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Garnet Valley's McKee continuing family athletics tradition

06/16/2021, 11:15am EDT
By Matthew Ryan


Gannon McKie (above) is only the latest member of his family to pursue athletics in college. (Photo courtesy Scott Bechtold/Freeze Frame Photos)

Matthew Ryan (@matthewryan02)

Growing up in a family where everybody played sports, it’s no surprise that recent Garnet Valley graduate Gannon McKee will be a collegiate athlete in a few months at Penn State-Altoona, a branch campus of Penn State University.

Prior to his high school days, McKee mainly focused on lacrosse, but played basketball for fun; both sports are in his blood.

McKee’s mother, Lara Cini, father, Bill McKee, and three of his siblings — Tyler McKee, Madi McKee, and Logan McKee — all played or are currently playing basketball for the Jaguars; Madi and Tyler are both Garnet Valley graduates and Logan is entering his junior year at GV. Their parents aren’t Garnet grads but both local products: Cini played high school ball at Chichester, and Bill played at Sun Valley (Pa.).

Bill’s basketball career continued beyond high school, playing at Penn State-Brandywine for a few years before transferring to play football in Florida and eventually professionally in England.

Gray McKee, Tyler’s twin and the one person in his family that didn’t play basketball, played lacrosse at Stevenson University (Md.), D-III, and started in 29 games, scoring 56 goals in his career. Madi spent the last two years at La Salle University on the lacrosse team, where she scored 27 goals in her career.

After her high school basketball career, Cini went on to play lacrosse at Longwood University where she was a three time All-American, leading the Lancers in goals in ‘90, ‘91, and ‘92.

When Gannon entered his freshman year of high school he decided to switch over to hoops from lacrosse, a decision triggered when his friend and Garnet Valley teammate Carl Schaller got Gannon to try out for Explosive Elite, an AAU program based in Aston.

“Ever since that, I’ve just loved basketball,” McKee said.

Despite the divided household, no one in his family ever pressured him to pick a sport, and McKee said when he made his choice of basketball they all supported him.

“They wanted me to just play sports in general so when I made the transfer they were very passionate about it,” he said. “[They] pushed me to be better and were always just there.”

As a sophomore, McKee made the varsity roster, and as a junior became a starter under head coach Mike Brown. McKee had a nice junior season, averaging 6.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, and one block, and knocking down 44 threes. Garnet Valley finished the year with a 23-5 record, making it to the second round of the District 1 6A District playoffs, falling to Downingtown East, 55-50.

Prior to McKee’s senior year, Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal contacted Brown asking about former a Garnet Valley player. That conversation didn’t go anywhere, but McGreal mentioned his desire for a shooter.

“He kind of described a need that seemed Gannon might fit,” Brown said. “So I said ‘before I leave you, I got a kid you might want to take a look at.’”

Later on, McGreal tuned into a Garnet Valley summer league game live stream and shortly after contacted McKee.

In his final high school season, McKee took on a new role on his squad. The 6-4 shooter was now Garnet Valley’s ‘defensive stopper,’ according to Brown. McKee’s junior year the team lost one of their defensive players in Tyler Pendergrass and his junior year they lost two other defenders in Chris Coyne and Max Jackowsky, so McKee knew he had to step up.

“I just thought if I can lock down their best player then there's no chance that we’re going to lose,” McKee said.

On the 17-4 Central League champions, McKee yielded averages of 8.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, making 1.6 three per contest. The Jugars, led by Central League MVP Schaller who is continuing his career at Gettysburg next year, advanced all the way to the District 1 6A semifinals where they fell to the eventual District 1 6A Champions Lower Merion, 56-41.

Following the completion of his senior year, McKee was yet to make his college decision. He was considering schools such as Penn State Brandywine, Alright College, and Penn Tech, but on April 24th, McKee chose Penn State Altoona.

“I just believe (McGreal) and I connected very well,” McKee said. “And then also he made sure I was able to get in contact with the other players, become friends with all the other players. And then also he seemed like he really wanted me, it seemed like he was going out of his way to try to make sure that I knew that I wanted to go there.”

Penn State Altoona is a small school in Altoona, Pa. with an undergraduate enrollment of around 3,500. The Lions are a D-III program in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) where they finished the 2019-20 season with a 16-12 overall record (11-9 AMCC), good enough for fifth place in the conference. Last season, the Lion’s only played exhibition games because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, winning two of their seven contests.

Getting ready for his first year playing college ball, Gannon, alongside Logan, have been training with Stanford School (Del.) graduate and former Syracuse starter Trevor Cooney.

Although McKee has not been away from home much, he is excited for the next step in his academic and basketball career.

“We’re all like friends now,” he said of his future teammates, “so I feel comfortable to be able to go up here and do this.”


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