We Speak High School Basketball
Jesuit’s Final Four Run Sets the Bar for Tampa’s Tigers
The bar at Jesuit is back where it belongs: the state semifinals.
The Tigers went 24-7 last season, won the school’s 12th region championship and reached the Class 5A Final Four for the first time since 2021. The run ended March 11 at UNF Arena, an 86-58 loss to Fleming Island in which Tyler Caouette led Jesuit with 26 points. Caouette, a 6-4 shooting guard, has graduated — and so begins the handoff.
The next wave is a pair of class-of-2028 guards. Junior Arroyo, a 5-11 point guard, and Mike McLendon, a 6-1 combo guard named to Prep Hoops’ Tampa Bay All-Defensive Team, both played real minutes on a semifinal team as underclassmen. Now the offense tilts toward them.
Jesuit’s history says the program reloads rather than rebuilds: the Tigers own state titles from 1950, 1984 and 2013. And there is an early measuring stick already circled — last January, Jesuit fell 76-61 to Tampa Catholic in the regular season. This winter, the Tigers get to answer with a backcourt that grew up in a Final Four locker room.
We Speak High School Basketball
Remember These Names: E’zariyah Clark and Amira White Headline Florida’s 2030 Class in Tampa
They haven’t played a minute of high school basketball yet. In Tampa, people are already learning their names.
E’zariyah Clark arrives at Tampa Bay Tech as a 5-11 forward and combo guard in the class of 2030, playing club ball for HER Elite. Prep Girls Hoops’ evaluation reads like a varsity scouting report: a midrange game, range out to the deep ball, and rim protection built on length and timing — a freshman who “should be a key contributor for TBT alongside a talented group of guards.”
Across town, Amira White gives Plant a 6-0 power forward from the same 2030 class, playing for MBJ Elite. Prep Girls Hoops calls her “a major addition for Plant as the program looks to reestablish itself among the top teams in Tampa and across the state,” pointing to a back-to-the-basket game with an outside shot to match.
Florida’s 2030 class, as Prep Girls Hoops frames it, is a group whose size and length make them names to watch from day one. Two of the biggest are starting their careers in Tampa gyms this winter. Remember where you heard them first.
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