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FGC guard Antewan Webber cuts down the net after the Timberwolves defeated Pitt CC to win the South Atlantic District B championship on March 11. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
Antewan Webber bet on himself, a bet that’s paid off with some hardware and a deep postseason run.
There’s been a Region 8 championship, a South Atlantic District B title, and the Region 8 Player of the Year award. It’s more than Webber could’ve imagined after moving to Lake City on a whim last summer.
Webber has gone from a walk-on all the way from Rochester, Minn. to Florida Gateway College’s top scorer this season. The freshman point guard has averaged 16.2 points per game in leading the Timberwolves to their second straight NJCAA tournament appearance, which begins against Davidson-Davie next Tuesday.
He wasn’t even sure he’d make the team, let alone get significant minutes this season. Now Webber is one of the biggest reasons FGC is back in the Sweet 16.
“I wasn’t even expecting to play this year for real,” Webber said. “I just hoping to find a spot and get to know the coach so I could play next year. Here I am now.”
Webber has been a pleasant surprise, but he almost didn’t even end up at FGC. After finishing up his senior season at Lourdes High School, Webber was looking for a place to play in college, but when summer arrived, he was still searching for a new team and running out of options.
That’s when a former FGC player came to the rescue. Webber has been life-long friends with brothers Josh Cross and Nicholas Cross, who grew with Webber in Minnesota before moving to Orlando before high school.
Josh Cross was trying his hardest to find Webber a school to play at. He felt the best spot for him was FGC, where he played from 2020-2021.
The only problem was, FGC didn’t have a roster spot open for Webber by that point. Yet Cross was persistent, talking to FGC head coach Charles Ruise on a regular basis, trying to convince him to give Webber a chance.
“I told Coach Ruise I had a point guard,” Cross said. “Me and Coach Ruise have a very tight relationship so he trusts me, he trusts everything I say for the most part when it comes to basketball. I’m telling him, ‘look, I’ve got this 6’4 PG. I grew up with him. We played together our whole lives. I know him like the back of my hand. This is who you need. He has a Ja Morant style of game. He can shoot.’ I was selling Antewan.”
As good as Cross’s pitch may have been, Ruise’s answer remained the same — there wasn’t a roster spot. When Ruise spoke to Webber, he told him could enroll in classes at FGC and potentially walk on, but there was no guarantee that a roster spot would open up.
But Webber decided to take a gamble. He packed up his things and moved from Minnesota to Florida to sign up for classes at FGC.
“I was really in a tough spot at that point, but something just told me to still come here anyways,” Webber said.
Webber says the first day he moved into his dorm he actually saw Ruise driving while he was leaving to go somewhere. Ruise stopped him and told him he was going to let him know when he could stop by his office and meet with him.
However, Webber didn’t hear from Ruise over the following few days. So, Webber asked his roommate Jeremy Young, who is a guard for FGC, if he could tag along to a practice to see the team and maybe get a chance to talk to Ruise.
After about 15 minutes of watching from the sideline, FGC assistant coach CC Wilson told him to grab his shoes and join the practice for a tryout. Webber couldn’t lace them up fast enough.
“I was quick with it,” Webber said. “I had my shoes in my bag already. I started just dribbling, then they started getting my rebounds for me as I got shots up, and then they let me come in a scrimmage and I just started doing my thing during the scrimmage. And I just kept coming to practice after that.”
Webber continued practicing with the team for about a week until one day Ruise began calling out jersey numbers. One by one, 10 players heard their names and numbers called as Webber waited anxiously to see if his bet would pay off.
The last number called was Webber’s No. 25.
“It was pretty lit,” Webber said. “It was great. I was so happy.”
Webber’s assertiveness paid off, as did Cross’s sales pitch. But Ruise was also impressed with Webber just over the course of a couple of weeks.
Turns out, like Cross said, he was a player he had to have on his team.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Ruise said. “Josh was telling me, ‘He’s a player. Coach, he’s a player. Just be patient with him.’ So, we just stayed patient with him and before you knew it was a no-brainer. The coaching staff and I got together and said we need to bring him on and just loosen him up a little bit and let him play.”
Webber was just hoping to work hard in practice over the course of his freshman season and hopefully earn a rotation spot next season. Instead, he earned minutes right from the jump.
Ruise played Webber in FGC’s season opener against Thomas JV and he scored 14 points. Webber was a bit up and down from there though, averaging just 9.6 points through the first 13 games of the season as FGC reached winter break with a 4-9 record.
But upon the team’s return in January, Webber was a whole new player. He averaged 22.8 over the final 13 games, which included two 35-point outings, to help the Timberwolves win 11 of them to turn their season around.
Webber has been fantastic during FGC’s postseason run as well. He scored 20 points in FGC’s come-from-behind 72-69 win over Palm Beach State to win the Region 8 title, and he followed that up with 20 more in last Saturday’s 102-77 blowout over Pitt CC in the South Atlantic District B Championship.
“The most important addition we had was him,” Ruise said. “And his status being a walk-on, it’s amazing what he’s bought to the table this year. It’s amazing, so my hat goes off to him and hopefully we can keep him developing into that guy that we need moving forward.”
In what has turned out to be a dream season for Webber, he hopes to continue his Cinderella story next week. Although FGC is the No. 16 seed in the NJCAA tournament and a huge underdog against undefeated Davidson-Davie, Webber says he and his team are going there with the expectation of pulling off upset after upset.
Don’t bet against Webber. Not after the season he just put together.
“I’m trying to go there to win to be honest with you,” Webber said. “I’m trying to do my part and hope my team can do their part. And we’re just going to go out there and hoop.”