One key trait is paramount in setting up a high school varsity boys’ basketball team for long-term success.
Player development – even before the final amounts of a team’s victories and setbacks alike.
Led by longtime head coach Gene McAteer, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys’ basketball team just launched its 2025-26 campaign after finishing with a 15-11 record the year before.
This was the Panthers’ first winning record in seven years, but now, they have their sights set on bigger goals.
Despite losing seven seniors to graduation, so far, Bridgewater-Raritan has demonstrated its immediate capability of reloading rather than rebuilding, and has picked up right where it left off. Even though the Panthers do not have a single regular four-year starter at the varsity level amongst its current senior Class of 2026, occasional observers in the stands may not be able to figure that out based on the cohesiveness of McAteer’s newest squad.
“We graduated with a clear-cut, returning top nine that have been together, focused, and working hard in the offseason,” McAteer said.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s large amount of quality experience it brings to the court, however, is not only a credit to McAteer and his players who ultimately execute his final play calls. On the sidelines, McAteer has assembled an all-star cast of assistant coaches in Michael Lyne, Jovan Ford, Steve Kline, and Matt Lynch. As a result, his players and staff alike have all orchestrated their roles in setting a solid foundation, which will continue to propel the Panthers on the road to elevating them back to the status of a championship contender that has eluded them in recent years.
Spectators at basketball games typically see a team’s head coach actively traverse the sidelines, shout instructions, and/or call plays the most out of any adult on a team’s sideline, but this is a much different story in high school basketball during the season. At the sub-varsity level, a program’s assistant coaches are the ones who do this with two primary objectives in mind: executing your head coach’s vision and developing the program’s players.
Having dedicated players on top of this, however, can certainly accelerate this growth.
You can say that Bridgewater-Raritan has fulfilled all of these objectives early in 2025-26, and its players’ experience in Panthers uniforms has certainly paid dividends right out of the gate.
“This is a basketball group,” explained by McAteer after Bridgewater-Raritan won a 51-40 dogfight against Skyland Conference Raritan Division rival Hunterdon Central Regional High School Thursday, December 18, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater.
Following its subsequent 64-19 home victory over College Achieve Central Charter School Saturday, December 20, the Panthers started a perfect 5-0 for the first time since 2011-12, when the Panthers last finished as runner-up in both the Somerset County Boys’ Basketball Tournament and state sectional playoffs en route to a record of 21-9.
“Any time we have the gym open, whether it’s July, August, or March, our players are here.” McAteer continued about what it has taken to get to this point.
Last year’s leading scorer was Class of 2025 graduate Brody Nussman, who finished the season with a team-high 287 points, 58 three-pointers, and 102 assists. With current junior forward Tyler Hamby (286 points) and current senior guard Richie Gardner (281 points) not too far behind, their fast starts in 2025-26 have not been surprising, especially since they and Nussman accounted for 56% of the Panthers’ total points and just over 44% of their rebounds last year.
On Thursday evening, senior guard Brandon Ur (nine points), sophomore Joseph Chien (seven points), and senior guard Eli Milton (five points) started alongside Gardner (13 points) and Hamby (nine points), who were both first-time regular varsity starters just last year.
All three of these remaining starters have already eclipsed their individual scoring from one year ago, and while Panthers still have two games left in December, Bridgewater-Raritan’s five-game winter slate so far is only a fraction of the basketball the Panthers played in 2025.
“We played 35 games in the offseason,” revealed McAteer. “Look at the development of some of our kids. When Brandon Ur and Eli Milton were sophomores, they made the [junior varsity] team and performed, but the amount of growth and development in the last two years has been remarkable. Richie has always had a lot of ability, and we saw it when he was a freshman."
“His maturation this year is really good to see.”
McAteer went on to share that Chien and two of his players who came off of the bench on Thursday evening: juniors Jack Braswell (six points) and Nate Zuckerman, were on the varsity roster after playing entirely on the Panthers’ J.V. squad last year.
Senior guard Josh Baker (two points) rounded out the scoring for Bridgewater-Raritan on Thursday evening, and he is also comfortably on pace to exceed his scoring output from last year. Simply put, the Panthers are successfully filling in the shoes otherwise left by their seven graduated seniors from last year, and they are doing so very quickly.
Hard work truly pays off in a deep sport like high school basketball, especially at New Jersey’s largest public high schools like Bridgewater-Raritan that enroll over 2,000 students.
“Their growth and development to contribute to a varsity team now speaks for itself,” McAteer said of these three players. “[Senior guard] Josh Baker is in the gym after practice is over, but you can just go right down our list.”
“Players like this give you a chance to coach.”
Tyler Hamby’s journey throughout Bridgewater-Raritan basketball is also an example of his program’s strong player development, especially given his household’s connection to the Panthers uniform alone.
“We all work hard and try to get into the gym as much as possible,” Hamby confirmed.
“We just have to keep training, be humble, and play with a chip on our shoulders.”
