By Allison Bourne-Vanneck
This article is reprinted online with permission from the Register & Bee. “Hargrave’s Prunty Up to the Test” first appeared January 5, 2008 in the Register & Bee. Allison Bourne-Vanneck is a special to the Register & Bee.
Hargrave coach Robert Prunty spent a good portion of his holiday season hovering over his computer and scanning the Internet for almost six hours a day. No, he wasn’t hunting down a Nintendo Wii on eBay.
“I’m actually scouting, and I’ve been on the Internet. I’m taking this very seriously,” Prunty explained. “It’s homework.”
Prunty has been preparing for perhaps the biggest test of his 15-year coaching career: his debut as head coach for the East team in today’s 2008 U.S. Army All American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. It’s considered the “Super Bowl” for the nation’s top high school football players.
“I’m a guy where if I get the opportunity, I’m going to seize the moment,” Prunty said.
And he’s seizing every second of it. Prunty’s already suiting up in game gear, like the black windbreaker they gave him last year as an assistant coach on the East team.
“Yeah I had this last year,” Prunty laughed bashfully as he runs his hand over last year’s game logo on his jacket. “I’m really excited.”
This traditional East versus West rivalry will showcase the nation’s top 84 high school football players live on NBC. The West leads the all-time series 4-3, and Prunty wants nothing more than for his elite East squad to even up the score.
“Losing,” Prunty said. “Is not an option.”
But Prunty also knows that in the grand scheme of it all, everyone is honored to just be selected for the game. According to Sportslink, the producer of the U.S. Army All American Bowl, the selection process starts in the spring, where over 4,000 players are interviewed and evaluated. Then the committee nominates the country’s top 400 true seniors to be considered for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. This year, Hargrave linemen Leon Mackey and Quinton Coples both received consideration, but Coples was the only Tiger chosen to participate in the game.
“It came down to Mackey and Coples. I thought both of them would get picked but we got one of them in, and I was happy about that,” Prunty said.
“(Coples is) a tough guy coming off the defensive end. He has long arms, and tremendous closing speed. So he can get the quarterback. He’ll be one of those guys that NBC will be talking about at the game.”
Coples is the second Hargrave player to be selected to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Current Southern Cal wide receiver Vidal Hazelton played in the 2006 game.
Athletic talent isn’t the only factor when it comes to bowl selection. According to Sportslink, all chosen players “must be in good standings with their schools and communities.”
“He’s an outstanding young man. He’s like a puppy, always trying to learn and getting his nose into stuff. I can’t think of another guy more deserving than Quinton to be in this game,” Prunty said proudly of his 6-foot-7, 235-pound “pup.”
On the field, there’s no “playtime” on Prunty’s watch. Coples said it’s Prunty’s toughness and high expectations that helped him bring his game to “another level.”
“He’s the man, he definitely knows what he’s doing,” Coples said. “He’ll go hard on you. He always strives to get the best out of you.”
Virginia Tech standout Brandon Flowers knows. The current Hokie also played under Prunty at Hargrave.
“Coach Prunty is a hard coach. He’s going to coach you to death,” Flowers said, with a knowing smile.
Still, however, Prunty can’t quite explain why they chose him as head coach of the East team.
“You know I really can’t tell you,” he chuckled. “I just thank God they thought enough of me. You know, I’m humble.”
Humility, he’ll tell you, came from his childhood days. Growing up, he was one of 10 kids who his mother raised. Instead of a coach, Prunty said he looked up to his mother.
“My mother was raising 10 kids and my father was deceased,” Prunty said. “She showed me how to take nothing and make it something. She showed me how to pray and not be ashamed. I saw her sacrifice everything, for us. The good lord and growing up with my mother, were the key components in my life, and that’s what got me through.”
And then there was his own senior year at Hargrave Military Academy, which the 1983 graduate described as “tough.”
“Hargrave was a key ingredient in my matriculation in life,” he said.
From it all, two more ingredients have risen to the top of Prunty’s pot: passion and perseverance. It’s how he helped Gretna High School football break a 44-game losing streak in 1996. It’s how he continues to groom the nation’s rising football stars at Hargrave.
But if you ask Prunty, coaching isn’t his calling. “It’s my ministry,” he said.
