Wink’s Kanon Gibson has been a mainstay on offense and defense since his freshman season in 2019.
That didn’t change this year.
The son of head coach Brian Gibson has been the quarterback on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
During his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons, that leadership came from Kanon Gibson’s natural athletic ability that allowed him to make the right call on offense or a key stop on defense.
This season, the natural maturing level caught up to his athleticism and Gibson became became a grand master on the gridiron.
Offensively, he was able to get his teammates in one-on-one situation that ensured success.
Defensively, his calls from the safety position moved the other Wildcats’ defenders to spots that shut down opponents.
So dominant were Gibson and the Wildcats on offense that they faced a second-half running clock in four of their games.
Add in the game that Midland TLCA was forced to forfeit and Wink was on the field for much less time than expected.
Nine times this season the Wildcats scored at least 40 points, with four of those games finishing above the half-century mark and two contests ending with more than 60 points on Wink’s side of the scoreboard.
“I think he really embraced that this year,” Brian Gibson said of Kanon’s leadership role. “He was intent on helping the other players do their job, which helped him do his job better.
“A lot of the kids were producing at a high level. He was helping them to make them play at the same level he was at each week.”
Even with the abbreviated time on the field during the regular season, Kanon Gibson made his mark.
He finished 118-of-202 passing for 2,016 yards, 22 touchdowns and two interceptions, while rushing 67 times for 723 yards and 16 touchdowns as the Wildcats won their first 12 games of the season.
Flipping over to the other side of the line of scrimmage, Gibson finished with 88 tackles, three tackles for a loss, five interceptions, three forced fumbles and one defensive touchdown.
For his efforts, Gibson has been selected as the 2022 Odessa American Player of the Year.
“He made a tremendous impact,” Brian Gibson said. “And it was more the things you can’t measure, like getting people where they need to be.
“As a sophomore and junior, he wasn’t as forceful, letting his play lead the way. This year, the preparation that he had during the week on the defensive end, the production was as good as it’s always been, but he didn’t have to do as much because he got kids where they had to be.”
Where they were was everywhere as the Wildcats were undefeated heading into a Class 2A Division II regional quarterfinal matchup against Albany.
Wink uncharacteristically turned the ball over five times in the contest and watched Albany take advantage of them for the victory.
Albany would go on to win the state championship, leaving Wink left to wonder what might have been.
“We had a fun season,” Kanon Gibson said. “There were some really good guys on the team that were fun to play with.
“It’s not easy to get over that loss, but we accomplished some things for Wink. We brought them back to relevancy, to where they expect to have at least 10 wins each season and go deep in the playoffs; we lost to the eventual state champions three of my four years.”
Wink did win 49 games with Gibson on the field (41 regular season contests, eight playoffs).
But those accomplishments already are in his rear view mirror.
He understands the impact he’s had on the program, a given as a coach’s son.
College is beckoning, however, and he’s anxious to get started with the next chapter of his football career.
His previous success put him high on recruiter’s lists and that didn’t slow down this fall.
He has been on visits and has another planned in January, to the University of Central Missouri.
Surprisingly, the Mules have an unexpected helping hand in the Permian Basin in trying to land Gibson.
“Rodney (Hall) has been talking to me a lot ever since he committed there,” Gibson said of the Permian quarterback. “Rodney and I have been friends for a long time, going to quarterback camps together.
“Central Missouri recruits Texas really hard and they have offered me at quarterback, with Rodney at slot. It’s a great campus and coaching staff and I have a visit scheduled there and want to get my dad up there with me this time because he wasn’t able to make the trip the first time.”
>> Follow Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide
