Gainesville, FL

The Santa Fe men's basketball team is under new leadership for the first time since 2003 when Chris Mowry took over. Now the Saints will look to John Ritzdorf as their new Head Ball Coach. Ritzdorf comes to Gainesville familiar with a winning culture as he led Central Community College to an NJCAA Division II National Tournament for the first time in nine years, while being named Region 9 Coach of the Year three times in five seasons. Ritzdorf excited about the upcoming year stated, "The start of official practice is always an exciting time.  We have a long ways to go, but we had a good pre-season and we just need to focus on getting better every single day.  We have a team that is hungry to compete and improve.  I'm excited for this month of practices and scrimmages as we'll have plenty of opportunities to grow as a team and keep getting better."

The Saints bring back nine returners from last years, three of which used a redshirt in the 2023-2024 season, the other six played valuable minutes for SF. Karmello Branch returns for his sophomore season after leading Santa Fe in scoring with 10.6 points a contest last season, while grabbing 2.7 rebounds a game and dishing out 2.6 assists a game. Predrag Panisic comes off a season where he averaged 8.3 points a game and 5 rebounds a game. Tre Munson is coming off his redshirt freshman year averaging just under seven points a contest. Connor Morris and Joshua Watkins return after playing in over 20 games last year. The Saints return 48% of their points scored from 2023-2024.

Keylson Turner, Cole Gullikson, and Terrance Adams all return for 2024-2025 after taking their redshirt year in 2023-2024. 

SF adds two transfers to the roster in Redshirt Freshman Joel Harrison and Sophomore Ryan Webster. Harrison redshirted at Georgia Southwestern College last season, while Webster played in 10 games at Endicott College.

Santa Fe adds five freshmen to the veteran group. Mike Drayton, Israel Bosenge, Palmer Walton, Sylvester Lewis, and Willie Thompson III are the new faces for the Saints coming into the new season.

Ritzdorf retained Brandon Buckman from last years coaching staff, while adding Daniel Waln to the 2024-2025 staff. Waln was last at Coastal Carolina, before taking the position at SF.