It’s been three years since Greater Beckley last made it to Charleston and the Crusaders are hoping to finally capture the title that eluded them on their last trip.
Finishing as the Class A state runners-up in 2022, the Crusaders, ranked in the top three of the coaches poll for most of the season, enter the 2025 state tournament as the No. 4 seed where they’ll face off against No. 5 St. Joe on Thursday at 9 p.m in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Only two players remain from that runner-up team – Kash Hendrix and Averyk Woodson – meaning Greater Beckley is light on tournament experience but head coach Justin Arvon is hoping to mitigate that.
“We’ve been working on our schedule and timeframes with these late evening games,” Arvon said. “Each day we’ll play an evening game so we’ve been preparing for that. Outside of that we’ve turned it into just like if they were going on a weekend trip with their parents. We’re going Thursday, Friday and Saturday night going home. We’re approaching it more in a business fashion but we’re not making a huge deal of it which hopefully makes it more comfortable when they take the floor.”
While the team is mostly unfamiliar with Charleston, they do have experienced individuals to lean on. Center Drew Fitzwater played for Beckley last year when it went to the state tournament and all-state guard Keegan Davidson’s watched his dad and sister win titles on the Coliseum floor.
“Certainly in practice,” Arvon said of that experience translating. “They’ve definitely been the vocal leaders – focus, concentration and work ethic. Keeping the goal the goal. Keegan comes from that championship pedigree with his dad and sister. He understands what it took for them to win and he wants one himself. Those are the things we’re going to lean on them for. Drew was down here with Woodrow last year and he’s been through the process before and he’s just a great kid and leader too.”
Greater Beckley’s first round foe is a familiar one. The Crusaders and Irish met twice this season with each team winning their home game. Greater Beckley took the first matchup 75-57 before the St. Joe rebounded to win 66-60 on Jan. 23.
As such, there are no secrets.
“We can expect a lot of transition, a lot of pressure and a lot of getting up and down the floor,” Arvon said. “They’ve got good guard play. They’re not unlike us in a lot of ways. They’re very talented. They’ve got three really good guards and one is an outstanding knockdown shooter that can do other things on the floor as well. They like to get up in you and pressure the ball and they create challenges for anybody they play when they do that because they’re quick, they’re strong and they stay in front of the basketball. That’s going to be the challenge going in for us. We do know them well. We played them twice and got them at our place, and they got us at their place. At their place it was a really tight game and they made plays there at the end. I anticipate a good contest and I know (St. Joe head coach) Todd’s (Maynard) going to have them prepared for what we do and we feel prepared for them as well. Sometimes in the (Coliseum) it’s about whose shots are going down that night, so we’ll see.”
High scoring games between familiar opponents are rare in the Coliseum. As a gifted offensive team with eight or nine players capable of scoring in double figures, Arvon doesn’t expect much to change as far as the offensive approach. He still wants his team to work the ball inside and build off of that.
“A little bit but not a ton,” Arvon said of changing the offensive approach. “We know what we want to do on the offensive end and we’ve stayed verbally consistent with that. As coaches what you expect is what you get. We’ve expected to get the ball into the paint and play inside out. Whether that’s on an entry pass to Drew (Fitzwater) or Isaiah (Kincaid) or we’ll drive into the paint as well. We expect our offense to flow the same.”
