2024-25 Basketball Preview: Chesapeake Panthers

CHESAPEAKE — When the Chesapeake Panthers won the Ohio Valley Conference basketball title last season, you could almost hear a grinning Gomer Pyle saying, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”

And while the title was a surprise, third-year head coach Steven Ater is concerned that Pyle could be shaking his head at the end of the season and muttering, “Shame, shame, shame.”

“That’s kind of a danger there. We had a year that was unexpected. If you had asked us in the preseason we would have said we might be a little young and a little inexperienced, so you wouldn’t expect that kind of run, especially in a league as good as the OVC,” said Ater.

“That was great, but we have to be able to turn the page.We’re a little different group. We lost three important seniors off that team. We have a lot of familiar faces back and roles change and that changes chemistry so we have a lot of different things to figure out. We’re asking more of these guys to fill the roles of those guys we lost. It’s not about last year.”

A new face last season who became a big factor in the Panthers winning the OVC is 6-3 sophomore Maddox Kazee who averaged 12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3 assists.

Ater said he has seen Maddox play on summer league teams and getting a chance to coach him was a treat.

“Seeing Maddox grow up you just want to coach somebody like that because, A, how much he plays basketball and works on his game, and B, his IQ. For the game. When he’s on the floor, he makes everybody better,” said Ater.

“He’s a great young man, but he’s the guy who’s looking to pass and get guys open more than he is looking to score and his own offense.”

Something the Panthers will get to experience and enjoy this season is an increase in height across the backline.

The lone big man last season was 6-5 senior Jacob Skeens  but he’ll be joined by 6-5 junior Karson Frecka and 6-5 freshman Andy Chapman.

“With Jake and Karson and Andy being a freshman, when we get off the bus people are looking at Chesapeake and asking, ‘Where did this size come from?’ It’s a nice luxury to have but it’s forcing us to adapt offensively and defensively because when you get bigger you tend to play different,” said Ater.

“But we’re really excited about Jake and Karson playing together. We have great length all over. We’re glad to have all that.”

Kazee will be joined in the backcourt by 5-9 junior Kaden Perkins. However, there will be some depth at the position with 5-11 senior Ethan Kerns, 5-8 senior Drew Platz, 5-11 junior Jon Cooper Barker and 6-3 junior Philip Thacker.

“We’ll rely on Maddox and Perkins. They’re crafty. But we’ll do it by committee,” said Ater.

“We have some depth with Kerns, Barker and Plantz. And with the size we have, we were able to move Thacker to the outside. He’s worked hard on developing his outside player.

The Panthers were the surprising OVC champions last season which should help with this team’s culture, but Ater said there won’t be any catching people by surprise and the Panthers will be wearing a bull’s-eye on their chest.

“The OVC is a basketball league and there are a lot of challenges. We can’t rest on last year. There’s a lot of challenges ahead of us,” said Ater. “There are some new faces and some good coaches, so night in and night out it’s going to be a battle.

“I hope we have high expectations. People support our program and we’ve been successful and we have a tradition.”

Chesapeake Panthers

2024-25 Basketball Roster

No. Player Pos. Ht. Gr.

00 Ethan Kerns G 5-11 Sr.

  1 Jon Cooper Barker G 5-11 Jr.

  2 Drew Plantz G 5-08 Sr.

  4 Kaden Perkins G 5-09 Jr.

  5 Dennis Scarberry G 6-00 So.

22 Maddox Kazee F 6-03 So.

24 Philip Thacker F 6-03 Jr.

32 Peyton Muncy G 6-00 So.

33 Karson Frecka C 6-05 Jr.

34 Andy Chapman C 6-05 Fr.

55 Jacob Skeens C 6-06 Sr.

Head coach: Steven Ater

Assistant coaches: Nick Culbertson, Nathan Ezell, Nathan Copley

2024-25 Basketball Schedule

December

  9 ROCK HILL#

12 PORTSMOUTH#

16 at Gallipolis#

19 at South Point#

20 Lincoln County, W.Va.%

21 TBD%

27 ADENA

30 FAIRVIEW, Ky.

January

  2 COAL GROVE#

  4 Franklin Monroe@

  6 at Ironton#

  9 FAIRLAND#

14 at Rock Hill#

17 at Portsmouth#

21 RACELAND, Ky.

24 GALLIPOLIS#

25 LUCASVILLE VALLEY

28 SOUTH POINT#

31 at Coal Grove#

February

  1 TRIMBLE 2:00

  4 IRONTON#

  7 at Fairland#

#-Denotes OVC game

%-Denotes Cabell Midland Tournament

@-Denotes Harvest Prep Classic