- March 24, 2025
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I still have plenty to learn when it comes to prep basketball in the Sarasota area, but it’s easy to see that this season was special.
Three teams — the Cardinal Mooney girls, Booker girls and Sarasota boys — won regional championships and made it to Lakeland for the state tournament.
The Cougars finally broke through for the first time in five straight state final appearances to win its first championship, but the Tornadoes and Sailors stumbled in the semifinal rounds.
That begs the question of when (or if) those two programs can lift a state championship trophy of their own.
There’s no doubt that Booker has proven that it can compete for regional championships.
The Tornadoes have made it as far as the regional final in each of the past three seasons, but have not made it past the state semifinal round.
That’s an impressive feat, and coach Ty Bryant said he thinks his team has outperformed expectations.
“I think we overachieved,” Bryant said. “I don’t think people expected us to get as far as we did. We had a 20-win season and some of the girls really stepped up and grew. They were basically playing a six or seven-man rotation.”
Bryant has worked with what he’s been given in his five years as head coach.
This season, that meant playing a guard-heavy rotation. Booker had just one player — 6-foot-1 senior Charity McKnight — who was taller than 5-foot-10.
The Tornadoes had some talented players this season, like Yvette Brown, Brianna Behn, Jsiyah Taylor, Marayah Stuart and Kennedy Guy, but Booker was outmatched when it went to Lakeland, losing 70-39 to Melbourne Palm Bay.
Palm Bay featured Jaida Civil, a four-star prospect committed to play for the University of Tennessee and Trishay Collins, a player committed to Seton Hall.
That’s tough for any team to beat, no matter how efficient, hard working or motivated they are.
“The athleticism and their size, I mean they’re huge,” Bryant said of Palm Bay. “When we reach the state playoffs, we’re playing some of the best players in the country, not just in the state. They were tough.”
Bryant said he doesn’t think he’s going to have a player the caliber of Civil or Collins walk in the doors of Booker, and that could be a permanent roadblock in between Booker and a state title.
I’m a bit more optimistic. There’s certain logic to what Bryant thinks, but it might not take a nationally recruited player to make that difference.
Booker made it to the state semifinal round while lacking depth, height and experience. To his point, those deficits won’t be easy to overcome next season.
The Tornadoes are losing Behn (13.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game), Taylor (11.5 points per game), McKnight and three senior role players, but there is hope.
In the past few seasons, Booker has received significant talent through transfers. Behn (Cardinal Mooney) and Guy (Riverview) transferred in before this past season while Stuart (Bayshore) transferred in two seasons ago.
Who’s to say that more transfers don’t come before next season? Couple a transfer or two and a promising freshman or sophomore with returners like Brown, Stuart and Guy and Booker could find itself in a similar — or better — position next year.
Anyone familiar with the Sarasota boys basketball team should be excited about what took place this season despite an exit in the state semifinal.
The Sailors went 28-3 and hadn’t made it to the final four since 1968 before this past season.
They ran into a defensive-minded Windermere team and lost 59-39 in the semifinal round, but it’s hard to call this season anything but a success.
“I think you have to look back on this season as what it was. It was truly special and remarkable that a group of kids came together and truly lived up to the brick by brick mindset,” Sailors coach BJ Ivey said. “They were intentional about their work every single day, and at the end of the day they accomplished all of the goals they set for themselves.”
It doesn’t take any advanced analytics or basketball experts to see what has caused that turnaround.
Sarasota immediately became a winner when Ivey took over in the 2022-23 season, and has finished with better results every year since.
The Sailors went from a 5-20 season in 2021-22 to a 21-6 team in Year 1 of Ivey, so it would be a stretch to say that they’re going to take a step back now.
Sarasota is losing some key players, though.
Senior guard Oliver Boyle (14 points and 5.6 rebounds per game) was a key cog in this year’s starting lineup, and senior guard Aaron Clark (8.1 points and 4.1 assists per game) was the team’s best distributor.
Several role players will be graduating too, including guard Nick Tregembo and forward Harris Hawke. The loss of that leadership can’t be discounted, but Ivey emphasizes culture, and what he’s built seems sustainable.
There will be two key returners.
Sophomore guard Johnny Lackaff led Sarasota in scoring this year and 6-foot-6 junior David Young should make sure the Sailors keep teams honest in the paint.
Ivey isn’t counting them out from an even better season next year, and neither am I.
“Now it’s about the guys who come after this group to follow their lead and build upon what they’ve already built,” Ivey said of next season. “Obviously to win a state championship, a lot of things have to come together and align, but I definitely don’t think that’s impossible.”
