Booker High girls basketball charts its own course

When Booker High underwent a major three-year renovation period starting in 2010, all but three buildings were razed — the theater, the administrative offices and the gymnasium. 

Those three were spared because they were the high school’s newest buildings, but I like to think, for the gym at least, it was left untouched because of the history it holds. 

Stepping into Booker’s gym feels like walking through a time portal into the 1960s. Dark-stained bleachers stack high into the ceiling, framing the massive basketball court. Tucked away above and behind the senior bleachers hides a loft where the school holds its weightlifting competitions. Purple banners, dating back to the high school’s first graduating class in 1935, hang from the rafters. 

Booker girls' varsity basketball Head Coach Ty Bryant and his team are here early on a Saturday morning, Chris Stapleton's rendition of "Tennessee Whiskey" trickling through the loudspeakers, trying to make some history of their own.

Photo by Dylan Campbell

Since Bryant took over the program in 2020, the Tornadoes have made it to the final four of the 4A FHSAA state championship tournament twice, falling to eventual champions Orlando Lake Highland Prep in 2022 and 2023. 

Since the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Association Integrated into the FHSAA in 1968, the Booker girls basketball program has yet to make it to a state championship game. 

Bryant would like that to change. 

But first, his team has to hit the gym. The players that come jogging out onto the court after an hour or so of weightlifting and plyometrics differ from those that took Bryant to the regional final last season, where they lost to St. Pete Lakewood High 62-53.

Jakai Paterson, who led the team in scoring last season, averaging 15.1 points per game, graduated in 2024. So did forward Cheyla Zastrow, who averaged 8.2 points and 4.9 rebounds.

The Tornadoes, 5-1 as of Dec. 14, are lacking in height, said Bryant. Their tallest active player, senior Charity McKnight, stands at about 6-foot-1. The next tallest is probably fellow senior Janiel Williams, who is about 5-foot-10.

Bryant holds out hope that McKnight, who has missed the last three years with various knee injuries, can make an impact in the paint. Even still, he isn’t deterred. His brand of basketball doesn’t depend on height — it’s reliant on effort.

“Our patent here at Booker has been pressure defense for all 94 feet,” said Bryant. “We try to make you uncomfortable. We don’t allow you to get into your sets, we keep you out of the middle of the floor and we take away your first read.”

Photo by Dylan Campbell

It’s a strategy, Bryant said, that has gotten him through the middle school and AAU coaching ranks. Instantaneous, full-court pressure from the moment the whistle blows can make a great opponent worse and a mediocre offense unravel.

If Booker can knock its opponents off balance, like throwing a first punch in a street fight, then the team’s athleticism and defensive tenacity can overcome some of its, well, literal shortcomings.

So far, the Tornadoes have done just that, holding opponents to an average of 43.1 points per game. Guards Brianna Behn, Jsiyah Taylor and Yvette Brown have been terrors on the perimeter, all averaging over three steals a game. 

Tough, physical plays like these — as well as properly boxing out the opposing offense while they shoot free throws — allow the Tornadoes to play as fast and dangerous as their namesake, creating easy looks in transition.

This style of defense, however, can be demanding, admits Bryant. Junior guard Kennedy Guy, who transferred in from Riverview this off-season, has had to adjust after playing zone defense for her entire high school career prior to coming to Booker.

While Guy, who is averaging 8.3 points a game, is adapting to Bryant’s coaching at the high school level, she is not new to Bryant herself. Neither is Behn, who transferred from Cardinal Mooney prior to her senior year. 

Bryant has known both since the fourth or fifth grade, he said, when they played for his AAU program, Kings and Queens Basketball.

“I was lucky enough to have both of them play for me earlier in their careers and obviously there was enough of a relationship there that when they decided they needed to make a change, they came to play for me,” said Bryant. “As a coach, I don’t take that for granted. People might look at it differently, but I feel like these girls came back to someone that they trusted.”

For Behn, the transfer to Booker was less of a move than it was a homecoming. Behn went to Booker Middle School before attending Cardinal Mooney. So far, the reunion has been a joyous one.

Under Bryant, Behn has blossomed into the player he always believed that she could be. At Cardinal Mooney, where Behn went to three consecutive 3A state title games, Behn was a facilitator, averaging 7.9 points, 3.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds during her junior season. 

At Booker, the 5-foot-9 guard has been unlocked as a scoring threat. Through six games, Behn has averaged 14 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per contest. Learning to attack, however, was an adjustment. In her first three games, Behn scored just 5, 11 and 8 points. 

“Three games into the season, I was on her case, telling her to go score,” said Bryant. “She was forced to facilitate and no one had seen her skill, but she can do it all, from passing to scoring to defense.”

It’s the performance of players like Behn and Brown, who leads the team in scoring with 17.0 points per game, that makes Bryant optimistic about the season.

Perhaps this is the year the Tornadoes can finally make some history of their own.