Gordon focused on women’s basketball turnaround at FAMU

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

Time just wasn’t on coach Bridgette Gordon’s side when she was faced with building a FAMU women’s basketball team.

It was mid-August by the time she got settled in and the window of opportunity was basically shut to the NCAA transfer portal. A tryout and old-fashioned recruiting were her best bet.

Gordon thinks she made out pretty good, pulling in four walk-ons to go with eight players that she recruited. There were also five holdovers from last year’s squad.

When it was all said and done, she had 16 players. They were all at the Lawson Center, where a media day was held for Gordon to talk about her team.

Gordon also announced hiring a staff of assistants in Zenzele Vital and Andonte Gennie.

She said all the things a first-time head coach is expected to say, even admitting that there is some angst in being a first-time head coach, despite cutting her teeth as a star athlete at Tennessee and being an Olympic gold medalist. Her accolades also include being a longtime assistant coach on the professional and college levels.

Thus, the high expectations for her to turnaround a team that went 6-24 last season.

“It’s a lot of pressure but I’m up for the pressure,” Gordon said. “I’m ready for the challenge. I’m so excited.”

As Gordon elaborated on putting her team together, she disclosed that three of her players gave up other opportunities to be on the team. Two left part-time jobs and one walked away from being a member of the Marching 100 band.

 What she has put together is good enough to be the Cinderella team of the SWAC, something she told reporters at the conference media day. That was her response after the Rattlers were picked to finish 10th in the league, she said.

“We can be that Cinderella team this year, no matter what anybody else might say or think,” Gordon said. “That’s the family. That’s the culture. That’s the mindset. That the play angry attitude that we take to practice every day.”

Filling out her roster with players who know the game wasn’t difficult, Gordon said.

“We’ve got a lot of people interested in being a part of this family and this culture that I’m creating to implement here,” she said.

That includes Morgan Cyiark, Nya Bostic and Peryonna Sylvester. Cyiark and Sylvester left their part-time jobs and Bostic gave up playing the piccolo in the band to join the team.

Sylvester is looking forward to what is expected to be her first full season after spending the last two season recovering from a recurring injured labrum. She is so confident that this is her comeback season that she left her job at Chipotle Mexican Grill to focus on the sisterhood that Gordon is building.

“I have to focus on my academics and also focus on the court,” Sylvester said. “So I decided to (give) all my time on the court and in the classroom.”

Bostic is making a comeback of sorts to the game. She played two seasons at Tallahassee Community College, starting in 2020. She joined the band after graduating from TCC but couldn’t resist the opportunity that Gordon presented this past summer.

Leaving wasn’t the easiest thing but she has a strong passion for the game that she’s played since fourth grade.

“This is what I really wanted to do,” she said. “I’m happier on the court. Hopefully I can help this team build up, win and have greater season.”

Cyiark said she didn’t second guess leaving her job as a teacher at Impact Pre-school after the tryout opportunity came up. She was so confident that she’d make the team that she submitted her two-week notice to leave before the tryout took place.

“It was an easy decision,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t going to have time to do basketball, school and work.”

Plus, she wanted to help turnaround the basketball program.

“When I was watching the girls last year I felt a little void,” she said. “So I said, ‘yeah, I’ve got to go play basketball.’ ”