Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991 TAG: 9102040247
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: MOUTH OF WILSON LENGTH: Long
What you will find, if you venture several hundred yards past the town limits, is the former and would-be future No. 1-ranked boys' basketball team in the country, Oak Hill Academy.
Thousands of basketball fans are probably familiar with the Mouth of Wilson dateline from the weekly USA Today rankings, but until you've seen the place - please, don't blink - you can't imagine it.
The Gertrude Stein line, "There's nothing there there," is far more appropriate for Mouth of Wilson than it ever was for Oakland, Calif.
Shortly after coming to Oak Hill in 1983, then-assistant coach Steve Smith looked in the phone book and counted 400-500 listings in Mouth of Wilson.
"I don't know where they live," said Smith, now in his sixth year as head coach. "I mean, where are the houses?"
Larry Davis, Wake Forest University assistant and former Oak Hill coach, said: "It's the only place I know where, to go out to eat, you have to leave the state."
Thomas "Junior" Burrough, from Charlotte, N.C., said he liked the people he met on a visit to Oak Hill in the spring, but was not prepared for the utter isolation of the locale.
"We got in the car to go home and I told my parents, `I don't know about this,' " Burroughs said. "I knew it was beneficial to me graduating and doing better in school, but I was real unsure about coming up here.
"I just decided I'd come up for the summer, try it out and go home if I didn't like it. There were a lot of things to do, like hiking and canoeing."
Quipped teammate Ben Davis: "He's a real outdoorsman. Just call him Junior Boone, son of Daniel."
Whatever possessed Robert Isner, the former school president, to think he could build a national basketball power in such a setting, nobody was quite sure. But Isner, now retired and living in Wingate, N.C., qualifies for visionary status.
"My son, Chuck, was the basketball coach and I remember him shutting the door to my office and saying, `Let's talk,' " Isner said. "He said, `Let's do something about our basketball program' - we were playing the smaller schools like Mount Rogers - `or get out of it.' "
What Chuck Isner proposed was that the school appropriate the money for four scholarships and that he go on the road and recruit. "He said, `I'd like to start in New York, but I know a boy in Richmond who is the brother of a boy in school here now,' " Robert Isner said.
The "boy from Richmond" was Kenny Bowen, who in 1976 became Oak Hill's first recruit. The Warriors were 22-3 that first season and, in 14 subsequent seasons, have never failed to win 20 games.
Oak Hill has gone unbeaten twice - the first time in 1979-80, when it was 36-0 under Harley "Skeeter" Swift. Despite a schedule that has been upgraded considerably over the next decade, the Warriors went 29-0 in 1989-90.
Not only does Oak Hill play a national schedule, but a great majority of the games are on the road. The Warriors' 28-game schedule this year includes 22 games on the road, one at Grayson County High School in Independence (13 miles from Mouth of Wilson), and five at Oak Hill's 400-seat gymnasium.
Smith no longer has to hit the road to recruit, although some people may never be convinced of that. The only exception was guard Cory Alexander, a Waynesboro native who was looking for a new school after the program was de-emphasized at his old school, Flint Hill Prep in Vienna.
"I seriously do not recruit," Smith said. "It depends on what you call recruiting. If a kid calls me, I follow up, which is the same thing they would do in admissions.
"Sometimes it's a college coach who calls. Or a high school coach. Steve Lappas, who coached Rod Strickland [now with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs], called and said, `Rod needs to get out of the city.' But 90 percent of the time it's the kid or his parents who calls."
As a private school, Oak Hill does not belong to the Virginia High School League, but it subscribes to VHSL rules. The Warriors do not have any players who have completed the 12th grade at another high school or were pushed back a year when they arrived at Oak Hill.
Tuition is approximately $9,000 per year, with scholarships based on need. There are no full scholarships.
"If I told a kid he was getting the full package, it would still cost him $1,200," Smith said. "That's as much for some of the kids here as the $9,000 is for some of the others."
\ Pays for itself
The basketball program at Oak Hill wasn't always self-supporting, but it is now, which is remarkable considering the Warriors have played games this year in Kissimmee, Fla.; Fort Worth, Texas; Paducah, Ky., and Altoona, Pa.
"When I first got up here, the school paid for [the trips]," Smith said. "I hate to think how much it was. We had to pay for our meals, our travel, our hotel, our everything. Now, every place we go, they put us up. I don't know the last time I paid for a motel.
"They usually feed you. If they don't feed you, you get a guaranteed game fee. A lot of sponsors fly you. We flew to Cincinnati, Texas or Florida. They almost have to because, if they don't, somebody else will.
