The Gatewood boys basketball team recently experienced some roster turnover in the offseason.
The Gators lost Ames Johnson, JT Gregory, Jake Rich, and Kaiden Keiser to graduation in May. They’ve also lost rising senior Matt Allen, their top scorer for the past few years and the program’s all-time leading scorer.
Allen, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound shooting guard, recently transferred to Newton High School, a successful GHSA Class 6A school. The Gatewood boys also lost another rising junior to Lake Oconee Academy, so the Gators won’t have many contributors returning next season, although coach Don Keiser embraces the challenge.
“Losing Matt, that’s huge, but I also had four seniors who started,” Keiser said. “Matt was special. He scored 2,346 points in four years since he played for us in the eighth grade. Kaden also scored over 1,200 points.”
Losing Allen and Kaden Keiser, the coach’s son, were massive blows. Allen averaged 35.1 points a game and shot 51 percent from the field. The younger Keiser also averaged the team’s second-best 12.2 points a game.
Gregory was also productive in the scoring department, averaging 7.2 points per game behind Allen and Keiser.
Keiser estimated that he lost over 75% of his scoring heading into next season, but believes he still has a strong core returning. He’s excited to see Landon Moreno, Lake Ferman, and Brady Haley are coming back.
Moreno was the team’s fourth-leading scorer last season, averaging 6.2 points per game. Ferman and Brady Haley also contributed valuable minutes for the Gators last season, but all three will need to step up if they want to succeed.
“We’re going to be young, but the good news is I got them young,” Keiser stated. “They are eventually going to be good. I’ve had many teams like that where we start young and gain experience. I’ve had some pretty good teams since I came to Gatewood. … If they stay and work hard, we’ll be set in the future. We’re aiming for it to be a [good year]. I do think we’ll give some teams trouble, though, once we get everyone on board.”
Gatewood recently competed in a camp at Georgia College & State University with a young squad. Keiser, a long-time head coach for the Gators, got to see what the future holds as they scrimmaged several other teams.
Keiser thought his team played well in some games and struggled in others, although he didn’t have his full roster.
“We went to Georgia College and played Piedmont Academy. We had a pretty good game against them,” Keiser said. “We were like deer in headlights [in some games], but then we improved, and we got better.”