State Champions: Lady Blue Devils

Two weeks before the championship game, there is room to reminisce. The Winter Haven Senior High Lady Blue Devils (LBD) of 2023 and 2024 made it to the finals. The conditioning was the same. The practices went as structured. The goal was set. But both years, they lost. Now the 2025 team was headed back with the same goal… on the same floor they graced twice, with the same conditioning, the same amount of practices, and facing the same team that previously beat them.

“I went and had a practice with the girls by myself. I saw a lot of good things in them. I felt like the pieces were there and they put in the work... I told them what they needed to do to become that championship team…” remarks Winter Haven Senior High’s Athletic Director, LeDawn Gibson. Former head coach of the LBD, current icon in Polk County basketball, and the reason the legacy of LBD began, Gibson’s assessment of the team is crucial. If anyone can eye the blueprint of a winner, it would be the woman who led the team to be ranked No.1 for nine straight seasons. She believed in this group of girls, and in the man she handed her reins to.

Coach Johnnie Lawson is, by many accounts, an incredible head coach, but by more accounts, an incredible person. His LBD career spans nearly three decades, 17 years at the helm, 10 years as assistant to then-Coach Gibson. He is thoughtful, encouraging, and dependable, and according to his senior girls, he is a second dad. “I run my team like I run my house-- discipline, order, and structure.” Coach Johnnie has garnered the respect of all who play for him by offering a consistent work ethic; he has gained adoration as he cultivates a loving and inspiring program. Amaya Shaw, senior power forward, describes the team as “definitely a family.” Senior guard, Azzariah Styles adds, “It’s more than basketball bonds. The coaches are just as close with the players as we are with each other.”

“Playing here is different. Everybody can’t play here. Even though we love them hard, we coach them hard,” 11-year assistant coach Billy Washington discloses how the reputation of the LBD is anchored. While endearing, the team runs on toughness. And while Coach Billy doesn’t see himself as the “tough coach” but the “balance to Coach Johnnie,” he prepares the girls to push more than ever as they will engage with an above-average schedule of workouts, conditioning, and teams.

Two weeks before the final game, Coach Johnnie doesn’t sleep well. The idea of meeting the standard that LBD teams are held to becomes an “up all-night” engagement. What will he tell his girls if their stringent regimen leaves them without the trophy for a third year in a row? This is where Coach Johnnie admits the weight of legacy, “Is it more pressure to start a program fresh, take it from scratch, or is it tougher following a legend? It’s tougher following a legend… the pressure mounts up.” When you aren’t new to winning, the effort it takes to accomplish the accolade can be ignored. The LBD are not new to winning. They have gone to the finals 24 times, more than any basketball team in the county. The effort has yielded multiple district and regional titles, five state titles. Now, LBD ‘25 wants their effort to make it six.

Two weeks before the game the energy has yet to stall. It vibrates amongst the girls one would assume should be nervous, but are instead concentrating on what has been engrained. The girls recalled what that looked like:

Dashanique Henry, senior forward asserts “I was feeling good. I felt like we would win off the start of the season. Everybody had a position we needed, everybody had a part.”

“Every time we came in the gym, it was ‘practice and play like a champ.’ Our intensity was different than our regular season games,” Dariasia Pitts, a senior power forward, excitedly boasts.

“It’s not nerves. The entire team is locked in, focused on the main goal… there’s no playing around, no slacking in practice… we’re excited to play Dr. Phillips to get our get back,” point guard Jaeden Williams imparts with an assured smirk.

Team captain and shooting guard, Serenity Hardy, acknowledges her motivation, “Looking at those pictures in the gym it’s also a [reminder] this is the legacy, this is who we’re playing for, this is who is across our chest.”

The last practice before the final game… everyone was fully immersed, driven by a collective aspiration. After basic drills and fundamentals to sharpen what was already there, it was time to play each other. The hustle was apparent, the determination is resolute. Coach Billy refused to call fouls, mimicking what the girls may have to play through in the finals. At different points in the scrimmage, juniors Serenity Hardy and Quin’Nya Gray de Sanders were bleeding, then center Victoria Hall’s knee started bothering her. They would have continued to play, but the gym fell silent as the girls were stunned when Coach Johnnie called it a day. They had done enough, and while they were willing to give more, Coach Johnnie knew there was nothing else to do.

But win…

“Man, I can’t believe I cried…” with a soft laugh and sigh, Coach Johnnie unveils what the masses can easily dismiss. The portions of their life that coaches sacrifice to be present for their team. The portions of life that make girls decide to move counties, cities, schools, all to find environments that accept them, teams that help them grow as a player and a person. Those outside of the locker room do not see the portions of life that include headache and heartbreak, where loss and grief can break you, because the team and staff still show up on game night, to afternoon workouts, and the team meetings. “I cried… when you put everything in [this]… there’s so much that you’re thinking,” Coach Johnnie continues about the moment the final game is done, “a lot came out, a lot of emotions, everything these years have put us through, me and Billy, big grown men, fell into each other’s arms.” The two LBD coaches hugged each other for every trial they and their team experienced and shed tears for a win that felt promised and earned.

Legacies only last if the work does, if the love does.

Legacies are built in the present steps, not just the end summary of acts. LBD ‘25 forged their legacy with intentional steps. With fervor. In unison. With love and their set goal.

And they won the state championship.