"Really, now it's [the basketball program] not an expense. We have our own bus. You could make money if you just hand-picked every place you wanted to go."
That was the message Smith received from school President Ed Patton when Patton, a teacher and administrator at the school for 24 years, succeeded Isner for the 1987-88 school year. There was some question whether the program would be emphasized to the same degree after Isner's retirement.
Patton was principal and dean of students when Isner upgraded the basketball program and "had a lot of doubts," Patton said. "I was skeptical. I think there was a period in the late '70s, although I was not involved, when there was a lot of talk that the program might be too expensive.
"I'm aware that a couple of trustees said, `No, it's a good thing for the school, let's keep it.' But I'm very fiscally conservative. I would not operate a program at Oak Hill, whether it's the basketball program or the equestrian program, unless it can contribute in some way financially or pay its own way."
Patton mentions the equestrian program because it was one of several sports added when he assumed the presidency. There was a concern that, while the boys' basketball team was doing fabulously, there were not enough athletic outlets for the rest of the student body.
The girls' basketball program was resurrected, and the school added boys' soccer, boys' tennis and girls' volleyball. In addition, a second basketball team - the "Red" team - was added for those players who were not of national caliber.
\ Rich environment
Oak Hill was founded by and still is affiliated with - the Baptist church. There are 200 students in grades 8-12, split almost evenly between boys and girls. Represented in this year's student body are 20 states and nine foreign countries, including an unusually large 35-student contingent from Egypt.
"All of them are looking for a good academic program in a safe, wholesome environment," Patton said. "Some are underachieving [academically]. Others are not getting along with their parents. Others are not succeeding . . . in life. On the other hand, we have a number of students who have been very successful academically before they ever enroll.
"We'll still take the student on the edge, but we've changed. In the '70s and into the early '80s, we had a reputation for taking troubled kids, delinquent kids and all of that. We decided in 1982 that we would take no students with a court record or from social-service agencies. In most instances, we've moved away from that kind of image."
When he conducted a review of the basketball program in 1987, Patton told Smith that he wanted the players to be of good character "or we would just not have a program. We did not want to be known as renegades. The coaches present a Christian, gentlemanly attitude, and nobody can contradict that."
Students, coaches and administrators were shaken, however, when Wilfred Kirkaldy, who played for Oak Hill last year as a junior, was arrested on a recruiting trip to Syracuse this fall and charged with first-degree rape and sexual abuse. Two days later, Kirkaldy was expelled from Oak Hill.
Court records indicate Kirkaldy also was charged with disorderly conduct because he cursed at police and created a disturbance when they were attempting to frisk him.
"I do not feel, to this day, that he was guilty of rape," Patton said. "But he did other things on that trip that were against our policy. I think it would have been difficult [not to expel Kirkaldy] and maintain our high standards based on information we had received.
"We were not looking for an opportunity to make a statement. In light of what he did, we wanted to make sure that everybody knew what Oak Hill stands for. That doesn't mean, every time one of our students does something wrong, we're going to kick 'em out. We're not a revolving door.
"The response has been overwhelming from people who say, `We commend you for taking such a stand.' It was extremely painful. I still don't feel good about it. It was the right decision, but I'm torn from having to take such action against one of our students, particularly one as popular and well-liked as Wilfred."
\ Perfect for the job
Patton gives much of the credit for the basketball program's success to Smith, a self-styled small-town guy. None of Oak Hill's four previous coaches lasted more than two years, including Smith's buddy and the person who brought him to Oak Hill, Larry Davis.
"It wasn't a big shock to me or my family," said Smith, 35, whose wife is from Drumright, Okla. "The day I move from here, that's when I'll have culture shock. I might look at this four or five years down the road and say, `O-o-o-o, we-e-e-e.' "
Smith's father was the basketball coach at Malone College in Canton, Ohio, and at Azusa (Calif.) Pacific before moving to Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., as dean of students. Smith is an Asbury graduate, as were Davis and four Oak Hill assistants in recent years.
Smith didn't play basketball at Asbury, where there was no intercollegiate team, but he played soccer and is a former scratch golfer. He began his coaching career at University Heights Academy in Hopkinsville, Ky., but took a bank job when he was asked to coach five different teams.
