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Basketball playoff coaching tree has roots in Anne Arundel
Basketball playoff coaching tree has roots in Anne Arundel
As Pete Corriero, Josh Pratt and Mike Glick headed out for their respective basketball games last Friday night, they all hoped for the best for not only themselves, but also their two friends.
When they gathered together later that night, they were all region champions.
"What a great feeling. We had just won and my assistant coaches told me Josh and Pete had also won," said Glick, who will lead Gwynn Park against New Town on Friday in the Class 2A state semifinals. "I was just overjoyed, and then instantly we said, 'Where are we meeting?'"
Corriero (Meade), Pratt (Huntingtown) and Glick are three of the 16 boys basketball coaches in the state who will participate in the state semifinals on Thursday and Friday at the University of Maryland's Xfinity Center.
Though they're now on their own with different sets of assistant coaches, they can each attribute their success to the fact that they've crossed paths with the other two.
It all started way back in the early 90s, when Pratt played for Glick at Montgomery College. When Glick took a job at St. Vincent Pallotti, he asked Pratt to be his assistant. The pair stayed together and moved on to Archbishop Spalding, then Pratt was hired by Dave Lanham to lead St. Mary's.
Enter Pete Corriero.
As a 21-year-old just out of college and interested in coaching, Corriero emailed Pratt inquiring about an opening at St. Mary's. Pratt told Corriero to come in to talk, and the two were working together shortly after. Pratt decided to take a job at Towson Catholic, and with Corriero not interested in joining him, Pratt suggested Glick hire Corriero at Gwynn Park.
"Josh called me and said I have a great young coach who could be your junior varsity coach. The best thing I've done was hire Pete," Glick said. "He was with me for two years and we went to the state final four. Pete helped lay the foundation of the program."
Corriero eventually landed at Meade and has gone 111-60 in seven seasons. After three straight sub-.500 seasons, Corriero's teams won 17 games each of the next two seasons and have gone 48-5 the last two years and won the state title in 2015. With two more wins this year, he would become the first public-school county coach to win back-to-back state titles and just the second to win multiple championships, joining Southern's Tom Albright.
Pratt, a Crofton resident, just led Huntingtown to a school-record 21 wins and the first region title in school history. The Hurricanes will face C. Milton Wright in a Class 3A state semifinal in the first game of the state tournament on Thursday afternoon.
Pratt began his coaching career in 1993 as a junior varsity head coach and assistant varsity coach under Glick at Pallotti. He followed Glick to Archbishop Spalding, where he coached and helped develop current NBA star Rudy Gay.
Lanham gave Pratt his first varsity head coaching job at St. Mary's, where Pratt stayed for a year before moving on to Towson Catholic. He coached the Owls for four years and won two Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference titles and a Baltimore Catholic League title. He coached a host of Division I prospects at Towson Catholic, including Donte' Greene, who played at Syracuse before getting drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2008.
Following the closing of Towson Catholic, Pratt returned to Pallotti and was the head girls coach for four years before taking the Chesapeake Science Point job in 2013. He moved on to Chesapeake for a year before taking over at Huntingtown.
Glick is in his 10th year at Gwynn Park and has gone 175-73 with four region titles and an appearance in the state final. He has a 457-210 overall record as a head coach.
While Glick's resume speaks for itself, he is certainly proud of his two former assistants who will join him the next few days in quests for state titles.
"The job that Pete has done at Meade has been remarkable. I've never been more proud of any of my assistants," Glick said. "Josh is a phenomenal coach and he's rebuilt more than one program. We knew he was walking into a very good situation with a lot of support. I'm just so proud of Josh and it does not surprise me at all what he's done."
The three coaches brought their team together for a scrimmage prior to the season. With victories in their semifinals, they would play consecutively in their respective state finals on Saturday.
"The circle is definitely intertwined, but it's a heck of a tree," Corriero said. "I'm sure Mike is very proud of his two former JV coaches. One is a state champion and the other is a region champ."
If all three teams — or even any of them — were to reach the ultimate goal of a state title, Glick will definitely text the other two wondering where to meet to celebrate.
"I'm really happy for Pete and Josh. They're both great coaches," Glick said. "If there was some way we could all get a state championship, that would be the memory of a lifetime."