Hamby, who also played lacrosse with Nussman last spring, made his boys’ basketball debut as a freshman in a Panthers uniform two years ago on December 14, 2023 in his team’s season opener against Bound Brook High School. But before his breakout varsity season last year as a sophomore, Hamby’s aforementioned debut was on the Panthers’ freshman team, which is led by Kline: the head coach of the Panthers’ state powerhouse girls’ golf team in the spring with McAteer also previously serving as a volunteer assistant golf coach.
In the winter, Kline’s championship insight on the hardwood as the first step into McAteer’s program has been a big reason for his past freshmen’s success at the next levels of high school basketball.
“We have a foundation that these kids are getting on the freshman level from Steve Kline and Matt Lynch, who is a volunteer coach that comes every day,” McAteer said. “I say this in a loving way, but many of our kids come into high school sports clueless of what it is all about, and there is big learning curve there.”
“To have a varsity-caliber coach like Steve Kline on the freshman level is really special for the program.”
Although the Panthers had an offseason departure by their previous assistant coach in Steve Fischer, who served as the program’s J.V. coach, his replacement in 2025-26 has also served as a next-man-up amongst McAteer’s coaching staff as a fitting way to complement his reloaded roster of players.
“The growth and the development of our players starts at the sub-varsity level,” continued McAteer. “We were really lucky to get our new J.V. coach in Jovan Ford. He is a really nice guy. I met him as a basketball official, and he’s very happy to be here as our J.V. coach.”
“In a very short amount of time, I think our players have grown to like him very much.”
Also in a short time, Hamby has gained basketball knowledge at all three levels of the Panthers’ program: freshman, J.V., and varsity.
Although an injury unfortunately delayed what was an inevitable surge up to the Panthers’ varsity squad – potentially one that could have happened even earlier than in his sophomore year, his season debut at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium exactly one year after his freshman debut was a testament to his hard work and determined path to recovery.
That debut last year also came with a new title of varsity starter on the Bridgewater-Raritan High School basketball team, just like his dad had when he played for the Panthers about a quarter of a century earlier.
“I came in with high hopes my freshman year but with a humble mindset,” said Hamby, whose dad: BJ Hamby, graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan High School and played basketball for the Panthers under the leadership of then head-coach Tim Ortelli. “Freshman year was crazy for me. I got moved up to J.V., but I sprained my ankle right when I was about to play my first ever varsity game as a freshman. I then had surgery on my left shin, which was a crazy experience I will never forget.”
“That really just motivated me to keep pushing myself, not fall back behind, and excel as much as I can.”
Ironically, when Tyler’s dad played for Bridgewater-Raritan, McAteer was the head coach of Skyland Conference rival Watchung Hills Regional High School at that time. But in a full-circle moment, as part of his long tenure leading the Panthers going back to 2008-09, McAteer has now overseen Tyler’s rise within his program.
He is probably excited to be guiding the younger Hamby instead of having to coach against him, especially given the successful career of his dad continued on to Kean University, where BJ Hamby finished his college career in 2005-06 with back-to-back All-Conference designations according to archives from the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
“He is honestly my superhero,” Tyler said about his dad. “He’s always been there, has always been really supportive, and has really made me love the game of basketball. Being able to play through him in a way has been great.”
“It’s a good feeling, and I try to make my dad proud.”
Through five games in 2025-26, Hamby is second on the team with an average of 14.3 points per game only behind Gardner (19 points per game).
Now, Bridgewater-Raritan’s current squad has the opportunity to further elevate their rising program, which went through a down period that was further hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020. After its previous .500 or better finish [prior to last season] of 14-13 in the 2017-18 season, which ended with a first-round playoff loss of 69-58 at Piscataway High School, Bridgewater-Raritan went just 10-55 over the next three seasons.
This included a 1-14 mark in the 2020-21 season abbreviated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Panthers improved to 12-15 and returned to the state tournament in 2021-22, when Bridgewater-Raritan dropped a low-scoring affair, 54-43, at Ridge High School.
While the Panthers went 7-17 in 2022-23, they rebounded from dropping 11 of their first 13 games and split their last 11 contests. Bridgewater-Raritan then fell in a stretch of 10 of 12 games following a 4-2 start en route to an 11-14 finish in 2023-24, but the Panthers bounced back with victories in four of their final five games prior to the second round of the Somerset County Basketball Tournament: a potential win-and-in leading up to the state tournament.
The Panthers fell at Franklin High School, 66-42, and finished as the first team out of the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4, Boys’ Basketball Tournament picture.
But since that 6-12 start to the 2023-24 season, Bridgewater-Raritan is now 25-13 (.658) in its last 38 games capped off by an unblemished five-game start to the current season.
One with even higher hopes and expectations.
