Manatee’s Joshua Booker nearly stopped wrestling. Now he’s a state tourney favorite

Manatee High School’s first look at one of its six wrestlers headed to this weekend’s Class 3A tournament came just more than a year ago inside The Mildred Emmelhainz Gymnasium.

The Hurricanes’ dual meet against Sarasota at the Hurricane Team Challenge came down to the 190-pound match, and Joshua Booker was wearing one of the Sailors’ orange singlets.

“I had no idea who he was,” recalled 160-pounder Charles Small.

Head coach Andrew Gugliemini bumped freshman Brandon Dossey up a weight class to go against the sophomore, and Dossey finished the match with a pin.

That could have been it for Booker’s promising wrestling career. A few weeks later, he transferred to Manatee and shifted his focus further to football. Before the start of his junior season, the running back pulled in offers from South Florida and Western Kentucky. As recently as the fall, he wasn’t sure he would ever return to the mat.

But the Hurricanes’ football season ended earlier than anticipated with a first-round playoff loss, and Booker decided to check out the wrestling program. In a matter of months, Booker has gone from a relative unknown in wrestling to one of the top seeds in Class 3A’s 220-pound weight class after winning the Class 3A-Region 2 title Saturday. The junior is one of six Hurricanes headed to the state tournament, which begins Friday at 10 a.m. in Kissimmee and concludes Saturday.

“I’m really a ghost,” Booker said. “I think it’s the time for me to break out and make a statement.”

In some ways, Booker is one of Manatee County’s most unlikely wrestlers to reach the state tournament. He had never wrestled in the postseason. An injury ended his freshman season at Sarasota early, and his transfer to Manatee kept him off the postseason mat as a sophomore.

His rise is also logical. Booker always had the frame to thrive — the football roster listed him at 5 feet, 11 inches and 215 pounds — and the athleticism to give any opponent in the 220-pound weight class fits. He makes up for his lack of polish with the sort of burst unique to a Division I football prospect and a relentlessness that makes him nearly impossible to keep down for a pin. One of his few losses this season came in the Manatee County championships against Darrien Grant, who is signed to play defensive end at South Florida.

“He goes out there, he goes hard, he has some explosion, he’s got some toughness,” Gugliemini said. “You add all that up, and he’s a region champ and looking to place at the state tournament.”

Booker came to the Hurricanes with so few reliable moves, he could count them on one hand. He just made it tough for better opponents to finish him simply because of his explosiveness.

That blend of abilities frustrated even a reigning state champion. Brandon’s Joe Marcano won the Class 2A title at 195 pounds in 2016, and Booker, in an early season meeting, went the distance and lost by two points. As he developed more skills, Booker beat Venice’s Kyle Johnson, who won the Class 2A-Region 3 title at 220, later in the season. He enters the state tournament with a 35-4 record — the fourth best in the field.

“I was basically just picking people up, hoping for the best,” Booker said. “They’ve been pounding and pounding more moves into me. They’re basically chiseling me into a state champion.”

Booker’s future remains on the football field, so his wrestling career is partly still about finding takeaways for his primary sport. The benefits aren’t as obvious for a running back as they are for a defensive player, but the way Gugliemini has watched Booker’s mental fortitude change stands out.

“He looks all big, and strong and tough, but everybody has doubts,” Gugliemini said. “At some point, I wasn’t sure if he really thought he could make it to the state tournament and now he’s thinking, Hey, I could place at the state tournament. How high? Who knows.”

David Wilson: 941-745-7057, @DBWilson2

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Manatee’s Joshua Booker nearly stopped wrestling. Now he’s a state tourney favorite."