Just a few months ago, Class of 2023 football player Wakeem Page went viral for his insane pick-six during a game against Meadville. Once again, Prep students have put themselves on the internet through another insane play, this time in basketball.
Jacob Pollock, a senior football player committed to Gannon, and Vincent Kloecker, a Division-10 champion diver for Prep’s swim team, both play for the Blessed Sacrament Bulldogs of Erie’s CYO League.
During a game against Our Lady of Peace, Pollock caught the ball off a pass on a fast break. Instead of putting up the ball for a layup, Jake set himself under the hoop facing the opposite side of the court. Pollock passed the ball to a streaking Kloecker, and as Kloecker jumped up to the basket, Pollock lifted him up using both hands, and Kloecker dunked the ball.
Jake says that he and Vincent didn’t really practice the dunk, rather that it just came up during practice. He said, “We didn’t really practice it [much]. Me and Vincent just tried it one time at practice, and then we both talked about it and said we were gonna do it in our next game.”
The video first received attention on Vincent’s Instagram account. Barstool Sports then posted the dunk on their Twitter.
Vincent knew that if he the dunk were to happen, it would get a lot of attention. Yet he didn’t expect the big media companies catching on to this clip.
“We actually thought that if we ever managed to pull it off,” he said, “it would get a good amount of attention.” Vincent also added, “The first couple [accounts] to post it didn’t ask for any permission, but I was fine with it. Once the bigger pages found it and asked [to post it], I couldn’t believe they were actually direct messaging me.”
It would spread all over social media from there, with accounts such as House of Highlights, Ballislife, and Overtime sharing the highlight. The clip became so popular that it would appear on ESPN’s Instagram and was even featured on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Even though the play took everyone by surprise, Jake said that the two weren’t even trying to keep that play hidden from anyone at all.
“It wasn’t that hard to keep it a secret,” he said, “and we really weren’t trying to keep it a secret [anyways]. It just happened to be like that and no one really knew it was going to happen.”
Vincent added that the two were looking to execute the play during a certain game, particularly when Blessed Sacrament faced off against St. George.
“We actually planned for it to be against St. George to embarrass them,” he said, “but that game got cancelled. We ended up having the perfect opportunity to do it in the next game, so we just did it.”
The play has garnered mixed reactions, with some viewers saying that the two should have gotten technical fouls. Others were joking with other friends saying that they should try the stunt themselves.
Although Jake doesn’t really care about what others negatively say; he just focuses on the good aspects.
“I mean, I don’t really care,” he said, “It looked cool, it was fun, a lot of people loved it, and the points counted [too].”
On top of all that, Vincent had to balance playing CYO basketball and diving for Cathedral Prep, and he admitted that the balance of both sports was really hard.
“At first, doing both sports wasn’t that hard,” Kloecker said, “but as the year has gone on it has been getting tough. I just don’t have a lot of time for school, but I’ve been able to manage.”
