Lebron James. Patrick Ewing. Ace Flagg.
Each of these players has won at least three high school basketball championships. James won three state titles at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio, plus a national title. Ewing won his three at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Massachusetts. But among this specific trio, only Flagg can claim the feat of winning them in three different states.
Flagg and his twin brother, Cooper, helped lead Nokomis High School to a Maine state championship in 2022, and later helped Florida-based Montverde Academy win in the Chipotle Nationals. Ace Flagg also put in an MVP performance for Montverde’s prep team on the way to a Sunshine Independent Athletic Association state title.
Ace Flagg then added another title in February by helping to lead Greensboro Day School to a North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association 3A state championship.
Flagg has made a habit of winning championships, helping a third school in a third state win yet another title to close out his storied high school career. But has he also made history?
That last part has been less clear, so the Bangor Daily News reached out to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Federation of State High School Associations to see if they were aware of any other basketball player winning three championships in three different states.
The answers in each case could be colorfully summarized using a particular Maine saying: Hard telling, not knowing. In other words — it’s tough to know for sure.
A historian from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame couldn’t say with any confidence whether Flagg is the first to accomplish this feat, citing too many variables involved. Between the more than 125-year history of the sport, the fact that it is played across the country at so many different classes and levels, and in categories for both boys and girls, the historian did not think it would be possible to document something like this.
A representative from NFHS called Flagg’s accomplishment “really interesting.” The NFSH is a national organization that works with state associations across the country to advocate for, promote and regulate high school athletics. For example, the NFHS helps establish playing rules for high school sports, and also maintains a National High School Sports Record Book that highlights interscholastic athletic achievements.
“Individual state championships are not tracked by the NFHS, nor are we aware of anyone who has won three state championships in three different states,” said Chris Boone, the NFHS assistant director of publications and communications.
Boone added that NFHS is “fairly certain” that this specific achievement is not likely to happen among NFHS state associations due to transfer and eligibility rules. As Boone noted, Montverde and Greensboro Day don’t compete in the NFHS state associations in Florida and North Carolina, respectively, at least not for basketball. The NFHS state association in Maine is the Maine Principals’ Association.
As the perspectives from these two prominent sporting organizations show, it is hard to know for sure whether Flagg has done something completely unprecedented with his championships in three states. But there aren’t any immediate examples of it happening before that jump right out, either. If readers are aware of any such example, please feel free to share it with me at [email protected].
The history here may be murky, but the impressiveness is clear. Cooper Flagg summed it up succinctly when asked about his brother’s most recent state title, as seen in a video from FOX College Hoops.
“Just proud of him,” Cooper Flagg said in February after he and the Duke Blue Devils beat Illinois at Madison Square Garden. “He got three state championships in three different states through his high school career, so that’s pretty cool.”
Ace Flagg will begin his college career at the University of Maine next season.
