Ramona’s Knight to Move to Utah

Travis Knight, a 6-foot-10 1/2 center who helped lead Ramona High to a San Diego Section basketball championship, is moving to Sandy, Utah.

Knight, whose family owns a home and businesses in Utah, said they will move Sept. 1 for business reasons.

Knight, who averaged 18.7 points, 13.9 rebounds and had 112 blocked shots last season, would have been a senior at Ramona.

Knight, 16, is expected to be one of the nation’s most highly recruited centers this year. Ramona Coach Al Schaffer said at least one national scouting service has rated Knight the nation’s third best high school center.

“I’m sad to leave, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” Knight said. “So I’ll make the best of it. I have lot of friends here; my girlfriend’s here. It’s going to be tough.”

Knight was a key figure in the Bulldogs’ 20-6 season, capped by a 73-55 victory over Kearny for the Section Division III title.

“The news was very much a surprise,” said Schaffer, who was notified by Travis’ father, Greg Knight, two weeks ago. “(Greg) said Travis wanted to stay, but the family made a decision that they want him to move with them.

“Everybody in Ramona will have to work a lot harder for us to win this year without Travis. And we plan to win another title this year. But nobody will do for us what Travis would have done.”

Knight will be transfering to Alta High in Sandy, where the basketball team was 16-4 in 1990-91 after going 0-20 the year before. Knight said he might be playing along side a 6-10 exchange student from Australia.