Keith Booth's return to Dunbar High School as its boys basketball coach has the feel of both a reunion and revival — a sense of what used to be when he played there and what could be again at the East Baltimore school.
There is also a sobering reality: as much of a force as the Poets were locally and nationally before Booth played and while he was there, the program’s pipeline of high-level college stars and future NBA standouts has ground to a halt.
So, in taking a job once held by local legends such as William “Sugar” Cain, Bob Wade and Pete Pompey, and kept at a high level by Eric Lee and, most recently, Cyrus Jones Sr.