Hornets Begin Season with New Coach, Young Team

By MIKE MOGUIN 
GTR Sport Writer

There are some new faces on the hardwood at Booker T. Washington this year. 
Eli Brown III takes over the reins of the program after coaching 10 years at Central, which included leading the Braves to a Class 4A state championship in 2015.
Brown is a 2000 BTW graduate. He replaces Conley Phipps II, who resigned last spring after taking the Hornets to three straight state tournaments, including the Class 6A title in 2019.  
“It became a goal of mine when I first got into coaching back in 2004,” Brown said. “At some point in my career, I wanted to get back to my high school alma mater. It is something I always wanted to make happen. I’m excited to be back home and try to win another state championship in my second stop as head coach.”
Being a coach was not what Brown wanted as a career when he graduated high school. But he was talked into it years later by family, including his uncle, Levi Brown, who coached as an assistant under the legendary Nate Harris.
Gone are the likes of Trey Phipps, the son of Brown’s predecessor, and Bryce Thompson, who are now at Oklahoma and Kansas, respectively. 
“We lost about 90 percent of our scoring. That’s not an exaggeration,” Brown said. “With the tradition at Booker T., that is not something that normally happens. We graduated a lot of kids, so the current roster is not familiar to many people because it is a roster without a lot of size. But we have a lot of great guard play which is going to help us. Our team is tough. They’re fast, they’re aggressive, they can shoot the ball and they share the ball. There are a lot of unknown players on this team that will emerge this year because they’ll have an opportunity.” 
Returning starters are junior guards Kam Parker (6-1) and Ijai Johnson (6-2)
“They’re going to have to step up and be bigger pieces than what they were in the past,” Brown said. 
Seniors Leo Ruffin (5-11, guard), Chase Carpenter (6-1, guard), sophomore Latham Boone (5-11 guard), who is also the starting quarterback of the football team, are expected to contribute. “There is also a host of players coming off the bench like sophomore Makai Chambers (5-11, guard), juniors Jordan Drew (5-10, guard) and Ryan Anderson (6-3, forward). The Hornets also have freshman Jayden Oates (6-2, guard), who also starts as a defensive end in football. 
“We’re going to look to him to give us some spark off the bench,” Brown said. “Guys like that, those host of characters is what we’re looking at in contributing to this year’s team.” 
Booker T. made state last season with hopes of repeating as champions. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of the tournament.  
“A lot of guys wonder what could have happened,” Brown said. “Could they have been back-to-back champions? What would it have looked like if they won the state tournament? Number 1, kids always want to defend their state championship title. Number 2, they all want to compete and play. Being a part of Booker T., that’s what you go there for. You want to win a state championship, because the odds are in your favor to win one in your four years of being here. They had been there in the state championship game for three years in a row.” 
Persevering through the COVID protocols has been tough, Brown said.
“Day-to-day, it’s nerve wracking because you just don’t know if you are going to be able to be there the following week or the next day, or if you’re going to have a season the next day or the next week. 
“It’s day-to-day in terms of will you be in practice? Will you be in a game? Is someone going to be sick? It’s stressful in that regard. We want to win games and we want to play, but we also want to be safe and keep people healthy. It’s been a mixed bag of feelings and emotions throughout this preseason.”
As of Christmas, Booker T was off to an 0-2 start. But their losses have come to Owasso and Union, two of three teams Brown expects to be among the toughest on the schedule this year. The other is Jenks. 
“The (Frontier) conference is tough itself. Teams like Bartlesville, Muskogee, Sand Springs and Sapulpa, those teams are all good and they all bring back guys with experience and we don’t. So we got our work cut out for us this year,” Brown said.
BTW returned to action at home against Broken Arrow on Jan. 5. The rest of the month has games in the Bartlesville Tourney (Jan. 7-9), at Bartlesville (Jan. 12), at Jenks (Jan. 15), at home against Bixby (Jan. 19), Jenks/Union Tourney (Jan. 21-23), at Muskogee (Jan. 26) and at Sand Springs (Jan. 29).