Josh Pratt has been named the new varsity girls basketball coach at Pallotti High. He takes over for Debbie Skelly, who resigned in April after 10 seasons. Pratt, a former assistant boys coach at Pallotti, has been the head boys hoops coach at Towson Catholic in the A division of the MIAA and coached several future Division I players, including Donte Green, who now plays for Sacramento in the NBA. "I thought long and hard about it," Pratt said May 19. "I think coaching is coaching. It is going to be a challenge." Pratt, who hopes to teach at Pallotti, was going to lose his teaching job at Towson Catholic. He was a teacher at St. Mary of the Mills in Laurel and was also a boys basketball coach at Spalding and St. Mary's of Annapolis. Pratt was one of three finalists for the spot, along with Chris Lesesne, an assistant under Skelly. The Pallotti girls are in the B division of the IAAM but Pratt hopes to eventually move the program to the top division. Pratt coached boys basketball at Pallotti from 1993-98 and was a varsity assistant under Mike Glick. Pratt joined Glick at Spalding as an assistant after Glick left Pallotti. See more at www.laurelleader.com