Greenbrier East Boys
Greenbrier East Boys
Spartans have loads more experience
By Gary Fauber the register-herald
Experience was not on the side of Greenbrier East ’ s boys basketball team last season .
Gabe Patton was the only player who had varsity experience at the start of the year . The season ended with a 5-18 record , which head coach Jared Patton believes is a little deceiving considering the growth of a vastly inexperienced team .
“ We graduated 10 seniors the year before last , so we were very green ,” he said . “ However , that plays into our favor this year because everybody got a lot of playing time that had never played varsity . We definitely have the experience this year .”
Gabe Patton and Peyton DeHaven were the only seniors that season . That means several players saw significant minutes and will be important in continuing the growth this winter .
“ We only had three games that that we really weren ’ t in , but we we were in all the other games , and that was a huge testament to how hard the guys worked during practice and how well they picked up on things ,” Patton said . “ We ’ ve identified what our main issues were last year , and then we ’ re focused on those from day one .”
As for the several players who are coming back , Patton will make sure they are ready to contribute .
“ We ’ re battling it out right now ,” he said . “ We don ’ t right this second have a starting group . We have a little different philosophy than some of the teams that we go against . Starting positions are earned in practice ( and ) minutes are earned in games . You only start five
8 • WV SOUTH BASKETBALL
Jenny Harnish / The Register-Herald
Greenbrier East ’ s Nathan Dixon drives to the basket while PikeView ’ s David Thomas defends during the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center .
guys , right ? Well , they earn that in practice . Now they ’ ve got to show us in the game . If they don ’ t , somebody ’ s going to take their minutes .
“ So it ’ s a really competitive atmosphere that we have . And I tell the kids all the time , it doesn ’ t matter who we start . I could care less . Just whoever played the best in practice , that ’ s who ’ s going to start . Doesn ’ t matter what grade you ’ re in . If you look at our scorebooks , compared to other teams , we probably have more starters than anybody else . It ’ s just because we want these guys to compete at the highest level in practice and earn those spots .”
Junior Brody Hamric was one of the team ’ s top players a year ago and is expected to do more of the same this season .
“ Nathan Dixon is another one ,” Patton said . “ He has a great shot , probably one of our best shooters on the team .”
Senior Reed McCraw will likely play at point guard , where DeHaven played last season . The only other senior is Donavin Penn .
“ He ’ s our best defender , so I can see him getting a lot of minutes ,” Patton said .
Providing a presence under the basket will be sophomore Braylen Lambert and junior Layne Lambert .
“ I can see them sharing a lot of minutes as the big , or we could play them at the same time ,” Patton said .
The schedule will look a little different as the Spartans drop a class to triple-A . But different doesn ’ t mean less competitive .
“ It gives us some different ( opponents ),” Patton said . “ We ’ re not playing the South Charlestons and the Capitals and those guys . We have PikeView twice on the schedule . We ’ ve got independence . We ’ ve never played independence . We have Nicholas County . We ’ ve never played Nicholas County . We ’ ve got Lewis County on there twice . We ’ ve never played Lewis County . So it is a different look for us this year .
“ I tell the kids all the time , just because there are not the big 4A schools on paper , we still have to play the games . Nobody is going to give us anything . My philosophy all along is kind of like starting — I don ’ t care who we play . It doesn ’ t matter . Win or lose , we ’ re going to learn something and we ’ re going to get better from it .
“ We ’ re still going to play Woodrow ( Wilson ). We ’ re still going to play Oak Hill . I think we have Spring Mills on the first day at the Greenbrier event ( Battle for the Springhouse ), yeah . We ’ ve still got some big hitters .”
Email : gfauber @ register-herald . com