The Gatewood boys’ basketball program enjoyed a lot of success last season under head coach Don Keiser. The Gators went 23-4 overall and made a deep playoff run before losing to Furtah Prep in the Elite Eight.
Keiser hopes to bank off last year’s promise.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve got everybody coming back except my leading scorer, a senior last season. He (Moses) averaged 13 points per game last season, but I’ve got a center (right now) that I feel is just as athletic,” Keiser said. “He’s probably a lot more athletic than Moses was his junior year, but Moses woke up his senior year and came to life.”
“Moses” was former Gators’ player, Jackson Warner, nicknamed Moses since there were two other players named “Jackson” on Gatewood’s roster last season. The Gators also lost Gavin Fried, who was the sixth man off the bench and started a few games.
“I have four starters returning and two of them were freshmen last session,” Keiser said. “We also have Jackson Morris returning. He is going to be a senior and is looking to reach the 1,000-point mark.”
Morris, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound combo guard, enters his senior season at Gatewood with 903 career points. He was the team’s second-leading scorer behind Moses during his junior campaign.
Keiser also is excited about Blake Callaway returning for the Gators.
“He’s the 6-foot-3 junior I was talking about. He is very athletic,” Keiser said. “Blake didn’t get to play as much last year as he should of because (Jackson) Morris was having such a good season. He’s going to surprise some people. I’ve also got freshman Matt Allen, but he broke his hand in workouts. So, we hope to get him back soon. He gets his cast off the day of our first game. Now, he’s going to have a really great freshman season.
Basketball is his life. He’s super talented.”
Gatewood also returns starters Kaiden Keiser and Walker Roberts this year. Both contributed to last year’s success on the court and helped provide some depth on a relatively thin Gators’ roster.
Keiser’s squad faces a tough schedule to open its season. The Gators begin their 2022-23 campaign against John Hancock Academy on Nov. 21, then will face Peachtree Academy on Nov. 28, Georgia Military College Prep on Nov. 29 and Trinity Christian on the first day of December.
Regardless, Keiser insisted his team is looking forward to the challenge of facing four tough teams to start the season.
“We did have some easy games last season,” he admitted. “This year, we have John Hancock, they’ll be coming in here, and then we have Peachtree Academy, a team I don’t know that much about. But then, our third game is going to be really tough. We are going to play Georgia Military (and) then we’ve got Trinity (Christian). That is going to be a battle. We beat them badly last year and jumped out on them early. They’ve gotten better in the offseason with a few transfers. However, I am excited about the challenges we are going to face early. I am really intrigued.”
The GISA recently transformed into GIAA in the offseason. The organization then added a new classification in AAAA, so Gatewood’s region got shifted around a little bit. The Gators are competing in Class AA’s Region 2 with Piedmont Academy, Brentwood and Westminster Christian.
Keiser explained that since Region 2-AA is so small, whichever team is in first place at the end of the regular season will be crowned conference champion. Then, the four teams in Region 2 will compete against Region 4 (Augusta Prep, Briarwood and Edmund Burke) in a district tournament.
“It’s a little confusing, and I didn’t vote for it, but that’s how it is,” Keiser said. “It’ll give us a chance to play against our old region, so it will be a good opportunity for us to face those teams again.”
Keiser said his goal this season—above all else—is to improve the Gators defensively.
“I mean, we were 23-4 last season, but we’ve just got to keep playing the hard-nosed defense we play,” Keiser said. “We press all the time, but it’s so hard to do because I don’t always have 10 players. I am hoping to get everybody back by the start of the season so we can improve defensively.”
Gatewood opens its basketball season at 7:30 p.m. Monday, at home against John Hancock Academy.