No area school has won more basketball state titles then Laurel Hill’s eight. So it’s no surprise that, when crafting the Mount Rushmore of greatest Hoboes athletes and coaches, basketball legends are going to rule the roost.
From the patriarch Grover Hicks to three junior college legends and Division I products, here are the faces that should be carved on Laurel Hill’s Mount Rushmore. Who should be the fifth name? Vote below.
Spring All-Area: Expanded softball all-area team celebrates Baker, FWB, Niceville, South Walton and more
Spring All-Area: South Walton, Paxton, Crestview, Niceville, FWB shine on all-area baseball list
Grover Hicks
After leading Ruckel Middle School to three straight county titles and 35 straight wins as boys basketball coach, he took over the helm at Laurel Hill. There, he led the boys to six district titles, four Final Fours and a state crown in the 1970s. Moving over to be an assistant coach for the girls team, Hicks was on the bench for six state titles in eight years during the 1980s. He later came back in 1995 as an assistant to Mary “Roonie” Scovel to help lead the Hoboes to a state title in 1995 and a state runner-up finish in 1996.
Brad Reese
The 6-foot-7 2007 alumnus was named the Daily News Player of the Year his junior and senior seasons, the latter in which he averaged 24.9 points and 14 rebounds per game and led the 23-3 Hoboes to a state title appearance. He then played two years at Gulf Coast Community College, named Panhandle Conference Freshman of the Year after averaging 16.7 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and followed that up with 16.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game as a sophomore. Texas Tech took notice, and Reese averaged 9.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 67 games as a Red Raider.
From there, Reese went overseas and found immense success in Spain, Czech Republic, Finland and Luxembourg spanning a seven-year run, highlighted by 26.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in Luxembourg in 2016. He’s currently boys head basketball coach at Midland High (Texas).
Mary “Roonie” Scovel
At the center of the storied Paxton-Laurel Hill rivalry was Scovel, who called it “The Hatfields and McCoys.”
Scovel, a star on the Florida Gators women’s basketball team from 1980-84, began her high school coaching career at Paxton after an assistant role at Auburn. Soon after, she’d leave for a seven-year tenure at Laurel Hill, where she led the Hoboes to a state title in 1995 and a state runner-up finish in 1996 before being named head women’s basketball coach at Gulf Coast State.
Scovel won her first NJCAA Division I national title in 2003, followed by titles in 2008, 2010, 2016, 2017 and 2019. In addition to the six national titles, Scovel won 18 Panhandle Conference championships, 13 region championships, six NJCAA National Coach of the Year honors and finished with an overall winning record of 646-91. She retired in 2022 after 25 seasons.
Kaunda Williams
Williams helped lead theLaurel Hill girls basketball team to back-to-back state championship appearances in 1995 and 1996, winning it all in 1995. She then followed Scovel to Gulf Coast State, where she led the Commodores two years in scoring and in 1998 was named NJCAA Division 1 Player of the Year after averaging 28.7 points per game and helping her team to a Region VIII title. Williams’ success continued at Alabama, where as a junior she averaged 10.8, 3.3 assists and 1.6 rebounds per game.