Impact Of A Scholarship: Christy Winters Scott

Christy Winters Scott will never forget the first time she tried out for her high school basketball team at South Lakes in Reston, Virginia. 

Her school fielded varsity and JV teams but not a freshman team. As a lengthy 6-foot-1, 130-pound freshman, she figured it would be unlikely for her to make the varsity team, so she made it a goal to make the JV roster. 

“As a freshman, I'm thinking I got to be on that JV team,” Winters Scott said. “I looked on the door in the girls’ locker room at South Lakes where they posted it. … I was heartbroken when I didn't see my name on the JV team.” 

Winters Scott didn’t bother to look at the names listed under the varsity team. Her countenance melted away as she took several steps to her locker to change for gym class. She was met by her friends congratulating her. The joke wasn’t funny to her. 

“My name is not on the wall,” she said. “They were like, ‘Oh no, yes it is. Come here.’ They dragged me back over to the door. … I started jumping around. I had no idea that I made the varsity team.”

Winters Scott had accomplished what she didn’t think was possible. However, her career at South Lakes got off to a rocky start. 

In her freshman year, her team was playing in the district semi-finals. They trailed by two points with seven seconds left, and she was fouled. Winters Scott admitted she wasn’t a great free-throw shooter then, and it didn’t help that the other team called a timeout once she stepped up to the line.

Winters Scott was instructed to make the first and intentionally miss the second free throw, hoping to grab the offensive rebound and score the go-ahead bucket. She did her routine and missed the first one. South Lakes then called a timeout, and she returned to the line. 

“I didn't do my rhythm or anything because that would assist me in making it,” Winters Scott recalls. “I just went up there, the ref handed me the ball and I threw it up there. It went straight in.”

To add injury to insult, Winters Scott got a cramp in her leg as the other team inbounded the ball. Her man ran the length of the court, caught the ball and dribbled out the clock. Her team lost by one point. 

“It was just this litany of horribleness as a freshman,” Winters Scott “Everything just went wrong.”

The start of Winters Scott’s high school basketball career couldn’t be a less accurate representation of how the rest of her career unfolded. She won a state championship as a senior in 1986, going a perfect 29-0 while being named All-Met Player of the Year. She totaled 1,785 points, 1,075 rebounds and 492 blocks for her high school career and was inducted into South Lake’s Hall of Fame in 2006.

She went on to play basketball at the University of Maryland from 1986-90 as a forward. Winters Scott became one of the greatest players in Maryland women’s basketball program history, leaving as its second all-time leading scorer with 1,679 points and fourth leading rebounder (723) and shot blocker (91). 

Winters Scott was named First Team All-ACC and Kodak All-East Region as a senior in 1990. She also played on two ACC Championship teams in 1988 and 1989, including a Final Four squad in 1989. The forward was named to the ACC’s All-Tournament team in 1988 and 1990 and even the conference’s 50th Anniversary Team.

The Terp great says she often reflects on her Maryland career, especially during NCAA Tournament time. 

“Every March, most definitely, I reflect,” Winters Scott said. “Every time I hear the March Madness music and one shining moment, it's like every time I just go right back.” 

Winters Scott was highly recruited as a prospect, receiving hundreds of letters from various schools nationwide. She chose Maryland because of its welcoming spirit. 

She remembers watching Maryland play USC during a tournament at Cole Field House on Nov. 30, 1985. The Trojans bested the Terps, as Cheryl Miller scored 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Winters Scott looked up to Miller and met her and Maryland men’s basketball star Len Bias at the game. 

However, her decision to go to Maryland wasn’t solidified until she officially visited campus during the fall of her senior year. Winters Scott’s host was Monica Gannon, a forward on the women’s team from 1982-86. The pair, amongst others, shared one particular moment that caused tons of laughter. 

“We were up late, laughing and talking about stuff, and I was asking a lot of questions, but we went to the football game, and we're all sitting in the student section,” Winters Scott said. “I guess it got a little rowdy, and I got hit in the head with a plastic cup. The sound of that sent me over the edge laughing, and everyone else was laughing. But it was like I could be myself.”

Of all the memories Winters Scott created at Maryland, one moment during her junior year in 1989 stands above the rest. In Austin, the Terps beat Texas, 79-71, to advance to the Final Four. With 22 seconds left, Winters Scott grabbed a rebound and was fouled, earning a trip to the free-throw line. 

It was her first trip to the charity stripe all game, yet she sank both free throws to make it a three-possession game. The two points proved to be a key contributor to Maryland’s victory. 

