(Editors Note: This is the second of a five part series on standout student/athletes in the “Southern Six” that recently completed their careers and graduated.)

By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

KILN — To say that Hancock High multi-sport senior standout Jaxson Knight had a profound impact on Hawks athletics would be an understatement.

On several different fronts.

The departure of the versatile 6-foot-3, 240-pound Knight will leave a large void in the starting line-up of a trio of separate Hancock High squads after he left his historic mark on a year that was filled with milestones for the Hawks on the football field, the basketball court and the baseball diamond.

Knight, you see was a mainstay for HHS in his senior season all across the board as Hancock athletics achieved heights not seen in decades, if ever, in some sports.

“It is hard to say just how much Jaxson Knight has meant not only to our team, but to this school in his four years here because he has meant absolutely everything to both.” Hancock head boys’ basketball coach Connor Entrekin said, who is also a former Hawk standout as well. “The leadership that he has shown since he was just a freshman is something that truly has truly separated him. He led with confidence, humility, and by example. He never led with arrogance, which made it so easy for our guys to buy into him as a leader.”

Beginning back in the Fall on the gridiron, Knight was a major part of a Hawks football program that he not only helped guide to the Class 6A South State playoffs for the fourth straight season, which set a program record, but he also was a part of a HHS team that earned the first road playoff win in program history as well.

Knight was a starting defensive lineman when the Hawks headed to Soso and upset West Jones 21-14 to open the state playoffs. It also marked just the fourth ever playoff win for the program.

Then, after finishing up his duties on the gridiron just before Thanksgiving, he joined Entrekin’s hoops squad and began yet another historic campaign.

On the hardwood, as the starting center, Knight helped direct HHS to its first home state playoff win in over 40 years when the Hawks slipped past visiting Hattiesburg 57-54 in exciting fashion before a standing room only crowd in the Kiln.

“His accolades here as an athlete are something special and they don’t even compare to the kind of person and young man that he is,” Entrekin, whose team finished second in Region 4-6A behind state champ Pascagoula, added. “How he is as a leader in sports translates to how he lives his life, and I can confidently say after seeing it first hand that he impacts our community just as much, if not more, as he does our team. Jaxson will be truly missed, but I know he is going off to do great things.”

And that he did already. As, after joing the baseball team a little late again upon leading the Hancock hoops squad into the South State quarterfinals, just like the football team did, he proceeded to do the same thing on the diamond.

Knight was the top starting pitcher and also saw extensive time at in the infield when not on the mound as Hancock set a program record with 24 wins under the guidance of new head coach Neil Walther. In addition, Knight was a major force offensively as well.

The Hawks also earned a rare trip to the second round of the state playoffs after finishing second in Region 4-6A and eliminating Hattiesburg in the opening round of the postseason.

“Jaxson was huge for us not just because of his bat and his arm, but I felt that when he showed up he elevated everyone’s game because he was a leader,” Walther stated.

For his efforts, Knight was named Second Team Class 6A All-State. He also was honored with All-Region First Team status in both basketball and football.