Flint Hill and Potomac define the epitome of a classic rivalry

Throughout the history of any sport, the idea of a rivalry and intense competition constitutes a certain tempestuous level of passion. Everything is escalated when the rival’s colors strut through the door looking to undermine the home team’s confidence.

It’s this sense of hostility that captivates and enthralls audiences; one of the many reasons people watch sports. It may seem barbaric in theory: to pin athletes against each other for entertainment, but there is just an inequitable excitement within the sport that forces the viewer to return once more.

This spectacle can produce the greatest of moments. Players who shine brightest in these matchups are immortalized in team history. Sergio Aguero’s, Manchester City forward, goal in the 78’ minute against bitter rivals Manchester United designated the Argentinian as a fan favorite for years to come. Austin River’s buzzer-beater for Duke in 2012 against the University of North Carolina will forever last in the dreams of Blue Devils fans.

In Northern Virginia, or at least the Mid Atlantic Conference (MAC) and Independent School League (ISL), Flint Hill and the Potomac School portray this realistic aspect of sports.

This rivalry is rooted in a history of intense competition and exceptional results. Beginning in the early 1990s, after Flint Hill became an independent school and joined conferences with Potomac, there was an evident cutthroat attitude between the two schools.

In a previous article for the FHS view in 2013, speaking to now alum, Daniel Christian, Jim Fitzpatrick, who served as team captain of the Flint Hill varsity basketball team in 1995, discussed the friction between the two schools.

“The Flint Hill-Potomac rivalry was relatively new in the early-to-mid 1990s, but it certainly did not lack the intensity, passion, and excitement that the it still has to this day,” said Fitzpatrick in the article. “I remember being part of a standing-room-only, packed gymnasium over at the Potomac School when our team was ranked top-10 in the Washington Post. The crowd was electric, and with every possession in the game, we could feel the intensity rising.”

The resulting prior years have consistently produced seriously enticing and exciting matchups. Last-minute game winners and tense critically-altering performances have expounded this contest into more than just basketball and produced living legends in both communities.

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In the backdrop of an upper middle-class McLean neighborhood, an orange and blue wind-struck flag rests in front of a 90-acre campus. There is an ideal within the core of the school to ignite students towards achieving success, in any facet of life.

For Cullen Hamilton, former basketball and football student-athlete at The Potomac School, the atmosphere at the campus is a living history of his athletic achievement.

Hamilton said, “[Potomac students and staff] seem happy to see me aside from being an athlete. But I'm also glad that people appreciate my contributions as an athlete to a school that I love.”

A fourth team all-met selection, Hamilton reminisced about the desiring nature between the two schools.

“Both school communities were so passionate about the games that it made them very special,” said Hamilton. “Win or lose I always enjoyed competing against Flint Hill.”

In their January 2012 meeting, Hamilton electrified the home panther crowd for 26 points, 12 rebounds, and four steals en route to a 65-47 victory over the Huskies. In the game previous to his impressive outing, Hamilton had become Potomac’s all time leading scorer.

His dominance of the ball on offense threatened any opposition, especially Flint Hill’s, yet his mindset was steadfast.

"I never tried to do anything different actually,” said Hamilton. “I knew how big of a game it always was so I didn't want to do anything that would psyche me out. I just tried to be myself.”

Less than ten miles down the road resides arch-rival: the Flint Hill Huskies.

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As the two contentious schools met twice within the span of two weeks to renew hatred on the basketball court between January and February 2016, the animosity has not diminished; in fact, one might say it has grown over the years.

Rico Reed, varsity basketball coach and Upper School director, is grateful of his team’s understanding towards this rivalry.

“[The boys varsity basketball team] appreciated that they were competing in for more than the 14 guys in that locker room,” Reed said. “This was the history of the guys in our locker room versus the history of the guys in their locker room.

Reed tries to convey the weight of this enmity each time his team faces its school’s bitter adversaries.

“I would say the Potomac game has a different layer of intensity, a different level of importance,” he said. “Our goals are league championship, state championship, and somewhere in there, beat Potomac.”

The raucous commotion deeply entrenches each and every participant into the two schools’ brief but fabled chronicle.

“The atmosphere at a Potomac-Flint Hill basketball game is unlike anything I've ever experienced before,” said Jordan Taylor, Flint Hill senior. “The student section, fatheads, and hype all contribute to a great atmosphere.”

For Head Girls Varsity Basketball Coach, Jodi Patrick, there is a certain ineffable aspect to this matchup.

“[We ] don’t want to get caught up in the emotion of the rivalry,” said Patrick. “I didn’t have to get the [varsity girls basketball team] up at all…. This game always has a sense of emotion that is only evident in a rivalry game.”

She thinks that her girls are not more passionate, but instead more attentive to mistakes when it comes to matchups with the Potomac School Panthers.

“[The girls were] a little more focused on the attention to detail, but they always know there is very little margin for error against Potomac,” Patrick said.

Tori Herman, Flint Hill junior, and member of the girls team since freshman year, believes that this annual competition only adds a certain motivation to the players.

“With Potomac being our rivals, it only makes us want to win more,” she said. “We both have strong teams, so the games are tight and exciting.”

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On the hardened blue cement courts of Potomac, Arnav Boppudi, junior, performs his daily routine: a light 10 minute stretch followed by a group warm up. He presses his eye up against the metallic black fence, glancing towards his opponent: Potomac School junior Jason Kwak.

Kwak has a fabled history facing Flint Hill. In the MAC semifinals the previous year, the crowd’s verbal abuse of Devan Geib, Flint Hill junior, forced an early retirement from the Husky, even though Geib had taken the first set 6-4 and led 3-2 in the second.

Both teams relish matchups with the other, as they know the energy displayed will surpass that of any other match they will play that season.

Boppudi could not recall any wrongdoings that Flint Hill committed.

“We lose most of the time, so stepping on court makes each player motivated to perform their best in order to get the win for Flint Hill,” Boppudi said before the season. “Also I simply despise them. They always look to do something that isn't sportsmanlike, no matter what sport it may be, especially tennis. They are arrogant and I feel like this year our team will put them in place.”

Even though the junior's remarks proved false, as the Panthers soundly swept the Huskies 7-0 on April 12, the animosity between the two schools is obvious.

*Quotation from Reed was taken in February*