“Being on the line as a junior that year, making the free throws and not being the reason that we lost, but being part of the reason we won just meant a lot to me personally,” Winters Scott said. “Those free throws could have been in the first quarter but were down the stretch.”

Winters Scott often uses the moments at the free-throw line from her high school and college days as teaching moments.  

“I internalized the fact that it was my fault in high school, and I was never going to let it be my fault again,” Winters Scott said. “Every summer camp, I tell kids it's not when it happens. When you have the opportunity, you better seize it anyway. It's just all these things that retrospectively, you flash forward.” 

Winters Scott was inducted into the Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006, several months after the Terps’ national championship win. She was also inducted into the Washington, D.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2022. She didn’t just flash forward. She gleamed onward toward permanent enshrinement.  

She thanked the Maryland donors who helped make everything possible, especially those who paid for her scholarship when Title IX shortcomings were prominent.  

“I’m just grateful for the opportunity to compete and play the game that I love so much and to have that unified Terrapin love and pride,” Winters Scott said. “We went out and played with that because of what they were able to provide for us at that time.”

Winters Scott graduated from Maryland with a communication degree. During her final semester, she interned with “The George Michael Sports Machine,” a TV show on NBC from 1984-2007. However, an opportunity to play basketball overseas surfaced. 

As a 22-year-old, Winters Scott played professionally in Pistoia, Italy, alongside Michelle Edwards. Together, they were the only two English-speaking players on the roster. Winters Scott played in Italy for a year before spending another year playing in Fribourg, Switzerland. 

Winters Scott returned to the United States one summer, where she spoke at a basketball camp at George Washington University. In 1993, she joined the Patriots’ coaching staff as an assistant. At the time, she was just 23 and had walked away from playing basketball. However, her initial stint didn’t last long, as it was still in her heart to continue playing basketball. 

“I kept questioning myself,” Winters Scott said. “I started getting mad with myself for making that decision and stepping away from playing because I still wanted to play. It was killing me to sit there. I remember I was sitting there with the late Anne Donovan.”

Donovan swayed Winters Scott to continue playing, so she returned to Switzerland for a second year. She averaged 37 points and 12 rebounds per game that season. She even dropped a career-high of 48 points while competing in the Euro Cup. 

Winters Scott simultaneously began putting together her resume. After three years between two stints overseas, she returned to the U.S. for good, where she also returned to George Washington’s staff. She was also producing The Roundball Report on CTV 76 in Maryland. 

The former Terp remained on staff at George Washington until 1997. She received a call from her former head coach at Maryland, Chris Weller, who offered her a job at her alma mater. From 1997-2002, Winters Scott was an assistant on the Terps’ staff tasked with recruiting and assembling opponent scouting reports. She also continued doing cable access shows on the side.  

After a brief stint as an assistant at Georgetown from 2004-05, Winters Scott accepted a position as South Lakes’ head coach. The team was 0-21 the year before her arrival, yet she turned the program around in just four seasons. After improving year over year, South Lakes went 19-4 in 2009. Winters Scott was named Liberty District Coach of the Year. 

South Lakes later qualified for the Virginia State Tournament in 2013 with a 24-6 record. It was the school's first trip to the state tournament since Winters Scott won the state championship as a player in 1986. She was recognized as the “Women In Sports” Coach of the Year, an honor recognizing her as the top female coach in any sport in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Winters Scott coached at South Lakes for 15 years. She stepped down to focus on her family and her broadcasting career.  

“My time at South Lakes was very special to me, especially being a coach of my alma mater in that way,” Winters Scott said. “But the bonus of all that is the 40 years after the four years that I have with those kids and who they become because of it.” 

Winters Scott became the new Wizards studio host in 2012. She called collegiate men's and women's basketball games on Comcast SportsNet. She still broadcasts college basketball games, Mystics TV games and Wizards games. Her love and desire for working in media started when she was young. 

“It goes back to when I was six years old, and I begged my parents to get Sesame Street,” Winters Scott said. “I wanted them to call and get me on there. … I wanted to be around all the Muppets and all the people. They look like they're having so much fun.”

Winters Scott lives today with her husband, Jerome Scott. They have three children: Jerome, Brianna and Jordan. Brianna is a senior at Georgetown, and Jordan is a senior at South Lakes. 

Despite everything since Winters Scott left College Park in 1990, she still has immense Maryland pride. She regularly returns to the campus, often calling games at the XFINITY Center for the Terps. 

“I’m Christy Winters Scott, and I have Maryland pride,” she said.