The Sarasota Manatee is the areas first and longest lasting professional basketball team started by Joscelyn and Andre Spivey. From the early start Coach Jessie Parker has had hand in the training, coaching and development of players. The journey of professional basketball on the minor league or semi-pro stage is always challenging from finding talent to gathering finances and locations to play consistently, but year in and year out the team has survived and continued to build since 2015. Each year the team sends a slew of players to Mexico and other overseas locations drawing attention to the program, but wins were elusive, this is the first season that the team has started with a win. This win came against the Rank #16 NEPA Starts and Stripes last Sunday by 6 points.
Looking at the developed talent, maturity, increased discipline and commitment and more confidence, something interesting is on the horizon in Sarasota. There are new teams year in and year out, even locally in the 941, but the go to team that started it all is The Sarasota Manatees who are currently Rank #22 out of over 160 teams in the league.