- March 5, 2026
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A purple-tarped table was tucked into a corner by the main doors to Booker High School’s gymnasium. On it stood a girls basketball regional trophy, in all its wooden glory.
The Tornadoes’ prize was in plain sight. And it had been placed at the end of the court where their pregame warmups would be.
Coach Ty Bryant once believed it was beyond his team’s reach.
“After about game 11, I told them to quit talking about states,” Bryant said. “We weren’t going.”
Commemorative T-shirts had even been printed before Feb. 27’s FHSAA Class 4A-Region 3 championship. They were ready to be handed out — just waiting to be worn.
The Tornadoes earned all of the above. After embracing their trophy and T-shirts with handheld gold confetti cannons, they cut down the net, too.
Booker girls basketball celebrated plenty on home hardwood following its victory over DeSoto County. It clinched a berth in the state semifinals for the second consecutive year, and for the fourth time overall since Bryant took the reins ahead of the 2020-21 season.
Now 18-9, the squad will face Bishop Moore (24-4) at 3 p.m. March 10 in Jacksonville’s UNF Arena, fighting for the first state championship appearance in program history.
“This whole program — and the people that are part of it — wants to win,” said senior guard Kennedy Guy. “Everyone wants to give 100% effort. It’s just a community of hard workers.”
But it took time to arrive at this precipice. An up-and-down start to the season clouded their path.
With the graduations of Brianna Behn and Jsiyah Taylor, the Tornadoes lost two of their top-three scorers from 2024-25. The pair of guards had accounted for 13.1 and 11.5 points per game, respectively.
There were six seniors in all on that 14-player team, which ultimately fell to eventual champion Palm Bay in the 4A state semifinals. That paved the way for roster changes.
A mix of newcomers and inexperienced returners had to learn from a new legion of leaders — the senior trio of guard Yvette Brown, guard/forward Marayah Stuart and Guy.
That learning process lingered late into 2025. Following a Dec. 27 loss to Spring-Ford of Pennsylvania, Booker sat at 5-5. Defeat at the hands of Southeastern Prep Academy on Jan. 17 dropped the group’s record to .500 again at 8-8 overall.
Bryant wouldn’t entertain any chatter about a deep postseason run. He had doubts about whether they could actually go that far, and in that regard, he wasn’t alone.
“I felt like there was some doubt within us, too,” Stuart said. “We have a lot of young girls, and it was just frustrating, because we’re experienced and we had to teach them.”
So the intensity at practice was ramped up. Bryant also upped the emphasis on film so that his players would truly know their opponents in and out.
He drilled fundamentals of the game — relentlessly, per Guy — with the goal of producing a more fundamentally sound basketball team.
And it worked.
The Tornadoes have won 10 of their last 11 games, including a fifth consecutive district title as the precursor to their fourth regional crown in the last five years.
“Coach Ty likes to say, ‘We don’t want to be seen as just an athletic team,’” Guy said. “‘We’re known for defense, steals (and) transition points, but we don’t want to be known as just that.’”
Stuart has pitched in a team-high 3.5 assists and 2.6 steals per game. Her 5.0 rebounds and 8.4 points per contest rank second- and third-most for Booker, respectively.
Guy, meanwhile, generates 8.6 points per game — second-most of any Tornado. The seasoned guard attempts and makes more 3-pointers than anyone on the roster at a team-best 31.9% rate.
Their floor general, though, is Brown. She leads all scorers with 14.8 points per game and gets it done on the other end with a Booker-best 6.6 rebounds per game.
“She plays every game like it’s the championship,” Guy said. “If someone’s diving on the floor, sacrificing her body to get a loose ball, it’s Yvette. If someone’s bringing energy, it’s her.”
Bryant went even further with his praise of the team’s top guard, who’s committed to Santa Fe College of NJCAA Division I.
“She should be player of the year in Sarasota,” Bryant said. “They talk about everybody else, but put some respect on Yvette Brown’s name. The girl is legit.”
After the golden confetti fell Feb. 27, a ladder was erected under one of the hoops. Each of the Tornadoes took a pair of silver scissors in their hands and climbed the steps to cut out a piece of the net.
Bryant was the last one to go. And he didn’t just take one piece.
He cut down all of the nylon, swinging it around triumphantly in the air as his players cheered. There's no doubt in his mind now about this team.
