Mikhayla Post, basketball
Mikhayla Post is a runner who became a basketball player at West Greene High School.
She hopes to keep running at High Point University in North Carolina, but more importantly, she hopes to become an oncologist to help those who suffer from cancer.
Post maintains a 3.9 GPA at West Greene and became her school’s winter sports female choice in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program. She is a daughter of Melissa and Josh Post of Graysville and has three siblings, two sisters, seventh-grader Hailie and third-grader Madison, and a brother, second-grader Tyler.
Like California, West Greene is a Class A school and Post is the school’s only winter sports honoree.
Mikhayla plays basketball in the winter, runs cross country in the fall and runs track in the spring.
“Track is my favorite,” she said. “I run the 400, 200 and 100 and I’ve been most successful in the 400. I am a guard in basketball.”
While many runners prefer the outdoorsy nature of cross country, Post likes running track better.
“I prefer track because it’s a shorter distance,” Post said. “I do like cross country because it’s run in the woods, but you also have all of the hills which makes it more difficult. I like running on flatter surfaces.”
Finding good athletes is always challenging in smaller schools and Post was encouraged to play basketball for her school since she was a freshman.
“Last year was my first year playing basketball,” she said. “They needed girls pretty badly, so I came out for the team. I didn’t want them to have to forfeit games. We ended up only having seven girls on the team and I had no idea what I was doing. I had never played before in my life. I ended up starting last year and playing a lot. It’s something I really enjoy because it’s so different from track and cross country.
“It’s a team sport and you get to interact with your teammates a little bit more. I’ve developed new friends from it, people that I wouldn’t have associated with before. It’s been nice. I think basketball has helped me develop a pretty good work ethic,” Post said. “Being behind like I was made me work that much harder than all of the other girls, just to get caught up with them.”
Post has been in contact with the track coaches at High Point, a Division I program.
“I’m hoping to run track in college,” Post said. “I’d be a walk-on and probably would mainly run the 400. It would likely be hard to play a sport and keep up with my studies at the same time, but hopefully I could do it. Even though it is a spring sport, they told me I would move in early, so they must have some kind of fall program.”
She finished eighth in the WPIAL in the 400 and advanced to regionals in track. Obviously, she hopes to place higher this season.
“My mom comes to all of my events usually, but it’s more than that,” she said. “Both of my parents help me. Sometimes it’s tough when I need to be told that I need to work harder. Overall, they’ve been very supportive.”