Sarasota Booker (FL) football preparing to take on arduous 2026 gauntlet

Booker is coming off a solid 2025 campaign where the defensive back was the team leader in interceptions (5) and notched 40 tackles for the state semifinalists. This spring and fall, Booker will be expected to should a lot more of the load on both sides of the ball, where he will also be playing at wide receiver as well.

Throwing him the rock will be Bradenton (FL) Manatee quarterback transfer Mason Summer, who transferred in during the off-season. Summer last season saw significant time behind center for the Hurricanes, helping them reach the FHSAA Class 5A region finals before falling to Riverdale on the road.

Summers nearly threw for 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns for Manatee last fall. Expectations for the Booker offense, which has featured the likes of Ryan Downes and Joel Morris the last two years, is that Summers will continue the stellar quarterback play this season.

“I mean, (Mason Summers) has all the moxie,” Woods said. “He’s bringing all those intangibles from being a lacrosse player. He’s physically tough, mentally tough, and he’s done a great job just blending in with our guys. He’s doing a really good job of understanding how guys like to run their routes and find those windows, and he’s really savvy.”

He’s really a highly intelligent guy with a 3.75 GPA, and he utilizes that on the field, where we think, 90 percent of this game is mental, and he really taps into that on the field. I expect him to get some big time offers as we continue to go through his process, he’s going to do a phenomenal job leading our program and just excited about where we’re going in the fall in the direction.”

The prospect that college coaches have come flocking into see is 2027 four-star defensive lineman Maleek Lee, who is receiving heavy interest from Florida and Ohio State.

The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive dynamo is a difficult blocking assignment for any lineman trying to stand in his way, which Lee is going to see some time on offense as well as a blocking fullback. For the impact the Power 4 talent brings to the table on Friday nights, Lee is the latest talent that recruiters have stopped in during the spring to get a glance at.

“My expectations for Malik have always been just continue to lead by example,” Woods said. “He’s one of those guys. He’s gonna be out here early. He’s gonna be one of the hardest workers that we have on the field, in the weight room, in all phases, all facets. He’s a really, really good guy to have on your team and he’s going to push those guys. He’s going to hold those guys accountable and he’s really the alpha. It’s one of those things that if he sees someone slacking, he’s going to make sure that they hold their they’re end of the bargain.”

What one can’t argue about the makeup of the 2026 season for Booker is how they put together their schedule. The Tornadoes arguably will play one of the toughest regular season schedules of any program in the state and the slate of teams is a multi-state gauntlet.

One of the highlighted matchups is when the Tornadoes and Valdosta (GA) Wildcats will square off on Oct. 2 in Week 7 of the Florida high school football season in Valdosta at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium. Other games that stand out on the schedule is the Week 1 home opener against 4-time state champion Venice (Aug. 21), 3-time state champ Cardinal Mooney (Oct. 23) and versus Washington D.C. power St. John’s College on Sep. 19.

“It was very intentional in the sense that we wanted to be as battle tested as we possibly can,” Woods added. “Unfortunately, where we are with our enrollment, we’re at the mercy of being in this classification where the first couple of rounds in our region, it’s really not that super overly strong. So we wanted to make sure that we challenged our guys as much as we possibly could, allow those guys to go through those adverse moments, playing against top caliber talent, top talented teams.”

More about Sarasota Booker High School

Booker High School, located in Sarasota, FL, is known for its strong Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) Magnet Program, which draws students from multiple counties. The school offers a variety of academic and extracurricular programs, including the Cambridge AICE, JROTC, and Career and Technical Education (CTE) tracks. The campus features state-of-the-art facilities, including a newly built turf football field and renovated theater. Booker High is dedicated to ensuring that 100% of its students graduate college- or career-ready.

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