course that was cancelled.”
Black Bull Capital Partners is a financial planning institution based in Cincinnati with an office in Adams County. They specialize in helping families reach their financial goals.
