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n 1985-86, led by Dennis Scott ’87, the team reached number two and started the 1986-87 season with a preseason ranking of number one, which they retained every week through the end of the season. Despite having their practices in a temporary gym and playing home games at George Mason University, they aimed for the pinnacle and carried out their mission with an undefeated season, 23-0, and a number-one ranking with both USA Today and ESPN.
COMMEMORATING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF FLINT HILL BASKETBALL’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Stu Vetter — a former Flint Hill basketball player and 1970 alumnus — coached the team, from 1975 to 1990, and was named USA Today Coach of the Year twice, in 1986 and 1987, as well as the Washington Post All-Met Coach of the Year in 1987. Looking back, he remembers, “It’s a great feeling to be recognized as the best basketball team in the country out of over 20,000 high schools and private schools. It was a source of pride for our entire school. Dennis Scott was named the Naismith National Player of the Year and went on to Georgia Tech and later to the NBA. We had tremendous support throughout the community, and even though we did not have a home gym, we routinely drew large crowds to our games at George Mason University. I was always humbled and proud of our total support from our director/owner, Glen Rounsevell; our headmaster, Frances Casey; and our faculty and staff. We were truly ONE TEAM!” Among many of the milestones for Flint Hill’s basketball program in the 1980s is a win streak of 59-straight games, a record which still stands today as the longest in the Washington
metro area. One of the players on that record-breaking team is Ronny Thompson ’88, son of Georgetown University’s well-known, former Head Basketball Coach John Thompson, who played on the Archbishop Carrol High School team that held the previous record of 55-straight games for 26 years. The elder Thompson was in the stands the night the record was broken at 56 games; father and son shared the uniquely special moment together. The next morning, in a Washington Post article that marked the moment, Ronny Thompson was quoted, “I’m glad to see it go from Thompson to Thompson.” “The championship years — those were great memories,” said Jonathan Slater ’88, who was a team manager. A Junior the year Flint Hill won the national championship title, Slater has vivid memories of that time. “There was a lot of good team camaraderie and lifelong friendships built. It was the whole idea of how a team works together to achieve a common goal.” Recently Scott and Vetter were interviewed together for NBA. com’s digital series, “The City Game DC,” in a segment called “3D Down Memory Lane.” As they reminisced, Scott recalled the team being nationally ranked during all four of his years at Flint Hill and winning the national championship title during his Senior year. Vetter called Scott, “the player that catapulted us to a different level ... a complete player with a skill level that was off the charts ... and a tremendous basketball IQ.” While at Flint Hill, he set a school career record with 1,737 points, led the team to a 91-6 record, 41-0 in tournaments, and was named Most Valuable Player in 13 tournaments. Fittingly, in the 1986-87 yearbook, Scott was voted most athletic and most likely to be the Wizard of Oz.
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n the 1986-87 academic year, Flint Hill was a school with approximately 300 students, KindergartenGrade 12. Named Flint Hill Preparatory, with a falcon as its mascot, the School was in a temporary facility in Falls Church, Va., while plans were emerging for a permanent move to Oakton. During that year, the Miller House administration building was lifted from its foundation on Chain Bridge Road, placed on wheels and moved slowly to its current location. Meanwhile, the Boys’ Varsity Basketball team, unfazed by the changes around them, was on a pace of its own, moving steadily toward claiming the national championship title. High school basketball gained popularity nationally in the 1980s, aided by the introduction of the USA Today newspaper rankings in the 1982-83 season. Concurrently, Flint Hill’s own success began to rise from year to year as one dynamic player after another began filling the roster. Invitations to the best tournaments in the country followed, including the prestigious ‘Iolani Prep Basketball Classic in Honolulu; the Blue-Chip Classic in Cincinnati; the Superstar Classic in Norfolk, Va.; and the King Cotton Holiday Classic Tournament in Pine Bluff, Ark., which, in December 1987, was the setting of the first regular season high school basketball game televised live, nationally — a win by Flint Hill against Pine Bluff High School — on ESPN with legendary basketball broadcaster and analyst Dick Vitale.
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