Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302210189
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: ST. JAMES, MD. LENGTH: Long
A SUCCESS STORY KEPT UNDER WRAPS
The name is St. John's Literary Institution at Prospect Hall. One of those words ought to be plural.There are plenty of Division I basketball prospects at the Catholic day school in nearby Frederick. Among the more prominent are Roanoke's Curtis Staples and Tim Basham, who are starting and appear to be prospering away from home under the guidance and protection of carpetbagging coach Stu Vetter.
A year ago, Basham and Staples were about to begin their tournament run toward Patrick Henry High's second Virginia state Group AAA championship in five seasons. This weekend, they played in the 20th annual St. James Invitational, where Saturday night the Hall faced Oak Hill Academy in a recruiters-dream title game.
The best way to learn how Staples and Basham feel about their new experience would be to ask them. That was impossible. Vetter wouldn't allow it, a ban that apparently includes only the two players' hometown newspaper.
Vetter, who seems bent on perpetuating his controversial reputation, is steamed about a reaction story in this newspaper after Basham and Staples left Roanoke for St. John's. Did he expect the PH people to be thrilled at losing Basham and Staples?
Vetter didn't say much more. In three conversations, his favorite three words were "off the record."
Vetter said neither he nor St. John's headmaster Ed Hoffman would allow this writer to talk to the players. Hoffman, in a telephone conversation, cited "the track record of your publication" and said the ban "was for the protection of the boys and their parents."
The newspaper appealed to the players' parents. After they talked to Vetter, not only was the original request refused, but Vetter said he would not answer questions about Basham and Staples for this newspaper. He would not fax the newspaper the Vikings' statistics, either.
At this tournament, Vetter did not open his locker room to the media, and the Vikings left the St. James fieldhouse out a side entrance after Friday's semifinal win.
St. John's has 154 students in grades 9-12 with a college prep curriculum. It is in its 163rd year of existence and first as a basketball power - a result of the hiring of Vetter, who had built private-school power programs previously at Flint Hill Academy in Virginia and Harker Prep in Maryland.
Six players - including Basham, Staples and Tarik Turner of Charlottesville, Va. - live with Vetter. The annual tuition at St. John's is $3,695, and there are no athletic scholarships. Financial aid is available to all students, based on need.
Vetter repeatedly has claimed he doesn't recruit players, and Hoffman says Basham and Staples are at Prospect Hall "because that's where their parents want them. Parents do have the right to send a child to school wherever they want."
How did Basham and Staples hook up with Vetter? A story in The Washington Post said Roanoke native George Lynch, the North Carolina senior star who also left PH for Vetter and Flint Hill, played a prominent role. Lynch and Basham are cousins. The Post story also said former Flint Hill player Kevin Sutton, a Vetter assistant, can make contact with players when he works summer camps, like the Five-Star that Staples attended last summer at Radford University.
Vetter's success in producing talent is unquestionable, and while other coaches might swear at him, his players swear by him.
However, we digress - as one often does when Vetter's name seeps into the conversation. This really could be a local-boys-make-good story.
Basham's game has improved significantly. The 6-foot-5 senior is stronger and has broadened his game by getting experience at small forward. He is scoring only 8.5 points per game, but he is averaging double figures in rebounds.
Staples, a junior, is simply smooth when he's not spectacular. He leads the Vikings in scoring with an 18-point average, 21 over the past 11 games. When Staples isn't shooting 3-pointers, he's soaring for alley-oop slams, thanks to an improved vertical leap.
"Staples reminds me a great deal of [Virginia point guard] Cory Alexander," said talent scout Bob Gibbons, who watched the St. James tourney. "His style, his skills. He's playing more of a two-guard than a point and they have him listed at 6-3, but he looks more like 6-1 to me. His height dictates that he probably should be a point guard in college."
Virtually every ACC and Big East school is courting Staples. UCLA reportedly already has offered him a scholarship. Wake Forest probably has been Staples' most persistent suitor - as evidenced by the arrival here Saturday night, by plane, of Wake coaches following their afternoon loss to Georgia Tech.
Virginia, Duke and Florida State also are chasing Staples, and Lynch has made sure the guard is aware of UNC. Roanoke native Steve Robinson was here Friday night to watch Staples. The Kansas assistant coach hopes he can make the Star City connection.
The word also is out that Vetter wants Staples to stay in these parts to play AAU basketball this summer, which may be a surprise to his longtime Roanoke AAU coach Joe Gaither.
Although Basham lacks height for a power player, he has several Big East schools watching, as well as North Carolina State. Wolfpack head coach Les Robinson came here Thursday to take a look at Basham.
If the competition hasn't been great - St. John's has won games 135-17, 125-19 and 118-41 - the 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio and Vetter's strictness and study halls have given the Roanoke players' academic enhancement.
"I came here to better myself with Coach Vetter rather than stay in Roanoke," Basham was quoted Saturday in the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. "There were no players to play against. I wanted to play against Division I players.
"I came up here, put on 10 pounds, built muscle mass. I'm rebounding more, shooting more and passing well."
The story reported that Basham said he missed his friends, large gyms and the big-school atmosphere, but said it had all been worth it.
Neither he nor Staples could tell their success story to hometown readers. Headmaster Hoffman said the reason for that was "your newspaper's inability to report the whole story."
When they're looking to place blame for that on this occasion, Hoffman and Vetter should look in the mirror.