Factoring in the Bridgewater-Raritan High School East-West merger into the present-day Bridgewater-Raritan High School in 1992, four state championships to date have been won in Bridgewater (1965, 1987-89). The Panthers last made the state finals when BJ Hamby was on campus in 2000, when they fell to Linden High School in that season’s Group 4 title game.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s last sectional title occurred in 2005, when it won the North 2, Group 4 championship. The Panthers last made the Somerset County Tournament semifinals and won a state playoff game in 2016-17, when they won one game each both at home and on the road before falling at Newark East Side High School in the sectional semifinals by a score of 70-44.
As the No. 13 seed in the opening round of last season’s North 2, Group 4 sectional playoffs, however, Bridgewater-Raritan came close to ending that streak courtesy of what almost was a bracket-shaking upset at fourth-seeded Piscataway High School.
While the Panthers trailed by just two points heading into the final minute of the fourth quarter, Piscataway clung for an eventual 60-56 victory to deny Bridgewater-Raritan what would have been its first playoff victory in nine seasons.
But according to McAteer, this hungry squad is the best team he has had in 10 years, and its undefeated five-game start to the new season may foreshadow one thing.
The best is yet to come for Bridgewater-Raritan.
“We had a winning record last year, and the two years before that, our teams were okay and we were just under .500,” recapped McAteer of his program’s earlier years. “But around the [COVID-19] years, we struggled and had three years that were really tough. If you go back to 2012-18, these teams were really good.”
“This group is right there with all of those teams from 10 years ago.”
After rolling to victories of 83-39 and 73-40 over Central Jersey College Prep Charter School and Newark Central High School, respectively, Bridgewater-Raritan found itself in a shootout on the road at division rival Franklin High School. Despite trailing by three possessions early in the third quarter, the Panthers rallied to tie the game to set the stage for a thrilling, back-and-forth finish.
To end a 13-3 run after trailing by two points in the fourth quarter, Chien fired a three-pointer for Bridgewater-Raritan, which pulled away for a critical 70-63 victory.
Although it allowed a season-high 63 points in that fast-paced game, Bridgewater-Raritan’s ability to not only turn the page right afterwards has shown its potential for success against any challenge.
The Panthers’ ability to flip the switch against teams completely different in style, like Hunterdon Central early in its season under first-year head coach Kevin Grek, will also serve as an indicator of future success.
“Through the Hunterdon Central and Franklin game, it was very different in intensity,” Hamby explained from his perspective. “Franklin was more up-in-your-face, while Hunterdon Central was more about baiting it for the passes. But our whole team played well. We have great chemistry, and just moving the ball around really helps.”
“That really helped us break the press.”
Although it was only their second game under the direction of Grek, the Red Devils allowed a whopping 24 points fewer than Bridgewater-Raritan’s previous three-game scoring average, and they never seemed out of contention for a victory against Bridgewater-Raritan.
After the Panthers led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, Hunterdon Central quickly forced Bridgewater-Raritan into some brief foul trouble, which forced Hamby to exit for most of the third quarter after he was charged with his third foul. Even despite Bridgewater-Raritan having a multi-possession cushion, the Red Devils’ unselfish offense and frustrating zone defense ultimately kept them in striking distance.
But the Panthers countered right back on the defensive end by holding the Red Devils to 30% shooting from the floor, which factored in 13 missed shots from long range, along with an unselfish offense of its own.
A strong credit on the defensive end to Lyne, who has served as a varsity assistant under McAteer for the past four years, including when his son Matt played for Bridgewater-Raritan until his graduation in 2024.
“He is the defensive mastermind of our team,” McAteer said of Lyne, whose defense has allowed an average of just 40.2 points per game through Saturday afternoon, including a season-best 19 points allowed against College Achieve Central Charter School. “We’re able to play four different styles of man-to-man defense. Against Hunterdon Central, they are a team that can just score the ball from [three-point range], so we felt staying attached to them with bodies and the man-to-man defense was better. Like the players, he is running workouts in July and coaching summer league games, and he has an all-in mentality.”
“I don’t even say what defense we’re in – I ask him what defense we’re in.”
A further testament to McAteer’s trust in his coaching staff, who will all continue to help Bridgewater-Raritan continue its foreseeable rise back to the top, as it was regularly expected to be over a decade ago.
Bridgewater-Raritan (5-0) will now bid for a milestone that not even the aforementioned 2011-12 team reached: remaining undefeated through its first seven games of a season, and the Panthers will try to do that over their holiday recess at Montgomery High School.
For the Montgomery Cougar Holiday Classic, first up in a two-game stretch will be a game against North Hunterdon Regional High School at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 27, in Skillman. The Panthers will then square off against Princeton High School at this same gymnasium at 1 p.m. Tuesday, December 30, to round off the calendar year.
To open the New Year, Bridgewater-Raritan will then travel to Watchung Hills Regional High School at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 6, in Warren. The Panthers will then return home at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, January 8, when Bridgewater-Raritan will serve as host to crosstown rival Immaculata High School at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater.