Sarasota High junior has flourished through toughness

Kelly Brown had to get tougher.

When the Sarasota High girls basketball guard joined the Sailors as a freshman, she showcased natural skills, but she was 5-foot-1 (or thereabouts), she said, and lacked muscle mass and a killer instinct. She also lacked experience: She had only played the sport for two years at that point. If she was going to star at the varsity level, she needed to add bulk and play with aggression.

Two years later, Brown is a wrecking ball.

The junior is 5-foot-9 now, tied for the tallest person on the team, according to Sailors coach Wade McVay. Her work in the gym shows: Brown plays with a bulldog mentality, not afraid to drive the lane one-on-one or dive out of bounds to save a possession. Her biggest improvement is her strength, she said. Stronger passes lead to more opportunities for teammates and physicality in the paint leads to more fouls drawn.

“Knowing that you’re mentally stronger than your opponent,” Brown said, is the key to playing tougher. It’s something she’s had to make herself believe in the past. Now, it’s second nature.

Against Lakewood Ranch on Dec. 13, Brown’s tenaciousness was on display, particularly in one third quarter sequence. After one of her passes was intercepted, Brown attempted to chase down the interceptor instead of allowing an open layup. She got there and made a block that caused an “ooh” to erupt from the crowd. On the following inbounds play, Brown got a steal and took it for an open layup herself, more than making up for her original error.

Her star shined brightest Dec. 1 when she posted a triple-double against Riverview High: 18 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. They all mattered; the Sailors won 57-56. Brown doesn’t count her stats while playing. When she found her friends postgame, they told her what she accomplished, and Brown couldn’t believe it, she said. She had never done it before. Seeing it written down was a “cool” feeling, Brown said.

“The triple-double … Yeah, that really got to me,” Brown said. “I didn’t think I got it. I was like, ‘How many assists?’ The areas I got the doubles in also (mattered to her). I love getting assists. I love getting rebounds. I felt a lot of joy.”

That’s about as passionate as Brown gets talking about herself. She’s the antithesis of selfishness on the court. While she possesses a scoring touch (Brown posted 30 points Dec. 7 against Venice High), she would rather be a distributor. Driving the hoop and kicking a pass out for a 3-pointer gives Brown more joy than scoring a layup, she said.

Ironically, the girl with impeccable court vision wears goggles while playing. She tried contacts, she said, but they bothered her eyes. The goggles, which she first used as a freshman, required adjustment time, but she says they don’t affect her play at all now. They make Brown stand out to spectators, but her play would do that, anyway.

“By the time she leaves here, she’s going to be one of the better players to come out of this school,” McVay said. "She's confident that she can take anybody. That's the attitude you have to have."

After not starting a year ago, Brown is now a captain, a testament to the strides she’s made. She’s an example-driven leader, calling herself “calm and cool.”  Fans might expect a more fiery personality based on her play, but it makes sense after talking with her. Brown wants to help her teammates win, personal stats be damned. In the process, she’s become one of the top players in the area. The Sailors are 5-3 as of Dec. 13, but like their captain, have room to grow into something dominant. That’s Brown’s main focus, she said: Districts, then states.

“Another triple-double would be nice, too, I guess,” Brown said.