LAKE WORTH – History has been made with Erik Pratt.
As Park Vista’s leading point guard for this past season, the born leader got a lot of things done in his senior year. Most importantly, he helped lead the Cobras to their first-ever Class 7A regional finals berth, which means his team was one game away from the FHSAA Boys Basketball State Series.
The 6-foot-4 guard was the District 11-7A Player of the Year, in addition to be named on the Palm Beach County Fab 5 list and the South Florida Top 50 list. He was also chosen as a FBCA All-State player in Class 7A.
This is only a few things that the forward thinker has accomplished on the high school level. And this is why he had several college basketball offers along the way, including the likes of ASA Miami, Albany College, Iowa Central, Queens University, and Seward College.
On June 24, Pratt chose to continue his basketball journey at Seward College, a JUCO based in Liberal, Kansas.
“Seward is one of the top JUCO programs in the country,” Pratt said. “I haven’t met my coach yet, but we speak on the phone almost every day. My relationship with the coaching staff is great.”
It is quite obvious that relationships matter greatly to Pratt, who built some lasting friendships with his now-former high school basketball teammates.
“Those are my guys for life,” Pratt said. “The relationships that I built with those guys are irreplaceable. All the adversity that we fought through together is insane and I cherished every moment.”
Pratt finished his senior season at Park Vista by averaging around 20 points per game, 6 assists per game, and 5 rebounds per game. He helped lead the Cobras to a 21-7 final record this past winter, which ended in the Class 7A-Region 3 finals with a 71-61 loss to Forest Hill on Feb. 28.
“Honestly I blame myself for that one,” Pratt said. “Not enough shots hit, and I needed to be more aggressive. I regret it, but I don’t kill myself about it. It’s the game of basketball and it happens. You make some and you miss some. And overall we played great. We just came up a little short.”
Pratt spoke on his District 11-7A Player of the Year honor.
“It felt great to know that all of the hard work that I put in over the course of the offseason paid off for me,” he said.
Pratt was quite complimentary of Markee James, his high school head coach who has been around the basketball coaching circuit for well over 10 years.
“He is the best coach I’ve ever had,” Pratt said. “He pushed me to the highest level every day and always gave me the highest expectations. He gave me the leadership role and trusted me 100 percent, even on my worst days. He played two roles in my life, the coach and the father figure. I couldn’t ask for a better coach.”
James shared his own thoughts on Pratt.
“He has been our clutch player all season long,” James said. “We went to him when we need him. He did everything he needed to do.”
Pratt is going to take his clutch mentality with him to Seward College and hope to do great things there. He will be leaving Palm Beach County for Seward College on August 13, the day he wants to start his mission of getting at least a 3.0 grade point average and at least win the school’s Player of the Year award.
Pratt also plans to parlay his JUCO time into a Division I scholarship opportunity and ultimately a chance to be in the NBA someday.
“I’m going to put the 561 on the map,” Pratt said. “I won’t settle for anything less.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Ronaldo Garcia, Morgan Waters, and Seward College
