- June 15, 2025
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The Sarasota High football team doesn’t need to look far if it wants any proof that a struggling program can turn around its fortunes.
The Sailors basketball team emerged from a decades-long struggle to make it to the state semifinal round for the first time since 1968.
There aren’t many parallels between basketball and football, but that pathway to success is one that second-year coach Anthony ‘Amp’ Campbell said he’s hoping to mirror.
“It’s tough, especially when you have not been productive as a school, it’s been tough,” Campbell said on the second day of spring practice on April 29. “But at the same time too, for me, I’m a believer. Prime example, I look at our basketball program and coach (BJ) Ivey, who came in and turned that thing around. It took him a little bit of time, but he resurrected it and got people believing, and that’s what I’ve been preaching to our guys.”
The Sarasota football team had winning seasons in 2021 (6-4), 2019 (6-4) and 2017 (6-5), but followed each one of those years with a losing campaign.
The past three years have been especially challenging for the Sailors, who have gone 9-22 over that stretch with a different head coach every season.
Brody Wiseman was the head coach from 2020-22 followed by Josh Phillips in 2023 and then Campbell in 2024.
Adjusting to new coaching philosophies and personalities has been difficult for players like rising senior linebacker Danny Perry, who is hoping to help lay a foundation of winning in his final season in orange and black.
“I’m coming from a new head coach pretty much every single year I’ve been here,” Perry said. “It’s hard to adjust to that. Us as seniors, we want to build this thing back up. We want a winning season. A perfect season if we can.”
Sarasota showed signs of life last year.
Despite opening with a couple of blowout losses to Cardinal Mooney (41-6) and Booker (51-0), the Sailors were 3-2 through their first five games with wins against Braden River (10-6), St. Petersburg Gibbs (34-6) and Cape Coral Ida Baker (47-23).
However, five straight losses followed, and that second-half slump is something Sarasota is mindful of coming into a new year.
There are reasons this year could serve as a turning point beyond blind belief.
Quarterback Hudson West is someone who Campbell is excited about. The 6-foot-5, 185-pound rising-sophomore received his first Division-I scholarship offer from the University of Toledo on April 25 and is showing signs of leadership despite his inexperience.
West was holding players accountable when they weren’t in position during two-minute drills during spring practice and broke down what they needed to do differently during water breaks.
“Someone has to step up on offense and run things,” he said. “We’re high energy and fast moving, so someone has to let everyone know where to go and call everything. These are friends I’ve played with my entire life so I have confidence. They know me, I know them, and I can trust them.”
West said he’s particularly encouraged by new offensive coordinator Tommie Battie, who is running an ‘explosive’ offense.
Some recent additions also have the Sailors buzzing.
Silas Jones, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound rising senior, has transferred to Sarasota from Booker and expects to step in as a key pass rusher.
With Jones comes his younger brother, Giovanni Jones, a 5-foot-11, 168-pound rising-junior who Campbell said will start in the secondary.
Other returners who Campbell said he’s eyeing to step up are rising-senior offensive lineman Cooper Robinson, rising-junior safety Cooper Buck and rising-sophomore receiver Cooper Hamilton.
Sarasota will have a chance to see where it stands with a spring game at St. Petersburg Gibbs on May 23, a game which Campbell hopes will be one win of many this coming season.
“They haven’t had a winning season here in a long time, so that’s our goal, and to get these kids to continue to believe in themselves,” Campbell said. “We started out strong last year, but we ended up dropping toward the end of the season and kind of fell off. Our goal long term is to win district championships.”
