Lourdes grad Antewan Webber took winding path to become a junior college basketball All-American
Apr. 18—ROCHESTER — Antewan Webber took an indirect and perhaps unlikely path to playing college basketball. But his journey has led him to being selected as a junior college All-American.
Webber, a Lourdes grad, was named to the 2022-23 NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball All-America Team. He was a freshman guard at Florida Gateway College in Lake City, Fla., and was one of 10 members named to the first team.
Despite his standout season, Webber was on the verge of not even playing in 2022-23.
He was a 2019 Lourdes grad and then attended a prep school in Florida. He had plans to play at a junior college in Oklahoma, but committed too late and did not end up going to school there.
For the next couple of years, Webber was working to save money. He was also working out and trying to improve his game. He played pickup ball at the Rochester Athletic Club and trained with Jake Kirsch at ETS Performance in Rochester.
Webber had two childhood friends — brothers Nicholas and Joshua Cross — who played at Florida Gateway in 2021-22 and they convinced him to come to the school in an attempt to play on the team.
Webber wanted to achieve his dream of playing college basketball so he contacted the Florida Gateway coach two weeks prior to the start of the 2022-23 school year. But he was told there were no more openings on the team.
"I don't know what came over me, but I was like, 'I'm still going to go there,' even if I just had to do school work," Webber said.
Then during an early practice, Webber tagged along with his roommate Jeremiah Barze, who was a member of the team.
"I'm watching for about 5 minutes and the coach is like 'Just throw your shoes on, this is going to be your tryout.' So I basically practiced with them that day and I did pretty good," Webber said.
Webber practiced with the team the rest of the week. At the end of the week, the coach called out each player and awarded jerseys to those who had made the team. Webber was the last player to receive a jersey, No. 25.
"That was pretty cool and that's how I ended up on the team," Webber said. "It was pretty crazy."
It didn't take Webber long to make an impact and earn a spot in the starting lineup. He went from being an unlikely member of the team as a walk-on to having a standout season for Florida Gateway.
Webber played in all 28 games and made 21 starts. He averaged a team-high 16.4 points per game. He also averaged 6.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists while shooting 48.4% from the floor and 37.4% from 3-point range while helping Florida Gateway post a solid 15-13 record.
"I was completely caught by surprise," Webber said. "I was expecting to have a good year, but not like this."
The All-America honors were an even bigger shock.
"That was a super-big surprise," he admitted. "I was not expecting that at all."
Webber, who will soon turn 22, says his shooting and passing as well as his general court knowledge have improved greatly since his playing days at Lourdes. He was about 6-foot-1 and weighed less than 165 pounds in high school. Now he is 6-3 and about 180.
"I've gotten bigger and stronger," he said. "And I understand the game a lot more.
"On the court, I like to do everything, offense, defense, assisting, defense and blocking shots," he added. "It doesn't matter as long as I can do anything to win the game."
Being able to have such a strong season is a bit of redemption for Webber. He thought his game was underappreciated in high school.
"I just wanted to show people that I can really actually play the game," he said. "I feel like after high school was over people were like 'Yeah, he's just a regular person now and is going to be working.' But nah."
Webber, who is majoring in business and has a 4.0 grade-point average, plans to come back to Rochester for the summer and intends to play his sophomore season at Florida Gateway in 2023-24. He has hopes of another strong season and will then try to play at a four-year school.
Guy N. Limbeck is a sports writer for the Post Bulletin. His Local Notebook appears each Tuesday. He can be reached at
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