Frontier’s Grace Knowlton to play basketball at Mount Union
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NEW MATAMORAS -- After solidifying herself as one of the best basketball players in Frontier history, Grace Knowlton of the Cougars is on to the next challenge: joining the women's basketball program of the University of Mount Union after graduation. On Tuesday, Knowlton signed a letter of intent to play women's basketball with the Purple Raiders while surrounded by coaches, teammates, family and friends.
Knowlton said of her signing experience, "I'm just so blessed to have everybody supporting me all of the time. I wouldn't want to be surrounded by anyone else."
With everything that Mount Union brings to the table, it was an easy choice for her, "There were a lot of other schools I looked at, definitely in the OAC, but Mount Union was close enough to home but far enough away and just had everything that I wanted."
Throughout her career, Knowlton compiled a total of 1,080 points, good enough for third amongst girls in school history and 11th all-time for Frontier regardless of gender. She broke the millennium mark in a 55-43 win against the Valley Lumberjacks on Feb. 5.
While proficient in all the skills required to play basketball at the next level, Knowlton has become especially potent at shooting 3s. She now owns the single-season school record for triples with a total of 79 on the year. With a career sum of 188 3-point baskets, Knowlton has accumulated over 500 points from beyond the arc alone.
Knowlton went out with a bang this season, averaging 17.6 points and 4 rebounds per game. Her contributions helped the Cougars to advance to the sectional final.
After beating Toronto 60-26 on Feb. 21, Frontier advanced to take on Strasburg-Franklin. While the Cougars fell against the Tigers in that matchup 56-47, Knowlton had a whopping total of eight 3s in her final high school game.
For Knowlton, the goal of playing college basketball started, "Probably eighth grade to freshman year. It's always been a dream to play in college, but I think that's when I started to buckle down and put in the work to get there."
Her experience in Amateur Athletic Union basketball allowed her to be seen by those at the next level, "AAU was a big factor for me. That's when I got to talk to a lot of coaches over the summer. I visited Mount Union in the summer for the first time last year, and it was great. I connected with the coaches and the team, and it felt perfect for me.
Knowlton has been heavily involved in the Frontier community outside of the court as well. In her time as a Cougar, she has been involved in Student Council, National Honor Society, being a class officer and playing on the volleyball team in addition to other activities. Knowlton has excelled in the classroom, currently ranked No. 4 in her graduating class with a GPA of 3.951.
The soon-to-be Purple Raider has shown a proclivity towards giving back to the community, completing service hours through programs such as the Second & Seven Reading Program, Kay's Kloset and her church's vacation bible school. This coincides with her choice of major, helping keep the community safe through majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in National Security and Intelligence.
Knowlton feels that the environment in New Matamoras has shaped her success in basketball, "I think the community here makes it easier to make mistakes and learn from your mistakes, and I think learning that you have to make mistakes in order to get better has been really strong for me."
She concluded, "I'm just really blessed that I've had teammates, coaches, family and friends that have helped me build and get better, which has allowed me to get to this point. I'm so grateful for that."
Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com