- March 18, 2026
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One phrase underlined the Sailors’ entire season. It became a mantra, instilled by their coach and embodied by his players.
In times of victory, it grounded them. In times of defeat, it lifted them up.
“Love is a choice,” said BJ Ivey, the Sarasota boys basketball coach. “You’ve got to choose to love your teammates.”
Call it corny all you want, but this phrase wasn’t some piece of coach-produced propaganda. It carried genuine meaning for this team.
It’s exactly why at season’s close, and after so much relationship-building, the final outcome hurt that much more.
Sarasota’s defeat at the hands of Miami Columbus in the FHSAA Class 7A state championship March 14 was narrow — painfully narrow. A mere three points made the difference between a loss for the Sailors and an opportunity to win their first title in overtime.
Junior guard Johnny Lackaff never should’ve needed to sink a heavily contested 3-pointer. With a game-high 27 points, he had already done plenty. There were multiple opportunities earlier in the contest for his team to get another bucket or two.
Had the Sailors not turned the ball over twice in the last few minutes, they could’ve put up shots on both possessions. Had they made three of their six missed free throws, they would’ve had a tie game to manage instead of a deficit to overcome.
Should’ve. Could’ve. Would’ve.
Hypotheticals can’t change reality, which for Ivey, meant consoling his teary-eyed players on the court and in the locker room of Jacksonville’s UNF Arena. He, too, had tears to shed.
“I’ll remind them that I love them,” Ivey said. “I just hope and pray that our relationships are sustained, that we continue to have an opportunity to pour into these kids and watch them grow.”
Accepting reality also means acknowledging the obvious — Sarasota ran into an absolute powerhouse. Columbus was arguably the best team in the state this season, and since 2021-22, has been on one of the greatest runs of dominance Florida has ever seen.
Five consecutive state championships is an exceptionally rare feat. Only two other programs in the history of FHSAA-sanctioned boys basketball did it. Those would be Arlington Country Day and Malone in 2005-09 and 1994-98, respectively.
Even after losing top recruits Cameron and Cayden Boozer to graduation, the Explorers still had elite talents in Caleb Gaskins and Felipe Quiñones. Any team that eventually faced them in the state title game was sure to be the underdog.
The Sailors, though, hung with them the entire way, not needing five- or four-star recruits to do so. Their staunch defense held Gaskins and Quiñones to a combined 40% field-goal percentage and 3-for-12 clip from deep.
“It’s a special group. We’ve been at it since day one in June, and we’ve come a long way,” Lackaff said. “Only us believed we could get here — only us. We thought we had a real chance against Columbus.”
That belief stemmed from what they knew in their hearts. These players shared a love for basketball before this season, but over the last few months, learned how to love each other.
Ivey has been a tireless advocate for building and maintaining relationships. Ever since he took over the program ahead of the 2022-23 season, he’s treated them with as much attention to detail as he does to the game’s x’s and o’s.
In his culture, strong connections are conducive to strong results. That’s fundamental to his coaching philosophy, so from the get-go, he and his staff set that standard.
Their players bought in by laying metaphorical bricks to build relationships — practice-by-practice, game-by-game.
“They lay a brick every single day with intentionality and precision, and that’s why we’ve built the program that we’ve built,” Ivey said. “We’re not going to stray away from our process. If anything, we (will) double down on our process.”
Conversations were held regularly throughout the season about what it really meant to "choose love." The Sailors listened and learned.
With the right culture cultivated, wins came. Lots of them.
Over these last four seasons under Ivey's tutelage, Sarasota has gone 98-17. That stretch features its first state semifinals appearance since 1968 and first state championship appearance, period.
This program was stuck in a dreadful state when he arrived. It went 52-143 from 2014-15 through 2021-22, never even approaching the statewide stage.
Going the distance with Columbus would’ve been unthinkable in those days. The same could be said about the opportunities Sarasota had this season at the City of Palms Classic and Kingdom of the Sun — two nationally acclaimed holiday tournaments.
In the culture of care synonymous with Ivey, the Sailors' ceiling keeps getting higher.
A genuine love for each other is why tears flowed freely after the title game's final buzzer.
“I’m so grateful that they allowed me to coach them,” Ivey said. “This is something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’m going to love them for the rest of my life.”
Sarasota had a decision to make before embarking on this season. It could've either disregarded relationships or been intentional about caring.
It chose the latter, and because of that very choice, this program is in a better place than it’s ever been.
