TAMPA, Fla. - Put on a Tampa Bay Tech uniform, you better be ready to work.
“Wearing the Tampa Bay Tech jersey is like, it’s a sign of family,” junior guard K’Nisha Godfrey said.
- TBT is the defending 8A state champions
- Titans won the school's first team state championship last year
- They opened the season nationally ranked as high as No. 2
And the family that battles together, wins together. A Tech girls basketball practice is basically controlled chaos, a series of drills to simulate game chaos.
“They want it,” head coach Reggie Lawrence said. “They want to be the best.”
To be the best, you have to practice like the best. And nobody was better than Tampa Bay Tech in Class 8A last season. The Titans took home the 8A state title, the school’s first team state championship.
“ It was big,” Lawrence said, “especially having such a young team, at that time starting three sophomores and two freshman.”
That’s the plan. Making history as the first Tampa Bay Tech team to win a state title felt great, but these Titans don’t want to be one and done. They want to hang more banners on the gym walls.
“We got the first one,” Lawrence said. “They say that’s the hardest one.”
“Just to fill up all my four fingers, just to be like, yeah I got ‘em, that’s a huge accomplishment,” sophomore forward Janiah Barker said. “Just to do that in high school.”
The Titans have the roster for a long run. All five starters from last year’s championship team return, none of them seniors. Tech boasts a young team filled with talent, including Barker, one of three Titans to average double figures in scoring and the Class of 2022’s No. 2 ranked player in the country.
But talent alone doesn’t win championships.
That’s where the intense practices come into play.
“We’re always going to work hard,” Lawrence said. “That’s our motto. We’re just going to keep working hard at practice. It’s a culture that we’re trying to set.”
“We’re learning how to defend our names,” Barker said. “There’s a big target on all of our backs.”
Pressure’s on as the defending state champs. But this Tech team is feeding off the higher expectations.
This is a tight group. They’ve got each other’s backs on and off the court. Even making sure a teammates hair looks good for an interview. It’s the little details that can lead to big things.
“We bond because we all have a common goal,” Godfrey said. “And that common goal is to win.”