Clayton News Daily

By Brian Paglia

bpaglia@news-daily.com

Eddie Pratt knew he had been building and building toward the moment he would become a head coach. It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

The right place was where he's been all along. The right time was now.

Pratt, 36, was named the new Luella girls basketball coach after the departure of Greg Wilson, who coached the Lady Lions for seven seasons. Wilson left to become the new boys basketball coach at Locust Grove.

Pratt, who has been on the Lions' football staff as the passing coordinator since 2007, has previously been a head jayvee basketball coach at Berkmar for one season and two seasons at Luella. He took over a winless jayvee football team in 2007 to back-to-back Henry County jayvee championship appearances.

"(Luella) knew I had skills as far as leading a team or being a head coach," Pratt said. "It was just a matter of time."

Now, he takes over a girls basketball program that has made the Class AAAAA tournament three straight years in one of the state's toughest regions.

Luella will lose its two leading scorers in first-team All-Southern Crescent selection Breonna Moseley and second-teamer Karmen Gunn, who recently committed to Mercer.

"I think we're young, but we're young with a lot of talent," Pratt said. "We have some young players that can really make an impact on the program. ... One of my main focuses this year is to make the team a family and doing the things we need to do to take care of one another and play together."