Basketball at Saint Stephen’s has been on an upward trajectory and the 2023-24 Falcons will look to
continue that trend. After not posting a winning record for seven consecutive seasons, the Falcons have
now done so in five of the past seven campaigns and are coming off their deepest post-season run ever.
The 2022-23 Falcons (21-8) were the surprise of the winter season, winning just the second district title
in school history and recording the program’s first-ever regional tournament win by topping St.
Petersburg Admiral Farragut in the quarterfinals. It was a next step in the building process under third-
year Head Coach Matt Fletcher. A former assistant, Fletcher took over in 2021-22 and was just 9-14, but
the Falcons won four of their final six games and reached the district tournament championship to set
the path forward.
After a long stretch of futility, the Falcons began establishing a winning culture during the 2017-18
season and eventually qualified for back-to-back post-season bids, their first since 1999. The 2017-18
campaign produced the school’s first regional playoff berth in nearly two decades and the Falcons
hosted a regional game for the first time ever in 2019.
SSES was a combined 36-16 from 2017-19 and lost just one regular-season district game during that
stretch (19-1). The climb reached its summit in 2018-19, when the Falcons went undefeated in district
play and won the first district tournament championship in school history. Their 21-6 campaign created
hoops hysteria like never before on campus. As the defending district champs, Saint Stephen’s will look
to continue that winning trend this season.