The Suffield Academy basketball team had never staged a dunk contest until coach Rick Dennison, brainy first-year math teacher and former brawny Denver Broncos linebacker, gathered his private Connecticut prep schoolers in that small gymnasium back in 1992.
"These kids couldn't even touch the net," laughed Dennison, now 61 and trying to help the Vikings rise higher offensively as their new line coach and run game coordinator.
"They looked at me like I was crazy. 'Why are we having a dunk contest?' I said, 'You got to visualize. You got to try. I want to see you jump as high as you can.