Graduation did not hit the Greenbrier West boys basketball team in large quantity, but it sure did in quality.
Braydon McClung and Tanner Hagy graduated after the 2023-24 season. Add in an injury to senior Isaac Agee during football season and Cavalier head coach Jared Robertson was left with some big shoes to fill.
“We lost, obviously, our go-to guy and our second leading scorer as well. With Agee’s injury, we lost a 3-year starter and our best defensive player,” Robertson said. “We will just struggle to score, but I have totally revamped our offense. I hope it helps, but we are definitely a work in progress.”
While the questions are many for Greenbrier West, Robertson has been encouraged in the early going.
“This has been a really fun preseason,” Robertson said. “They have worked their guts out, encouraged each other and have had phenomenal attitudes. It has been really fun.”
The one thing the Cavaliers will not be short on is size.
“We did have a kid come back this year that didn’t play last year that will help in Asher Barclay,” Robertson said.” Asher is 6-foot-6 and 180 pounds. We have size, which is a good start. Colton Dunbar is 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and then Aiden Crane is a legit, 6-foot-3.”
“Crane will play a lot in match-ups and Barclay will play a lot,” Robertson went on to say. “Barclay is a little bit of a combo player. Hopefully we can play (Randy) Keener inside with Dunbar and move Crane and Barclay to the wing to really get big.”
Keener will add depth inside and according to his coach, could start some games as well.
“Keener is undersized, but he can squat a house, bench press a car and can jump out of the gym,” Robertson said. “He will figure inside for us.”
Kamden Sams is coming off of a solid year on the football field which Robertson hopes translates to good things on the court.
“I think that has helped his confidence. He is likely our point guard,” Robertson said. “We have little Crane (Isaac), Aiden younger brother. He was our point guard on JV last year. That will likely be our starting back-court.”
Shane Plogger will likely play off the bench, along with Dakota McKinney. Both of them are right at 6-foot tall.
“Pretty much our team this year was our bench last year that we tried to get minutes for,” Robertson said. “We have length that will let us trap some, which we like to do a lot. We have worked really hard on man-to-man. Hopefully we can play some man and be smart about it and use our size.”
Greenbrier West opens the season Dec. 13 at Meadow Bridge, part of three road trips to start the season.
“Our freshman class is really good and could help us out down the road,” Robertson said. “We will try to play hard on defense and use our size to rebound. We will try to get some post isolation and limit people being able to help. We will see. We have worked really hard.”
