No excuses
Brown has the players to do it. The team features athletic wings, heady guards and both upper and lower classmen whose only goal is to win it all. The head coach has also made it a habit of doing more with less, something he credits to the school’s origin story.
“I think it comes from the spirit of Ellis Walker Woods, who was our first principal, who walked 500 miles to get here from Tennessee to take on the job of principal in 1913,” he said.
The challenges are different now, of course. But it’s still a continuation of what Woods wanted set out to accomplish: a lasting legacy.
Inside Brown’s office, a massive TV monitor on wheels takes up an entire wall.
“This is what we watch film on,” he says. “Every (other school) we go to, they got a film room. We roll that thing out on the court and we get to it.”
The disadvantages don’t stop there. Most of Brown’s counterparts at suburban campuses have assistants who are also school staff members. That’s not the case at Booker T. So on game days, the operation falls to him.
“It’s ordering food,” he said. “It’s checking out buses, it’s making sure uniforms are washed and clean. It’s making sure everything’s loaded and in the bags and ready to go.”
Brown has even had to double as the team’s chauffeur.
“Sometimes I have to drive the bus when we go to state,” he said. They’ve made it to the tournament in Oklahoma City for the past four years, and Brown says he’s driven every time.
If it’s a home game, he and the school’s athletic director are sweeping the court, putting chairs out and setting up the scorer’s table.
But at Booker T., that’s not an excuse for not winning titles.
“There is a lot of pressure to win,” said Conley Phipps, who coached the Hornets for three seasons before handing the reins to Brown.
A sacred bond
In Phipps’ first season, they finished second before winning it all in 2019. Then, in 2020, the season was cut short due to COVID. Looking back, Phipps knows he had a chance to double up.
“If we wouldn’t have won it in 2020, gone back to back, it wouldn’t have been anybody’s fault but mine, because I had the best team,” he said. Phipps retired that spring.
Booker T.’s coaches, past and present, form a brotherhood with equal amounts of respect while also making sure the bar remains high for whoever comes next.
“There’s nobody that can come in here and do anything that hadn’t been done, right?” Phipps said. “I mean, the expectation is state champion. That’s what Booker T. does. I was just trying to add to the legacy, and was fortunate enough to do that.”
In uniquely Tulsa fashion, Hornet success is a community affair. Shana Brothers, class of ‘85, says this team — and school — are an embodiment of what the Greenwood spirit is.
“Faced with any adversity, whether they’re the underdog or anything, they never give up,” Brothers said ahead of the team’s recent win against Will Rogers. “You know, financial issues with (Tulsa Public Schools), things like that. They may not be able to keep up with some of the independent schools, but I think when needed, the community steps in and fills that void.”
For alumni, the black and orange logo carries a certain weight.
“It’s sacred,” Brothers said. “When we walked through those doors, we walked through the hallowed halls of Booker T. There was a hornet right there, and we didn’t step on the hornet. We went around the hornet … it’s awe-inspiring.”
The Booker T. brand
The recent success has translated to national recognition as well.
For coaches:
“I was at an AAU tournament … in line at a hotel with the Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright who won two national championships at Villanova,” Phipps said. “We started chatting, and I mentioned that I was the coach at Booker T. Washington. He goes ‘Tulsa? Oh, yeah, I’m very familiar.’ So it’s a national brand, and it has been for a long time.”
And for players:
“I was in Texas this summer and this guy asked me, ‘You play for Booker T.?’” said senior point guard Isaac Sanders, one of the leaders on the team. “It’s crazy. Like, everybody around the country really knows about the school.”
Sanders said the players know what’s a stake when they put on the Hornet uniform.
“When I came to Booker T., I had a list of goals,” Sanders said, “and going back to back or winning multiple state championships is at the top of my list.”
Even the younger players have lofty expectations.
“I would’ve loved to four-peat, but it didn’t happen,” said Joc Mitchell, a junior point guard and another pace setter on this year’s squad. “It didn’t happen, but I’m definitely going for three for sure.”
Dreams are one thing. Execution is another. To be a star player at the north Tulsa school, Brown says, you have to be willing to go above and beyond while showing “supreme dedication.”
“It’s not enough to work hard,” he said. “You have to also embody … the humility, the work ethic, (be) a dog and then you have to understand what it means to be a Hornet.”
He says if you’re not willing to do what it takes to be successful, “there’s always two, three, four more who’s willing to push you to the side and do what you don’t want to do.”
The next challenge
Following their 61-46 loss at home against 3A Millwood, Booker T. fell to 54th in the nation but remained ranked second in the state. Even then, that’s a number that Tulsans aren’t happy with.
“Everybody knows they’ve won 17 gold balls,” Phipps said. “Nobody knows how many silver balls they’ve won. Nobody keeps up with the second place, the state runner-up.”
That’s what keeps Brown motivated.
“I love a challenge,” he said. “We were 2-9 my first year,” the 2021 season also impacted by COVID.
“The next year we were 24-3. We lost in the semifinals of the state tournament … And then last year, we win it all. It’s the allure for me of trying to accomplish things without having what everybody else has.”
It’s also a family affair. Brown graduated from Booker T. in 2000, and his uncle was part of eight state championship teams as an assistant coach for 18 years under Nate Harris. Even Brown’s wife is an alum, class of ‘99, and he hopes one day his son will don the orange and black.
“Winning in 2025 was special to me,” Brown said, “because I was winning back at home, and I finally felt like, OK, I did what I wanted to do when I first started coaching, which was win a state championship at Booker T.”
It’s not all about basketball for Brown, though. When he’s not on the court he’s teaching SAT and ACT prep classes. He’s also focused on making sure his players learn life lessons under his leadership.
“We want to win, no doubt, but we want to make sure we groom these young men to be community servants and good husbands and good friends and good neighbors,” he said. “Winning is a big part of it, but while we’re on that journey of winning, we want to create those other things in their life.”
As for this season, Brown remains undeterred. He says after the students have come and gone and the only thing left behind are the banners, he wants this group of guys to be remembered “as one of the best teams to come out of Booker T.”
The Hornets slipped to No. 3 in Oklahoma at the end of January. But as long as they’re playing their best when the tournament arrives in early March, Brown is confident they can win title No. 18.
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