The Newberry High School boys’ basketball team amazed fans so far this season, compiling a 24-0 record with its latest victory Wednesday in the regional quarterfinal against The Bolles School.
“We just encourage our kids to continue to ‘write their story,’” coach Patrick Green said. “They've already had a historic season, but it’s not over yet, and it can be as great as they want it to be.”
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), the governing body of Florida high school sports, released new state classifications for boys' high school basketball in June 2024. The Panthers were elevated from classification 1A to classification 3A, and despite the growth in competition, Newberry has shown that it can play with anyone in the state.
“Changing classifications brought new challenges but we embraced that part of it,” Green said. “I think one advantage to it is not playing teams that are so familiar with us as well.”
Besides being assigned to a specific classification, all high school teams are assigned to a specific region and district. Newberry’s specific assignment is class 3A, region 1, and district 3.
“For this school year, we added a new classification for what we consider rural high schools, which in turn shifted Newberry to a new classification,” said Scott Jamison, FHSAA’s Associate Executive Director of Athletic Services. “Movement of classification is also based on student enrollment.”
This is Green’s sixth season leading the Panthers.
“God’s hand and favor have been on this team,” he said. “We’ve been able to accomplish so much, and we’ve only had one game this year where our full roster has been available to play. They love playing with and for each other.”
An undefeated record to this point in the season is an exciting and unexpected feat given the classification change.
Juwan Scippio, a junior who plays power forward, said, “We’ve just been working hard for a long time, other teams had transfers, but we all stayed together, and we got a whole bunch of depth on this team, and we’ve been able to take advantage of that.”
Scippio currently averages 11.8 points per game and is one of the key contributors every game.
Going undefeated from the start is every team’s goal, but the Panthers have so far made it a rally, senior point guard Jacob Green observed.
“We just took the initiative to put in the hard work,” he said, “coming to practice, be competitive every single game, and coming into the games with the mindset of ‘we got to beat everybody.’”
Last year, the Panthers’ record was 15 wins and 9 losses. They lost in their district championship game by two points to Hawthorne High School but earned a spot in the regional tournament and played Hilliard High School. This game resulted in a 2-point loss as well and ended the Panther’s season.
This year’s extended playoff run has caught the attention of the community and alumni.
“I think it’s awesome to see this happen,” former Newberry player Hunter Shaw said. “We’ve never been a school in contention to win a state title in anything, so it’s real special.”
This season, the Panthers' goal is to win a state championship. First, they must get through the rest of the regional tournament, which is likely to present more challenging opponents at each level of advancement. The Panthers' next game is the Regional Semifinal against Florida State University High School on Monday at 7 p.m.
The game will be played at Newberry High School.