Shantana Kanhoye has played four other sports at John Adams, but it was her last that led to her etching her place into PSAL history. The senior was a standout basketball, softball and volleyball player at the Ozone Park, Queens school. Monday night at the Brooklyn Marriott, however, she was accepting the league’s first-ever Wingate Award, to the top senior in each sport, for flag football.
“I didn’t even know there was such a thing as women’s football,” she said. “It’s going to get big. In Queens, it’s going to be serious.”
She came out for the team at the encouragement of Mike Apfel, who also coached Kanhoye as a junior varsity player in multiple sports. He knew he had the potential for something special in the kid he called the best athlete at John Adams.
Denis Gostev
Shantana Kanhoye of John Adams was the first player to win the PSAL Wingate Award for flag football.
“Like Apfel said, ‘I’m the George Washington,’” she said of being the award's first recipient.
Kanhoye admitted that she didn’t take her new sport serious at the start, but her competitive nature took over. She became a dynamic player on the football field as the team's quarterback and top defensive back, leading Adams in touchdowns. The Spartans went 7-1 and won the Queens division title before falling to CSIHS/McCown in the opening round of the playoffs. Her coach raved about her perfect passes, accuracy and ability to catch passes in traffic.
“Because she is a good athlete, she ended up being the best player in the city,” Apfel said. “It came natural to her because she is such a great athlete.”
It will be basketball, her main sport, that Kanhoye will play in college at Division II Bloomfield in New Jersey. The combo guard averaged 24.4 points and 6.6 rebounds, leading John Adams to a 12-6 record, a fourth place finish in Queens A East and a playoff win over Morris. Kanhoye, the ‘A’ league’s eighth-leading scorer, is known for her shooting prowess. She wanted to try something new by getting away from home for college.
“Try something,” she said. “Spread the wings.”
It something she did during her four years at John Adams, no matter what sport she played.
“A player like this comes along once in a blue moon,” Apfel said.
jstaszewski@nypost.com
John Adams, Shantana Kanhoye, Mike Apfel, Ozone Park, Queens school, PSAL, football field, Queens
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