NEWTON TOWNSHIP — The last ride of Gator Nichols and his immortals concluded at the 2026 Division IV state tournament, leaving an unmatched legacy at Maysville High School that rallied the masses in its wake.
So what now?
It’s the question on hoop minds everywhere across Muskingum Valley and East District boys basketball circles, as opponents eyeing cracks in the Panther facade and hoping for reckoning ponder their chances.
No team has controlled the Division IV East District like Dave Brown’s squad in the past four years, with three state tournament appearances and four regionals providing the proof.
But the heavy graduation losses of Nichols, the two-time reigning Division IV Player of the Year, and fellow starters Jordyn Watson, Kane Roehrig and Landon Iden leave the Panthers in need of major replacements. Only senior-to-be Gavin Ferguson remains from the regular rotation, and he will no doubt be a main focus for the 2026-27 squad that will have new faces in every corner of the locker room.
The lack of experience weighed heavily into Brown taking a less ambitious approach to summer scheduling, bypassing the annual trip to Midwest Live in Sandusky in favor of more localized team events.
What he learned is that his newcomers aren’t going to be overmatched. He also got more confirmation that their offseason program should again produce good results when the games officially count.
“I think every time we got into the gym, we got better when we got more shots,” junior guard Sawyer Bailey said. “We got more consistent with our shooting.”
Sticking to the script
The 2026 seniors, led by Nichols and Watson, and Hayden Jarrett and Alex Bobb before them, were notorious early morning shooting warriors. The results were some of the best 3-point percentages in the state, regardless of division, and often provided the equalizer against teams boasting superior size and interior strength.
Even with new faces, like Bailey, senior Cutler Carnes and junior Kaeden Dusenberry, Brown saw enough during organized play in the summer to believe his new team can surprise their naysayers.
”I think they’ve seen the success over the last few years, and obviously that’s hard to replicate,” Brown said. “But they’ve seen the guys that come before them — Gator and Jordan, and Landon and Kane — and they want to (work hard), and they want to play hard. They want to do things like they’ve done things.”
That means early summer mornings for shots and lifts when many of their friends are still in bed.
“We are going to continue to do things like we’ve always done things,” Brown said. “That is going to look a little differently, but the toughness is still there, and the want to be successful is still there. And I’ve had had a lot of fun coaching these guys this summer.”
The latter cannot be discounted.
Brown, in his 10th season, struggled through an emotional press conference following the state semifinal loss to eventual champion Cincinnati Wyoming and later admitted that he strongly debated internally whether to return as coach. It was exacerbated by longtime top assistant and brother-in-law Jared Cox leaving to become the Panthers’ head girls coach.
Eventually, Brown chose to stay. The developments of this offseason has only reinforced his decision and invigorated his passion.
”It didn’t feel like the weight of the world was on our shoulders every game we played,” Brown said of his team’s offseason. “We just went out and played, had fun and played really hard. It was a good summer, and we are just trying to continue to build on that.”
Grad losses creating new leaders
An unblemished showing in a summer shootout at Marietta College, when the team came back to win in multiple games, showed the grit of old still exists. A win against Malvern at Caldwell, a team many expect to compete for another district title in the East District, was another passed litmus test.
As Bailey put it, “We didn’t bow our heads down and pout about everything we did. We kept playing, and that is why we kept winning.”
Ferguson was the driving force in those efforts.
“He’s really a leader,” Dusenberry said. “He will knock down a 3 and really get us going. He just really picks us up, and I think that is going to be play a big role in our season. He has been our leading scorer since our summer started. He can really shoot it well.”
The players are aware of the doubters, even those within their own fanbase. As if the motivation for playing time and new roles wasn’t enough, now there is a boulder the size of Newton Township on their shoulders.
“All of the haters and all of that, especially the ones saying we won’t win because we lose all of that talent, they’ll regret what they say,” said Bailey, who is also a quarterback for the football team.
Dusenberry said the intangibles provided by the vacated seniors, especially Nichols’ leadership and the constant energy Watson provided, figures to be a group effort with Ferguson leading the charge.
They need to look no futher than the state tournament banners on the wall of the gymnasium, with a new floor to accompany the new paint and logos added last offseason, for proof of what is possible.
“We’ve all gotten a lot better since last year,” Dusenberry said. “I don’t know how many people we are going to have at our first game, but I am sure that after they see us play they will all be surprised.”
Brown has impressed upon his current crop, especially the underclassmen, to trust — and enjoy — the process and appreciate how quickly their high school years will pass.
“I can’t guarantee when we’ll be in another Final Four or any of those things, because I can’t guarantee any of those things,” Brown said. “But we’re going to give ourselves a chance because we’re blue-collar. It’s a community, and that is going to continue to be how we do things as long as a long as I am here. And I hope that is a long time.”
sblackbu@usatodayco.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Grad losses creating opportunity for Maysville basketball’s new faces
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder | USA TODAY Network
