- July 15, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
The Lakewood Ranch boys basketball program has been stuck in failed attempts to recapture its success of the past.
The Mustangs were one of the best teams in Florida from 2016-19. They compiled a 98-21 record over those four years, won two regional championships and made an appearance in the Class 8A state championship game in 2019.
Then, after two more winning seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21 Jeremy Schiller left to coach at IMG Academy, and wins have been hard to come by ever since.
Lakewood Ranch has not made the regional playoffs since 2020 and has gone through an especially rough stretch the past three years, with a 15-57 record, under coaches Jake Baer and George Holub.
New Coach Kaden Knott said his players are ready to pull away from the hard times.
“It’s good for (the players) to see that success is possible here,” Knott said. “It’s something we are definitely capable of. At the point the program is at now, we just have to rebuild our trust. I’m looking to bring stability to the program and show I’m here for the long run. I’m not looking at a two-year lens. I’m looking at a 10-year to 15-year lens. I’m looking long term, and I’m looking to build something stable here in Lakewood Ranch.”
Knott, 26, played high school basketball at Royal Palm Beach, where he fractured his ankle when he was 16 years old and was unable to play afterward. He instead coached the school’s ‘B’ team, which set him on the path he’s walking today.
After coaching at two high schools — Maclay in Tallahassee and Palo Verde in Las Vegas — as an assistant varsity and head junior varsity head coach, Knott came back to Florida State University, his alma mater, in a graduate assistant's role under Leonard Hamilton this past year.
Knott said he missed the relationship-building atmosphere of high school basketball. When the job at Lakewood Ranch opened earlier this year, Knott, whose family moved to the area a year ago, didn’t hesitate to apply.
“I missed that you get players for three to four years,” said Knott, who had wanted to be a college basketball coach until recently when transfers have become commonplace. “In college, the climate is kind of changing. I missed building relationships and mentoring on and off the court. Building something meaningful in a local high school hometown meant something to me.”
Knott is inheriting a program in need of rebuilding.
Lakewood Ranch finished 4-20 last season and lost 39.8 of its 48.8 points per game to graduation. To make matters worse, two of the team’s top returning players, guards Greg Dauer (Sarasota) and Jack Silver (Booker), transferred out of the program.
However, the Mustangs said are feeling better about this upcoming year.
Knott will rely on several senior players who haven’t had much on-court experience in their high school basketball careers.
Rising senior Jaydon Richmond will be the team’s starting point guard. Despite averaging just 1.1 points and 0.9 assists per game in a reserve role last year, Richmond has impressed Knott in workouts.
“I’m excited about Jaydon,” Knott said. “He hasn’t had an opportunity to play a lot. They had a lot of key players last year, but he’s been working very hard this summer since I’ve been here, and I’m very excited for him to get to show his leadership and his skill on the court.”
Rising sophomore Sam Frye has also shown promise. Knott said Frye showed his shooting ability by going 7-of-8 from 3-point range at an Eckerd College team camp the Mustangs attended this summer.
“I think he’s a little bit of a hidden gem in the program,” Knott said.
The biggest difference in this year’s team might be its mentality. Rising seniors Jackson Bauer, a guard, and Caua Magno de Almeida, a center, said they’re embracing their role as senior leaders and want to help build a more positive culture than in past seasons.
“Last year, we were never lifted up by the seniors,” Magno de Almeida said. “Practice was more about complaining to the coaches than learning the plays. Players were shooting half-court shots. We were the laughingstock of the whole area. We’re trying to change that this year.”
Even with newfound purpose and motivation, Lakewood Ranch has a long way to go to get back to its glory days.
In Year 1, Knott simply hopes to see growth on the court and to give his players a reason to buy in.
Still just eight years removed from being a high school senior himself, Knott can relate to his players better than most head varsity coaches, whether that means going out to grab a slice of pizza, talking over the phone, or simply understanding the lingo players use.
One day in the not-so-distant future, Knott hopes those relationships result in Lakewood Ranch returning to the top of Florida high school basketball.
“I think there’s an opportunity for student and community engagement, and being from south Florida, you just don’t get that everywhere,” Knott said. “You see the community is out in Lakewood Ranch supporting its teams. There’s a big opportunity for us to build back what was once here.”
