Athlete of the Week - Buay Koak, Lyle/Pacelli Boys Basketball

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – He may not say it, but everyone knows Buay Koak can score with the best of them.

“I’m not just going to tell everybody like ‘Hey I’m a bucket’ I mean I’ll just let my game speak,” Buay Koak said.

Need proof, how about 2,000 career points.

“I was like oh that’s a lot of points that I’ve scored took me a while I realize. I was like 2,000 that’s a lot I’ve been playing varsity for a long time.”

Long time equals five years on varsity, five years of making Lyle/Pacelli Head Coach Carl Truckenmiller’s job easy.

“It’s easy to coach him. I mean he’s a great basketball player and a great kid,” Truckenmiller said.

So when he hit 2,000 coach told him something special.

“You’re Lyle-Pacelli’s best boys basketball player ever now.”

The two have known each other since Koak first started playing basketball in 6th grade.

“This long, lanky kid and I go did you ever play basketball, he goes ‘Oh I got to the Y’ he couldn’t dribble with his left hand,” Truckenmiller said.

“It’s unbelievable, but he works hard at it there’s a reason why he scored 2,000 points.”

Now he’s turned into a force.

“He’s dominant I don’t think people realize until they play him he can handle the ball well, he shoots the three. The dunking’s awesome, but the other parts of his game, his defense it’s just incredible to watch him play sometimes,” Truckenmiller said.

It’s what he hopes his legacy is that really says it all about him.

“Like to leave a legacy of encouragement for all the younger kids going up just like use my example to keep on moving forward and to push the others around them. If you just do it all for yourself you’re going to improve, but helping others improve makes it so much better,” Koak said.

His career’s not over yet, he still has a shot at the all-time LP record held by Olivia Christianson.

“I was at the game where she hit the all-time leading scorer and I just saw all the excitement that all the fans had, all the excitement she had realizing that she broke it. Having the potential to have that too is just, I‘m just going to let it happen when it happens I’m just going to try not to think too much about it.”

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