Signature Tournaments
Experience the Spirit
In addition to more than 800 games, matches, and meets, St. Stephen's and St. Agnes hosts six signature athletic events each year.
The excitement kicks off in the fall with the Seminary Hill Cup, an all-girls athletic competition between our Saints and Episcopal High School, which we alternate hosting. In the winter, Saints gear up for the highly anticipated Sleepy Thompson Boys Basketball Tournament in December, kick off the holiday season with one of the area’s longest running wrestling events, the Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament, and ring in the new year with the Girls Invitational Basketball Tournament. In April, we welcome some of the best teams in the country to participate in our Girls Lacrosse Spring Fling, and in May we host the Draper Track & Field Invitational. All these tournaments, except the Draper Track & Field Invitational, are supported by the Saints Athletics Club.
These tournaments bring more than 1,000 student-athletes to our campus from our region and around the nation to participate, as well as families, students, faculty, and other fans to witness and cheer on their teams in these spirited events.
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THE SEMINARY HILL CUP
Founded in 2008, the Seminary Hill Cup (SHC) is a spirited competition between the St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes and Episcopal High School girls’ varsity and junior varsity teams.
In Pursuit of the Cup
The schools compete for a total of 10 possible points throughout a total of 10 different contests. One point is awarded to the winner of each individual team contest and half a point is awarded for a tie. If point totals are tied at the end of the overall competition, the Cup is awarded to the school that has recorded the most varsity wins (up to five possible) in the competition. SSSAS and EHS take turns hosting the Seminary Hill Cup, alternating campuses each year. The Saints hold a slight lead in the Cup standings with eight victories, while Episcopal have claimed seven. The 10th Cup ended in the only tie in the history of the tournament.
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THE SLEEPY THOMPSON BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
Hosted by the Saints Athletics Club, the Sleepy Thompson Boys Basketball Tournament is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year.
Started by beloved and revered Coach Albert L. "Sleepy" Thompson (1925-1992) in 1957, the Sleepy Thompson Boys Basketball Tournament is the oldest SSSAS tournament supported by the Saints Athletics Club, and one of the region's most prestigious high school basketball events. Sleepy Thompson came to St. Stephen’s School in 1952 and remained connected to the school for the next 40 years in many roles including coach, teacher, and director of athletics. By the time Coach Thompson retired from coaching the varsity basketball team in 1972, he had racked up 307 wins, including four IAC titles, three SSS tournament trophies, and several years in the area's top 20.
It wasn’t just the big numbers that made Coach Thompson great. It was loyalty with open-mindedness, discipline with humor, competitiveness with sportsmanship, honesty with understanding, and a host of other qualities that combined to make him the consummate role model.
The annual basketball tournament, now named in honor of Coach Thompson, reflects those values in many ways. There is always a competitive field of teams who conduct themselves with honor. There is always a loyal crowd of fans for what is arguably our most vocal show of school spirit all year. There is always a group of hardworking parents and faculty volunteers handling a variety of jobs, including having fun selling food and drinks to basketball fans. It's a time for the Saints to show our best, in the name of a man who gave us his best.
The whole school rocks with spirit, as students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni look forward to the first Saints basketball on opening night, when tradition demands a hail storm of toilet paper be thrown. Fans of all the teams fill Goodwin Gym to enjoy competitive basketball in a friendly environment, where an atmosphere of sportsmanship and camaraderie prevails—as it has for nearly 70 years!
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HOLIDAY CLASSIC WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
The Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament is an all-day event packed with wrestling action taking place on two mats. This sports tradition is one of the longest-running wrestling tournaments in the Washington, D.C. area.
The mid-1970s produced some of the finest varsity wrestling teams at St. Stephen's. During the three wrestling seasons between 1976 and 1979, the varsity wresting team brought home three IAC Championships in a row (making it five in seven years) and won the school's first-ever state championship in the 1978-1979 season. The Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament was started in 1976 by St. Stephen's coaches, the legendary Herb Soles and Roger Barbee, to keep the wrestlers sharp over the long holiday break. It immediately became known as one of the area's toughest tournaments. This highly competitive wrestling tournament has been known to highlight state champions and All-American wrestlers from many different schools from the Washington Metropolitan Area.
There are some unique awards given at the tournament. The most prestigious is the Bucky Freeman Outstanding Wrestler Trophy, named after the former assistant coach in the early 1980s who also helped run the tournament. The Roger Barbee Team Champion Trophy is awarded to the team that scores the most points in the tournament. The most recently added award is named for a beloved SSSAS faculty member, the David Hooper Most Pins Award. Mr. Hooper gave 25 years of service to the school as a passionate history teacher and wrestling coach.
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GIRLS INVITATIONAL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
The Saints Athletics Club hosted the first Girls Invitational Basketball Tournament in 1995 and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the tournament in 2019. Each year, the Saints host three teams in this spirited, competitive, two-day event. A tough and exciting competition, the Saints have won the cup three of the 17 times they have gone to the finals. The Saints Athletics Club sells tournament T-shirts and food. Bring your family and friends to see all the action and join in the fun.
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GIRLS LACROSSE SPRING FLING
The Girls Lacrosse Spring Fling started in 1993 as a play day and developed into to one of the most competitive girls lacrosse events on the east coast.
Twelve talented teams from multiple states compete on all three of our Upper School athletic fields. The games are played according to U.S. Lacrosse rules (no shot clock), consist of two 25-minute halves, and two time-outs for each team per game. In the event of a tie, the teams play to sudden victory.
Girls Lacrosse Coach Kathy Jenkins joined the St. Agnes faculty as a P.E. teacher and coach in 1971, making her the longest serving employee at St. Stephen's and St. Agnes. The winningest high school girls lacrosse coach in the U.S., she launched the girls lacrosse program at SSSAS with the help of Coach Alix Fellows in 1976 and has been coaching lacrosse ever since. In addition to varsity lacrosse, she also coaches Middle School tennis, basketball and lacrosse, as well as JV tennis. She is the founder of Stars Lacrosse and helped start Capital Lacrosse Club, two popular travel teams.
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DRAPER INVITATIONAL TRACK & FIELD MEET
The annual Draper Track & Field Invitational always brings out exciting competition with more than 30 schools and hundreds of high school athletes participating from the Virginia-Maryland-Washington, D.C. area.
The Draper Invitational Track & Field Meet is named in honor of Major General Philip H. Draper, Jr. who generously contributed the six-lane, all-weather, 400-meter track to St. Stephen's school in 1981. General Draper, father of Anne Draper deCamp '56 and grandfather of David Newton '82 and Robert Newton '76, is a former athletic director and 1929 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
The track, dedicated in 1981, was the site of the first annual invitational track meet on April 30, 1982 under the direction of Athletic Director Albert L. "Sleepy" Thompson and Meet Director Jim Osuna.