Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Not looking back
Panthers’ Snavely has no regrets about transferring to Siloam Springs
Kyle Snavely has gone from being a workin-progress to a work horse for the Siloam Springs boys basketball team.
The 6-foot-7, 220-pound senior has become a dominant post player in the 7A/6A-Central Conference, leading the Panthers (166, 7-2) in both scoring (17 points per game) and rebounding (8.9 rebounds per game) as Siloam Springs travels to Russellville (13-8, 5-4) tonight for an important 6A conference game. The Panthers can wrap up a No. 1 seed for the 6A playoffs with a win.
“Guys mature at different rates, not just basketball-wise, but physically,” said Siloam Springs coach Tim Stewart.
“Kyle’s been a steady climb since he’s been here. It’s all starting to come together on the court with the skill and the athleticism. “He’s really been able to certain games just take over and be our main focal point on both ends of the floor.”
Snavely has scored in double figures in 19 of the Panthers’ 22 games, including a season-high of 30 points in a 70-58 win against Bryant on Jan. 29. He’s had a pair of 27-point games and scored more than 20 points in eight games. He also has 44 blocked shots along with 33 assists and 32 steals.
“He’s come so far and I think really two years from now he’ll be that much better,” Stewart said. “It’s not going to stop anytime soon.”
TOUGH DECISION
Following a successful ninth-grade season at Springdale Central, Snavely faced a crossroads for his academic and basketball future.
On one hand, he could continue on in the Springdale School District where he’d gone to school his whole life, had tons of friends and start his sophomore season at Springdale Har-Ber.
The other option was to transfer to Siloam Springs, where both of his parents were employed by Siloam Springs School District — his dad, Kevin as vice principal at Siloam Springs High School, and his mom, Deanna as the school’s library media center assistant.
“It was pretty tough because I wanted to come to Siloam because of my parents, but I wanted to stay in Springdale because of my friends,” Kyle said. “And I always grew up in Springdale, so I knew what that was like.”
Then there was the basketball to consider as well.
Snavely had just been a part of a Springdale Central team that advanced to the Junior High Regional Tournament, and he had scored a season-high 13 points against Fort Smith Kimmons in an opening round loss.
Har-Ber was going through a coaching transition with Adam Simmons having resigned and new coach Scott Bowlin arriving after winning state championships at Greene County Tech.
From a coaching standpoint, Snavely had enjoyed the time he spent with Simmons at Har-Ber, but he also liked Stewart.
Snavely said he talked to lots of people about what to do, including his sister Kathryn, who told him that if it wasn’t her senior year at Har-Ber she would have also made the move to Siloam Springs because it was a great school.
“I just thought about it, prayed about it, and finally just decided to come to Siloam and never looked back after that,” Snavely said.
PERFECT FIT
When Snavely transferred to Siloam Springs, there were a lot of unknowns about his basketball skills.
“We didn’t know much about Kyle at the time,” Stewart said. “We had seem him play. … Kyle was one of those guys that had grown quick and was a little bit awkward, but even at the time had a good work ethic. You could tell he played hard. You could see the determination in how he carried himself, but (he still had) a lot of work to do.”
Stewart said coaches could tell immediately that Snavely was a good kid who worked hard and was coachable. At 6-foot-5 and weighing around 195 to 200 pounds then, he became a project for strength and conditioning coach Chris Cameron.
His teammates remember this time as well.
“When he first got here, the first thing we all said was he looks like an uncoordinated, baby giraffe running around the court,” senior teammate Kyle Comiskey said. It’s hard to make those jokes now because he’s turned into a really good basketball player.”
Comiskey said the team accepted Snavely into their locker room immediately.
“He fit in perfectly,” Comiskey said. “From day one we accepted him as our brother, and we loved him. I don’t know that there could have been a better fit for our program than Snaves.”