Administration Thinks it is a Slam Dunk
Hunter Langley, Luke Randall, Tibebe Gebiso
The T.C. Williams boys basketball program has struggled in the past years, recently letting go of former head coach Brett Sullivan and prior years head coach Brian Hill due to coaching issues. After the firing of Brett Sullivan, Athletic Director James Parker hired former college assistant coach Darryl Prue.
Prue was introduced by Georgetown basketball coaching legend John Thompson III at the T.C. press conference. Thompson not only recruited Prue but made him part of his coaching staff after Prue’s playing career.
This comes two weeks after Parker hired the girls’ new coach Lisa Willis, a former NBA and Team USA player. In the past month, Parker has brought two high profile coaches in to lead the basketball teams.
Prue grew up in Southeast D.C. and is a basketball legend in the District know for playing at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. He averaged 23 points and 17 rebounds per game. Prue also carried his team to a number 1 ranking in his junior season for Dunbar.
He was recruited by Georgetown but opted to play at West Virginia instead. At West Virginia he averaged over 10 points and six rebounds a game. He was first team all-conference twice and Prue was an honorable mention for all American.
He played internationally in Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, Israel, Slovakia, and Korea. He was able to win 3 different championships in the process. After bouncing around in the international circuit for over a decade he eventually decided to stop playing basketball and went on to pursue his coaching career
After working on the Georgetown and Morgan State college staffs, he started coaching in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) for Team Takeover. AAU is a competitive youth basketball circuit and Team Takeover is one of the best teams in the Washington D.C. area. Along with coaching AAU, he has been a personal coach for multiple NBA players such as Washington Wizards forward Jeff Green, Toronto Raptors center Greg Monroe, and former Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert.
Prue plans to instill a toughness and maturity into the basketball team in multiple ways. Through physical toughness from conditioning and strength training and through mental toughness and maturity as education is one of the most important things for his plan. Prue said, “We are going to coach you hard. I’m very fair and very honest, sometimes to a fault.”
He plans on implementing study halls around practice in order to check in and keep his players on top of their grades and holding them accountable. Prue said, “If you’re late for class, late for school, not doing your work, you will have a six am run. I am very big on it.”
Brian Latimer a father whose son played for coach Prue said, “The study hall made me fall in love with this coach, we would have study halls between games. Even in the hotel rooms, there would be group study groups were they’re all helping each other. What coach Prue did was change the projection my son was on.”
After juggling basketball coaches for the past few years, T.C. administration thinks they finally have the right man for the job. Only the test of time can prove if the decision is the right one. James Parker said, “The past is the past, but this is a new era for T.C. basketball.”
