Santa Fe Boys Basketball Chases Success

As the 2024-2025 high school basketball season begins, the Santa Fe Raiders are striving for success to top last year’s performance.

The Raiders ended last season with a 10-14 record. With a majority of their players returning, the Raiders appear to have all the makings for a strong team this season. Special players to keep an eye on are Camden McLeod and Antonio Hall – both top scorers and leaders on the team.

“It should be easier than last year, last year we only had two players that had played varsity. So now that we’ve gotten the hang of, and the flow of what varsity life is like, a season under their belt, hopefully it’ll be a little easier than last year,”  coach Glen Banks said at Friday’s North Central Florida High School Basketball Media Day.

However – despite the promising projected starters –  the team did take a loss with Braylon Guyden. As the Raiders most influential player in the 2023-2024 season, it will definitely be a challenge to make up those points.

“We fill his role by committing. Braylon’s a hard guy to replace, I mean he averaged over 20 a game, so we’ll see,” Banks said about how his team is filling the gaps for the new season.

Banks and his players seem to be prepared as they head into the season, having already set numerous goals for themselves.

“I definitely want to make it to the playoffs and I definitely want to try and make it to Lakeland (state tournament site). That’s really where I want to go this year because I haven’t been there yet,” McLeod said.

Santa Fe opens the season at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Eastside. It will be interesting to see how the Raiders work to accomplish their goals of hard-nosed basketball.