Josh Pratt had a successful run as the head coach of the boys' basketball team at Towson Catholic High School (Baltimore, Md.) and hopes to transfer that success to his new role as the head coach of the girls' basketball team at St. Vincent Pallotti (Laurel, Md.).
Who is the Owls new coach?
Pratt's successor at Towson Catholic is Baltimore legend Reggie Williams -- a 1983 Dunbar of Baltimore Prep All-American who went on to star at Georgetown University and the NBA. Williams coached at Jericho Christian Academy in suburban Washington DC last year.
"I feel like I'm leaving Reggie Williams a pretty good situation at TC," Pratt said. "They return eight juniors and some really nice younger players. I'm real proud of what we accomplished these last four years at TC and I think we are leaving the program in pretty good shape."
-- James Quinn
Pratt was an assistant coach for Mike Glick on the Pallotti boys' team from 1993 to 1998, when Glick had the Panthers at the top of the ultra-competitive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). Pallotti is now a member of the Baltimore-based Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference.
"I'm really excited about this job. I'm really anxious to get things going here. I like the school, the school is doing real well and I actually inherited some good players," Pratt told ESPNRISE.com. "The school is very supportive of the program, the alumni and parents are behind it. I think we can build a real good program and I think we can be pretty good in a fairly short period of time."
Pratt inherits a solid nucleus from last season's Panthers, including 6-foot-3 Chizoba Ekedigwe, 6-foot Tiffany Padgett and Brittany Davis.
"Coaching girls instead of boys will be a little different. I will have to change my approach and coaching style a bit, but it's still coaching basketball," Pratt said. "The idea is getting the players to be the best they can be and to get them playing together. We are in a summer league and we have already had a few practices. The girls seem really anxious to learn and work together."
Pratt built a successful résumé while head coach at Towson.
In Pratt's four years as the Towson head coach, Towson Catholic went 98-40 and won two MIAA A titles and a Baltimore Catholic League (BCL) championship.
Pratt helped develop Donte Greene, who went on to play at Syracuse University and in the NBA.
"I feel like we had a really good run in the four years I was at TC," Pratt said. "We had some really great teams, had some great players like Donte and Malcolm Delaney. To come in as a young coach replacing a great veteran coach like coach [Mike] Daniel and to do as well as we did, well, I'm pretty happy with what we accomplished here. The second year I was here [2007] and we were ranked No. 1, you never forget years like that."
Pratt is excited about the prospect of building a top girls' basketball program at Pallotti and returning to the high school where his coaching career started.
James Quinn covers high school basketball for MDVarsity.com.
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