Prospect Watch: Trae Meny (2018)
Class of 2018 wing player Trae Meny of Columbia Battle had to make a big adjustment before his junior season.
The 6’5″ Meny was a Class 3 All-State performer at Palmyra as a sophomore before moving to Columbia to attend Class 5 Battle, where his father Brian Meny took over as the new head coach.
The adjustment to a bigger school and much stiffer competition was a seamless one for Meny as he became a Class 5 All-State player while leading the Spartans to a district championship. Meny scored 18 points in Battle’s championship game victory over Jefferson City, including his 1,000th career point.
“In Class 5, the competition was better every night, rather than a tough team here and there,” Meny said. “Everyone in Class 5 is bigger inside and the guards play better defense. Winning a district title was an amazing feeling. I also scored my 1,000th point in that game, so I captured two milestones in one night.”
As a junior, Meny averaged 17.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, four assists and three steals a game while shooting 49 percent from the field. An excellent perimeter shooter, Meny made 63 3-pointers and shot 45 percent from beyond the arc last season. He has received a lot of recruiting interest from schools such as UMSL, Quincy, Central Methodist, Missouri Southern, Pittsburg State, Columbia College, Maywood State among others.
Meny spent the summer playing grassroots basketball with the Gateway Basketball Club 17U team that competed in the Adidas Uprising Gauntlet Series against many of the top players in the country.
“It was great playing against the top players in the country,” he said. “I got to play with some good kids that helped me build my confidence even higher.”
Meny’s goal for his senior year is to lead Battle to another district championship and another berth in the state sectionals. He has been working on his ball handling and ability to drive to compliment his 3-point shooting ability. He also made the decision to give up football to prepare. He was also a talented quarterback who was slated to start for Battle, a Class 5 state contender.
“I’ve played football since I was young, but at the end of my junior year I thought about how much more time I could spend in the gym,” Meny said. “Basketball is going to be my way to college and not football. It was pretty hard to tell my coach that I would not be playing.”