Booker football regroups after losing head coach

The 2025 season was shaping up to be one in which the Booker High football team was best positioned to win a state championship. 

When Scottie Littles became the team’s head coach in February 2022, the Tornadoes were experiencing a three-year stretch of struggles. 

Booker had gone 3-24 from 2019 to 2021, including a winless 2021 season. 

Littles turned that around quickly. Booker went 6-5 in Year 1 and has made it to the Class 3A state semifinal round the past two years.

Many of Booker’s best playmakers incoming seniors this fall and have plenty of experience playing deep into the season.

However, Littles resigned from his position in April following a string of disciplinary-related issues, which begs the question: Will Booker take a step back? 

“People think that when coach Littles left, the Booker program was going to crash, but we’ve actually uplifted it,” said rising senior defensive lineman Kevontay Hugan, a three-star recruit committed to play for the University of Louisville. “Everyone came together and supported coach Littles. He was more than a coach to all of us.”

Aside from Littles’ departure, many familiar faces remain at Booker.

New coach, familiar face

Carlos Woods, the defensive coordinator last season, applied for the head coaching position when the job opened up and was named interim head coach.

The interim label lasted just two weeks. 

He became the full-time head coach thanks to what he said was ‘overwhelming support from the community.’ 

Woods said the rest of the coaching staff is staying as well, with Shavion Howell, Corey Williams and Anthony Hubbard collaborating on defense and Derrick Timmons and Alton Lilly handling the offense.

Photo by Vinnie Portell

“My whole thing is creating continuity for these guys, creating some familiarity,” Woods said. “I just want to keep a steady hand with these guys. They’re used to working with me in the weight room and the last couple of years as their defensive coordinator. Now it’s just a different position, but I still treat it the same as far as my approach. I’m going to give it my all, and I ask the same from them.”

This is technically Woods’s second stint as head coach at Booker. 

He started at Booker during the summer of 2012 fresh off of four years serving as an assistant coach with the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals, but wound up never coaching a game. 

Woods resigned before the 2012 season because of personal reasons. This time around, Woods said the program he’s leading is in a much better position to win. 

“It’s a complete 180,” Woods said of the football program from 2012 to now. “They’ve built a couple of new buildings. They moved the practice field. We have a new fieldhouse that’s going to be complete in July that we’ll move into at the start of the season. They’ve made tremendous upgrades to the season. I’m excited about everything that’s on the horizon.” 

Unfinished business

Some football programs see players transfer to other schools when a head coach leaves in the offseason, but that hasn’t been the case at Booker.

Talented juniors and seniors on the Tornadoes experienced the bittersweet feeling of reaching the state final four but falling short, and they want another chance to finish on top. 

“We are all invested,” rising senior quarterback Joel Morris said. “I feel like everyone has the sense that it’s all or nothing with this 2026 class. With what we have right now, we can win it all. It’s still going to be the same team regardless. We are missing our head coach, but the players are still here, and the staff has stayed, so that’s given us reassurance.”

Photo by Vinnie Portell

Though no Booker players have transferred this offseason, the Tornadoes are losing some impact players to graduation.

Offensively, Booker is losing quarterback Ryan Downes, running backs Rashawn Peterson and DJ Johnson and receiver Ryan Simmons Jerrod Jr.

Defensively, they will be without defensive lineman Jordan Radkey, edge rusher Dajien Walton, defensive back Abraham Brown III and athlete Anthony Speciale. 

Those losses pale in comparison to what the Tornadoes return, however. 

Morris, who split time with Downes before breaking his fibula in Week 6, is now healthy for his upcoming senior season with a loaded receiving corps. 

Booker returns receivers Tyren Wortham, a three-star UCF commit, Dylan Wester, a three-star Pitt commit, Chauncey Kennon, a four-star prospect, and rising sophomore Tyree Mannings Jr.

One position Woods will have to figure out is running back. With both Peterson and Johnson graduating, the Tornadoes won’t return a ball carrier who had 10 or more carries last season. 

Whoever that back is will be running behind an offensive line full of experienced players such as Kayden Hunt, Nate Rodriguez, Khamarius Phelps, Jaleel Williams and Jamarius White.

Playmakers abound on the defensive side of the ball as well. 

Kennon and Wester have been two of the team’s top defensive backs, along with safety Karaijus Hayes, a rising senior three-star prospect committed to Vanderbilt, and rising senior safety Jason Thomas. 

Hugan and rising junior Maleek Lee, who recently received an offer from Penn State, are back on the defensive line, as well as outside linebacker Torry Holloman, a rising senior. 

The Tornadoes will put their lofty aspirations to the test early in a spring game jamboree in Miami on May 22 in one half against Miami Norland and one half against Miami Hialeah, two teams that went to the regional playoffs last season. 

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be back as the head coach to have the opportunity to lead this great program,” Woods said. “There’s a ton of tradition here. I just want to make the alums and the former coaches who did great things proud. That’s our mindset.”