A new-look Derby boys basketball team found new formula for another state run
After losing an all-senior starting lineup from a 21-win state tournament team, the Derby boys basketball program could have taken a step back this season.
Instead, the Panthers found another way forward.
With new stars emerging, new roles taking shape and a new personality forming over the course of the season, Derby retooled the fly and has returned to the Class 6A state tournament for the third time in the last four years. Now the Panthers (19-6) will get a chance to measure just how far they’ve come when they face third-seeded Olathe North (21-4) in a first-round rematch at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Kansas City Kansas Community College.
For Derby coach Brett Flory, the journey back to state was anything but automatic after the Panthers graduated every starter from last year’s 21-2 team that advanced to the state tournament.
“We really didn’t know how this was going to go since we had a brand-new team,” Flory said. “Everybody had a new role this year, whether that was stepping forward from JV to varsity or going from the bench to the starting lineup. We knew there would be some growing pains early with a challenging schedule, but we also knew if we stuck together, it would pay off.”
The growing pains came quickly.
Derby opened the season by losing four of its first six games and entered the holiday break at 2-4. There were no bad losses, but for a program with Derby’s standards, Flory didn’t want his team getting too comfortable with the idea that close losses to good teams were acceptable.
So he pushed.
Flory stewed over those early results during the two-week break and used that time to challenge the Panthers in practice, determined to sharpen a team that was still figuring out who it was. The players now point back to that stretch as the turning point. Derby returned in the second semester looking like a different team and has since won 17 of its final 19 games.
The new version of Derby is powered by a three-man scoring core of 6-foot-9 senior Cale Clingan, junior point guard Avant Riley and sophomore guard Greg Stiger. Around them is a cast of role players who have embraced the less glamerous work that makes the whole thing function.
Senior Tobin Snider battles inside. Freshman Tyler Pontious has emerged in the second half of the season and now starts. Seniors Daven Johnson, Channing Marshall, Gavin Chadwick and Camrick Dunn have all carved out dirty-work roles, giving Derby a team that goes 10 deep and takes pride in its depth.
“We knew we had a bunch of people who could score, but we didn’t know who was going to have what role,” Chadwick said. “Then we figured out Avant, Cale and Greg are going to be our main guys and then everybody else fits in where they’re needed. Once we figured that out, we all just start clicking as a team.”
That clarity has unlocked Derby.
Riley is capable of changing a game in a matter of minutes, especially when his jumper is falling. He broke the school record for 3s in a game with nine and had another game with eight 3s, proof that he can fill it up in a hurry.
Clingan brings a different kind of mismatch. At 6-9, he has the size of a post player, but his game stretches well beyond the paint. He is comfortable stepping out to hit a 3, but he can also crash the glass and finish above the rim on putback dunks. In many ways, he gives Derby the look of a modern frontcourt player with the skill set of a wing.
Then there is Stiger, who had to wait his turn as a freshman on last year’s veteran team. As a sophomore, he has grown into a major piece, emerging as a confident scorer and reliable two-way player who has proven unafraid of the moment.
But as much as Derby’s improvement has been tied to its big three, Flory points to Chadwick as one of the season’s most important figures.
Flory said he wasn’t sure before the season where the leadership would come from on a team with so many new responsibilities. Chadwick answered that question.
His impact shows up in the starting lineup, where he moves the ball, defends, rebounds and handles all of the connective tissue work that rarely makes headlines but often determines winning. It has also shown up behind the scenes, where Chadwick became the team’s organizer and tone-setter — the player texting teammates about offseason pickup runs, planning team dinners and helping build chemistry away from the court.
“We weren’t always happy with each other, but I think going through that was important because you have to go through some stuff before you can become a team,” Flory said. “That was a very important phase. And it goes back to Gavin. He was the one who took the reigns and there’s no doubt he’s been a huge key to the success this season.”
Being together, going through losses together and learning each other’s habits accelerated the bonding process for a group that desperately needed it. Derby didn’t come together overnight. It had to be forged through frustration, hard practices and some uncomfortable moments.
“Every team has its own path and its own personality and with this group, they just got closer and closer as the season went on,” Flory said. “Any team that’s going to advance in March is going to have to care about each other. You have to be playing for more than just yourself in March.”
That may be Derby’s biggest strength entering Wednesday’s rematch with Olathe North.
Last season, Olathe North ended Derby’s season in the first round of the 6A state tournament. This year’s Panthers are not trying to avenge that loss with the same lineup because there is no same lineup. Riley and Clingan were valuable bench pieces on that team, but the rest of Derby’s current identity had yet to be formed. This season’s group has had to create its own path, and in the process, it has become a team that believes its edge lies not in star power alone, but in togetherness, depth and trust.
“Olathe North is probably the most physically talented team in the state,” Flory said. “It’s not like we’re going to out-athlete those guys, so the only chance we have is to trust each other and play great team basketball.”
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