Miami Columbus community watches as Cameron Boozer goes No. 3 in NBA Draft
Kevin Testa watched Cameron Boozer win so often at Miami Columbus High School that the championship photos on his phone now double as a timeline of his own sons growing up.
For Testa and many other Explorer alumni, the Boozers’ four-year run became something families planned around.
He brought his sons, then 10 and 12 years old, to Columbus’ first boys basketball state championship in 2022, then kept following the team as Cameron and Cayden Boozer won state titles in each of their four seasons, with the run becoming part of his sons’ childhood.
“My sons literally got to grow up watching the Boozers win championships,” Testa said. “Those road trips were so much fun. It was a family event.”
That same family atmosphere followed Boozer to draft night, when a crowd of Columbus faculty, alumni and friends gathered at Bayshore Bar & Grill to watch him be selected No. 3 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2026 NBA Draft.
To Maria Romero, Boozer’s pre-calculus college dual enrollment professor at Columbus, the discipline that made him one of the country’s best basketball players showed up just as clearly in the classroom.
“He has the same dedication on the court that he has in his academics,” Romero said.
By the time his tenure at Columbus was over, Boozer boasted a 4.88 weighted GPA before heading off to Duke.
With a son who could have changed the outlook of almost any high school basketball program in the country, Cameron’s mother, CeCe Boozer, said the decision came down to more than basketball.
When the family chose Columbus, it was the school’s education and culture that stood out most.
“The quality of education speaks for itself in the amount of Fortune 500 company owners that they’ve produced,” Boozer said. “You see the Columbus brotherhood, what all these young men are doing as they enter adulthood is outstanding.”
During the 2025-26 college basketball season, Boozer was named the Naismith National Player of the Year after averaging 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game for Duke.
Throughout his time at Columbus, Boozer built one of the most decorated high school careers in South Florida history. He helped lead the Explorers to a 109-13 record, four consecutive Class 7A state championships and the 2025 Chipotle Nationals title, while earning honors as a two-time Florida Mr. Basketball, two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year and McDonald’s All-American.
Nick Ramos, Columbus’ vice president of advancement, said the rest of the country is only now getting introduced to what the school saw for four years.
“The world is going to witness what we got to see for four years,” Ramos said. “He’s an incredible human being that just happens to be a generational basketball talent.”