Driven by Faith, Playing With Passion

For Herndon's Reynolds, Family, Religion Are the Ties That Bind

Scottie Reynolds is sitting in his parents' Herndon townhouse, talking about loyalty.

Reynolds is discussing his lifelong bonds with people who have thought of him as more than just one of the top high school basketball players in the country. To those who have received it, this loyalty, shaped by Reynolds's family and religion, becomes an integral part of their lives. One coach called him a "person placed on this earth for a purpose far greater than basketball." Another flew in from Chicago three weeks ago just to see Reynolds's last regular season home game as a senior at Herndon High School.

"Loyal to me is making sure you respect what others have done for you," Reynolds said. "It's a big part of a lot of things I do."

And Reynolds is holding a special place in his heart for one relationship he has not yet forged. In October, when he turns 19, Reynolds can go to his adoption agency and look up the file on his birth mother.

A quest for relationships, not scholarships, has defined Reynolds's outlook on basketball and life. Yet the scholarship, to the University of Oklahoma, comes as the product of an outstanding career at Herndon that has seen him score 2,231 points entering the third-ranked Hornets' Virginia AAA quarterfinal against Highland Springs of Richmond on Saturday. This season, he is third in the Washington area in scoring, averaging 27.3 points, and he became the first Northern Virginia public school player to make the McDonald's All-American team in 13 years.

As impressive as Reynolds's numbers are, Sooners Coach Kelvin Sampson said the 6-foot, 185-pound point guard's skills are just a part of what makes him great.

"I feel like I've known this kid my whole life," Sampson said. "I feel like I've already coached him."

Sampson seems poised to become just the latest coach to become Reynolds's confidant. Reynolds eschewed private schools in favor of Herndon because he trusted Hornets Coach Gary Hall, who was Reynolds's AAU coach in Northern Virginia when he was 10. That trust continued through a 2 1/2 -year stint in Chicago, where Reynolds's family moved when his father, Rick, was transferred. After Scottie finished eighth grade, Rick was reassigned to the Washington area and the family chose to live in Herndon so Reynolds could play for Hall in high school.

The first summer Reynolds lived in Herndon, he flew back to Illinois a couple times a month to play for the AAU team of his Chicago area coach John Maestranzi, who counts University of Illinois stars Dee Brown and James Augustine among his former players. Reynolds still spends a week at Maestranzi's house each summer.

"It was like coaching Michael Jordan," Maestranzi said. "He never really had a bad game."

Four weeks before visiting Maestranzi in the summer following his sophomore season at Herndon, Reynolds burst onto the national recruiting scene. He attended the prestigious ABCD basketball camp, entering as an unknown and leaving as the top-rated rising junior, ahead of players such as Greg Oden, a 7-foot center from Indiana now considered the top high school senior in the country.

From there, the recruiting letters and phone calls followed one after the other. Reynolds narrowed his choices and decided on Oklahoma. He orally committed last March, but wasn't set on his decision until a two-hour telephone conversation with Sampson that summer. After that, Reynolds had no doubt. Asked if he ever had a similar conversation with a recruit, Sampson said, "I can't remember a deeper one."