Booker basketball senior came a long way in a short time

Cellexia Foster couldn’t make a layup.

The Booker senior was in eighth grade, then, and had decided to play youth league basketball. She had never played before, but decided to give the game a try. Her mother, Cecelia Davis, had bought her new shoes for the occasion.

Foster walked the thin line between excitement and fear. Her nerves got worse as she watched other kids in the league play. They were good, she thought to herself. Foster worried about what others would think of her game. She had previously run track, but this was her first real experience in a traditional team sport.

Her shot just wasn’t there, so to make sure she stayed on the floor, Foster did the only thing she could: Play relentless, indomitable defense.

“I fouled out a lot,” Foster said. “Well, I still foul out now, but not as much. I’d just rather be overaggressive than not aggressive at all. I love defense.”

Booker assistant coach Melanie Johnson said Foster’s footwork is “amazing” defensively, noting that sliding in front of opposing guards comes naturally to her.

Foster never thought about giving up the sport, even with some struggles. Davis taught her to always finish what she started.

“My mom was like, ‘You’re playing. I bought you new shoes and everything!'

“I wasn’t quitting,” Foster said. “I wanted to get better, so I put in the work.”

Fast forward four years, and she’s playing a pickup game with members of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University girls basketball team on a visit to the school. It is 7 a.m., much earlier than Foster is used to playing. Half-awake, Foster is conjuring memories of her first-ever game. She cannot buy a bucket.

“If I had been watching myself, I would have thought, ‘They’re recruiting her?’” Foster said.

The Embry-Riddle players and coaches kept encouraging her to shoot. Foster said Embry-Riddle bench boss Lisa Nuxol-Wilson “coached like a mom.” Nuxol-Wilson must have seen Foster’s potential, because in spite of the shooting struggles, Embry-Riddle offered her a scholarship. She officially signed with the Eagles on Nov. 17, per a press release from the school.

The irony in Foster’s momentary shooting struggles is that she is a prolific scorer. She put up a career-high 37 of Booker’s 59 points Nov. 22 in a win over North Point.

Foster works for every basket she makes, never giving less than her all on a possession.

“She takes a lot of people by surprise,” Johnson said.

The lightbulb came on for Foster last season, she said. Booker’s leading scorer, Yamaris Guevarez (now at Jacksonville University) missed the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Foster saw an opportunity, and seized it, thanks to an increased basketball IQ and an unmatched work ethic. She finally understood how to best use her gifts, and it showed. She averaged 18 points and five rebounds per game for the Tornadoes.

When not on the court, Foster takes an interest in the justice system. She is in Booker’s law academy, and plans on majoring in Homeland Security at Embry-Riddle. Her goal is to one day become a defense attorney and would love to work with groups like the Innocence Project.

It takes a confident speaker to be a lawyer, and basketball has helped Foster improve in that regard. She has embraced her role as a team leader, and is speaking up more frequently at practice. At the beginning of the year, Johnson said, Booker had a bunch of starry-eyed freshman who had no idea how Booker basketball worked. Unprompted, Foster took them aside and gave them a pep talk, breaking down team expectations and telling them what they needed to do to be successful.

Booker won the Class 5A District 10 title last year for the first time since 2008. The Tornadoes have bigger dreams this season, wanting to bring home a championship for the senior class. Whether they do or not, Foster can look back on her humble basketball beginnings and be proud of the player she has become.

“How I grew from then (her first day of basketball) is crazy,” Foster said.