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Edney has been selected The Daily Voice Athlete of the Month for Westchester County for March. The senior hit a 60-foot shot at the buzzer to lift the Huguenots over Mount Vernon, 61-60, in the Section 1 championship game. The frenzy, however, was just beginning.
Videos of the shot went viral. Edney appeared on ESPN’s "SportsCenter" and morning news shows for ABC, NBC and Fox. He met singer Ashanti and posted a picture of the meeting on his Twitter account. The team continued winning and reached the Class AA final before falling to Bishop Kearney of Rochester, 45-39.
“I knew it was going to be crazy after I made that shot,’’ Edney said. “I didn’t know it was going to be that crazy. Just being prepared for it was the hardest thing. I left the game on Sunday night and had to be in the city at 5 in the morning on Monday. I’m never up at 5 in the morning.”
New Rochelle coach Rasaun Young was not sure how Edney would handle the hullabaloo.
“I questioned whether he wanted to go down and do those shows,’’ Young said. “I said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ But it was a great opportunity. I wanted him to enjoy it. It’s something he’ll remember the rest of his life. I’m just glad that I was able to be a part of it.”
The shot was remarkable but so was New Rochelle’s run. The Huguenots were seeded ninth in Section 1, and few gave them a chance to beat Mount Vernon. After that victory, New Rochelle knocked off three more highly regarded teams to reach the final.
“The fact that we kept winning was sweet,’’ Young said. “We proved that we deserved to be there.”
Edney added, “Not too many people believed we could make it. It was a great season.”
Edney also played quarterback for the New Rochelle football team, which won the state championship in November. He will continue to play football at Dean College in Massachusetts, where teammate Joe Clarke will play basketball and football.
Edney will continue playing but will forever be remembered for the shot that sank Mount Vernon. In a tenth of a second, he went from a high school senior to celebrity.
“I just wanted to get the ball out of my hands and threw it up,’’ Edney said. “After it left my hands, I watched it and saw it was on target the whole way. When it went in I was excited. I think everyone’s going to remember that shot for a long, long time.”
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