Working through a lack of varsity experience last year, the Greenbrier East boys basketball team took some lumps along the way.
The story has changed heading into the 2024-25 campaign and head coach Jared Patton has high hopes for the Spartans this year.
“We are in a better spot than last year starting out. (Graduated senior) Gabe (Patton) was the only kid we had with varsity experience, so we had to rely on the young guys last year,” Patton said. “Those young guys are the ones we have back. They are the ones that got a lot of minutes last year and we are expecting a lot out of them this year.”
Patton will also have a deep roster to work with this year.
“We have 12 on varsity, right now I feel like we are eight or nine deep. The other guys are new to our program. They will split some time between varsity and JV,” Patton said. “We are looking mid-season and maybe a little earlier before they start contributing. The top is pretty solid.”
Brody Hamric is coming off of a breakout year as a sophomore and Patton expects him to pick up right where he left off when regular season opens.
“Just getting him to understand his role and use it to his advantage is something we have worked on. He is going to be a tough guard for us,” Patton said. “He is a little bigger and stronger this year. He didn’t have many eyes on him last year and he could roam freely. This year he will have to up his game a little bit because he will be a person teams need to stop.”
Don Penn, Reed McGraw and Layne Lambert were solid contributors last year and will play even bigger roles this year for Greenbrier East.
“Don Penn is arguably our best defender and Reed had some good minutes for us last year at guard. Just a scrappy player that shoots the ball well,” Patton said. “Layne was our (center) last year, even though he is really not a (center). He played big for us.”
Nathan Dixon is another returning guard that received solid varsity minutes as a sophomore.
“Nate has worked extremely hard in the offseason and is ready to be a key contributor this year,” Patton said. “He is one of our best shooters and has a very high basketball IQ. I am looking forward to watching him grow this year.”
The biggest surprise for Patton in the early going has been the development of sophomore Braylen Godfrey.
“Braylen has really, really improved. Him and Layne working together is going to be tough for us. We are not just guard oriented this year,” Patton said. “We have some flexibility in terms of things we can run and the players that can run them. We have never really had that since I have been here. We were so guard heavy, but we have a couple of bigs now.”
Although he is just a sophomore, Patton has also been impressed with Godfrey’s leadership ability.
“He has really stepped into the leadership role in practice. I don’t know if there is anyone on the team, that out-works him right now,” Patton said. He is (tall) and he shoots the ball well. I told him that he was a walking double-double if he just does what we ask him to do. He is really working at it and will be hard to stop.”
The Spartans will also enter the season with more confidence and understanding of what it takes to succeed.
“You can tell it in the way they practice. I would preach to them last year in practice that we had to be ultra competitive because of the teams we played,” Patton said. “With a young group they don’t quite understand it until they play them. They have learned how to prepare.”
With the new reclassification this year, Greenbrier East is now playing in Class AAA and Patton feels his team has a chance for some postseason success.
“The reason being we are not so guard heavy this year. We can go five guards if needed, but we have some other options,” Patton said. “If we can get the new guys up to speed, then we will have 11 or 12 we can run out there. We should be in every game that we play. Spring Mills, I don’t know, but everyone else we should be right there.”
Greenbrier East opens the season at Hurricane Dec. 13.
