We Speak High School Basketball
One Shot Away: Johnny Lackaff and Sarasota Get One More Run at the Top
One shot. That is how close the Sarasota Sailors came to a state championship last March — and it is why this season in Sarasota starts with unfinished business.
The Sailors reached the first state final in school history last spring, falling 53-50 to Miami Columbus in the Class 7A championship game at UNF Arena. Columbus left with its fifth straight title in Florida’s highest classification; Sarasota left with a 25-7 record, a semifinal win over Orlando Oak Ridge — the program’s first in five Final Four trips — and a standard that had never existed in 104 years of FHSAA boys basketball at the school.
The best news for head coach B.J. Ivey, 98-19 through four seasons leading the Sailors, is that the backcourt is back. Senior guard Johnny Lackaff scored a game-high 27 points with five 3-pointers in the final and had the last look — a heavily contested corner three at the buzzer that would have tied it. Alongside him, 6-3 class-of-2027 guard Isaiah Jenkins averaged 8 points and nearly 5 rebounds a game as a junior, and Greg Dauer returns as well.
Sarasota has already shown it can win on big December stages: last winter the Sailors won their first-ever game at the City of Palms Classic, beating Garfield Heights (Ohio) behind 23 from Lackaff. This season, the goal is simpler and harder at the same time — get back to Jacksonville, and finish the last three points.
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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