"I really wanted to coach again," Smith said. "I interviewed on the first day of school, so it was really hectic, a lot of people around. If I'd interviewed in the middle of the summer, and nobody was here, I might have thought, `I don't know about this.' "
When he wants to go out for dinner, Smith said, he'll drive 27 miles to Galax or 42 miles to Boone, N.C. He'll drive 75 miles to Winston-Salem, N.C., to go to a mall. Mouth of Wilson, so named because it is at the mouth of Wilson Creek, is 125 miles from Roanoke.
"After we get back from one of these [basketball] trips, sometimes I'll stay up here three weeks and not go anywhere," Smith said. "I do this [coach] till 10 every night from August until spring break. That keeps us going."
For a three-week period from late September until mid-November, Smith also serves as host to some of the nation's most prominent head basketball coaches. Louisville's Denny Crum has been to Mouth of Wilson to recruit, as have Indiana's Bobby Knight and Kentucky's Rick Pitino.
"Bobby Knight was just as you would imagine him," Smith said. "He was wearing one of his red Indiana sweaters and, when I took him to the private airport in Ashe County, N.C., we passed Rick Pitino. Coach Pitino was wearing a double-breasted suit and Coach Knight asked him, `Like to borrow one of my sweaters.' "
Smith bought a satellite dish - one of eight on campus - in 1985 and calls it the best investment he ever made. He previously had spent $300 to get one of the network stations out of Bristol, 75 miles away.
Others may disapprove of Oak Hill's designation as a high school, but fellow coaches feel comfortable with Smith and his methods.
"I have some mixed emotions about Oak Hill," said coach Woody Deans from Patrick Henry in Roanoke. "I do not think they ought to be considered in the polls - maybe they should be rated in a separate category for prep schools - but I think Steve Smith is a pretty up-front person."
After receiving a surprise visit last year from one of Patrick Henry's players, Smith called Deans and the player ended up staying at PH. Deans earlier had lost high school All-American George Lynch to Flint Hill Prep in Vienna.
"Steve says he doesn't recruit and I don't know of anybody he's recruited who didn't contact him," Deans said. "I think he's different from that guy [Stu Vetter] at Flint Hill. He [Vetter] was very unethical, very unprofessional. He never called me about George."
\ The word is out
At least part of Oak Hill's stated mission for its basketball program was to bring publicity to the school. That has been accomplished. Another of its goals was to prepare its basketball players for college admission. That has not always been easy.
Oak Hill had four McDonald's or Parade All-Americans from 1986-90. All four - Chris Brooks, Brian Shorter, Orlando Vega and Anthony Cade - failed to meet Proposition 48 guidelines for freshman eligibility. Smith says they are the exception rather than the rule.
"Out of the 27 Division I signees since I started as head coach, I'd say probably 18 have made it, and we think we'll add two more to that [this year]," Smith said. "How many would have made it otherwise? I can count maybe three who had the 700 in the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test] and a 2.0 grade average when they got here.
"This is not a save-all situation. We make no promises as far as the SAT, except that they will be able to take an SAT class. But I can tell you we had 11 kids [out of 12] on either the A or B honor roll."
As for the publicity, Oak Hill was featured by Sports Illustrated in 1987 and the school couldn't begin to afford the national advertising it receives from its weekly mention in USA Today.
"Wherever I go, people say, `Oh, yes, I've heard of Oak Hill Academy. You've got a great basketball program,' " Patton said. "I spoke at a church in Bristol this summer, never mentioned anything about basketball, and an elderly lady got up and asked, `What kind of team you going to have this year.' "
Oak Hill features three high school All-Americans in Alexander, Davis (6 feet 8) and Burrough (6-7) and was ranked No. 1 in the country before losing in Texas to Dunbar High of Fort Worth, 84-58. Alexander missed the game with a back sprain and Burrough was plagued by foul trouble.
"Even though we didn't lose a game last year, this year's team could be better," Smith said. "Our schedule this year is better. People say, `You have Burrough, Davis and Alexander, you should go undefeated.' But they don't understand. They don't know where we have to play."
PHOTO: 1. Oak Hill's basketball team works on fast breaks during practice. The team features three All-Americans in Cory Alexander, Ben Davis and Thomas "Junior" Burrough. It was ranked No. 1 in the country before losing to Dunbar High of Fort Worth, Texas, 84-58. color KEITH GRAHAM/STAFF 2. Oak Hill Academy is in Mouth of Wilson. The town has a post office, Fields Manufacturing Co., and what used to be Fields Motor Co., which closed in 1990. The school is less than a mile from "downtown." According to former Oak Hill coach Larry Davis, "It's the only place I know where, to go out to eat, you have to leave the state." color KEITH GRAHAM/STAFF 3. map showing location of Mouth of Wilson
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