Vikings’ basketball player Brandon McKenly encourages others to persevere
By: Ryan Duda
Sports Editor
Freshman individual studies major Brandon McKenly was a standout player for the 2019-2020 Hudson Valley Community College Vikings Men’s basketball team.
McKenly’s season stats were nothing to look over either. He ended the year with an average of 15 points per game, the highest on the current roster.
McKenly also achieved 12.4 rebounds per game and 3.5 blocks per game.
“It’s expected of me to get over ten rebounds every game but three blocks per game is pretty hard to come by so I’m definitely more happy about that,” said McKenly.
His talent today has shown many spectators that he has been in the game for a while, or at least has put a lot of craft into his game.
McKenly credited his family for helping him succeed and improve his game, as he started to get into basketball at three years old.
“My mother is my hardest critic,” McKenly said. “I will have a 30 [point] and 25 [rebound] game and if she sees a couple shots I could have made she’ll tell me ‘could have been 40,’” he continued. “I love her for it because who else is going to tell me the truth but my mom.”
McKenly also displayed that he’s been giving an effort to improve in multiple assets of his game, explaining that his teammates and coaches have been crucial to his improvement.
“Coach [Phil] Sellers, my assistant coach, has helped me a lot on my free throws,” he said. “After games when I was hard on myself he helped me get back in the jump and helped me relax.”
His teammates even said that McKenly is more of an all-around player than what meets the eye in games
“They push me to where I know I should be playing at the same level as them,” he said.
Along with McKenly’s attention to detail, he also specified he is dedicated to his game off the court.
“I’m working on physically getting stronger,” Mckenly said. “If I get that down along with shooting and ball handling, I can be a really scary thing coming out of a junior college.”
McKenly spoke of his favorite memories from the season.
“My point guard, Izayah [Pigott] got a block and it kinda shocked everybody but me,” he said. “That was kinda like my block.”
McKenly also reminisced about a game the Vikings men’s team had at Siena College.
“When I missed my first dunk at Siena College it blew everybody’s mind, to the point where everybody was like ‘Brandon just missed a dunk’ and even I was pretty surprised,” he said.
Lastly, McKenly gave a word of advice for incoming freshmen into the Hudson Valley Community College basketball program.
“Just take it game by game [and] don’t think about three games ahead,” Mckenly said. “Don’t push yourself to the limit where [basketball] is not fun for you anymore,” he continued. “Go out there and have fun because the season does go by really quick.”
McKenly was crucial for the success of this season’s Men’s Vikings, with his 465 points taking the team to the NJCAA Region 3 semifinals.