UMobile’s Ezra McKenna wins ASWA Small College Athlete of the Year Award

Basketball player lands major honor from the Alabama Sports Writers Association.

 By Tommy Hicks, Lagniappe, Courtesy of the Alabama Sports Writers Association

Ezra McKenna made it easy for Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) officials to select the league’s men’s basketball Player of the Year. The University of Mobile junior won the SSAC’s Player of the Week award eight times this past season, including five weeks in a row.

The 6-foot-9, 230-pounder’s 18 points and 12.2 rebounds a game also contributing to his SSAC Player of the Year selection, not to mention his second-team National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-America honor and his SSAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.

The Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., native is adding another honor to his list as he has been selected as the Alabama Sports Writers Association (ASWA) Small College Athlete of the Year. McKenna will be presented with the honor at the ASWA’s annual awards banquet Sunday, June 9 at Jacksonville State University.

“The one thing I remember is there were like four of five consecutive weeks of winning the Player of the Week award,” Mobile head coach Darnell Archey said. “He won the second one and then the third one and all the players started joking around with him, saying just name the award after him for crying out loud. Name it the Ezra McKenna Award. After he had a 36 (points) and 12 (rebounds) game (against Life University) everyone was like, well, he’s going to win it again.

“But the thing I love about Ezra is he’s an unbelievable team guy. He’s a servant leader. He does the things we talk about and the things you want from a leader. He’s very humble about things, almost to a fault where he was almost embarrassed that he kept winning (Player of the Week). We said, ‘No, man, keep doing your thing.’’’

McKenna led the Rams to a 21-9 record and the semifinals of the SSAC tournament. On a team with experienced players, he stood out.

“I think I just got more comfortable in our system this year,” he said of his success. “My freshman year I had just transferred (from Air Force) and I joined a team that had already been together for half a season. Those same guys were still on the team my sophomore year and I was still kind of adjusting then, too. Something kind of clicked this year and I got used to the system and how Coach Archey likes for things to be done. I think we also added a few guys that really helped us out and helped us score more points and as a team perform better on offense and on defense.”

As for the Player of the Week honors, McKenna said, “That was pretty crazy. I’m not really sure how that happened the way it happened. I felt like once or twice I shouldn’t have got it. But at that time we were playing really good basketball and the whole team was playing with a lot of confidence. I think that was a couple of weeks after we had beaten South Alabama and we were rolling. Everybody was playing well and I just happened to be the one on the end of it that was getting the benefits. I’m just glad our team was winning during that period as well.”

McKenna entered the transfer portal at the end of the season but decided to take his name off the list and return to Mobile for his senior season.

“If someone asks me how recruiting is going I have to say, that’s our biggest recruit, retaining him,” Archey said. “He put his name in the portal and he could have gone to different mid-majors and he probably could have made some NIL money. But that tells you the type of guy he is. His sense of loyalty is great. He wants to finish out at the University of Mobile and we welcomed him back with open arms, as you can imagine.”

McKenna said it wasn’t only a comfort zone with the team and coaching staff that convinced him to stay, but with his academic life at the school as well.

“I really had only considered looking elsewhere because my family told me it would be dumb not to see what other opportunities there were,” he said. “But I think in my heart I always wanted to stay.”

As for being named the ASWA Small College Athlete of the Year, McKenna said, “It’s a great honor, for sure. It says a lot about our program and our school. Obviously, I feel I wouldn’t be getting an award like this if not for my teammates and Coach Archey and the support system we have here. I’m glad to represent our organization and our school.”

The ASWA banquet is sponsored by Alfa Insurance and the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

See also: Sheldon Williams Named ASWA Community College Athlete of the Year