Prezelski honored at Forest City alumni game

BY ASHLEY TEATUM, Times-Shamrock Writer

Every player taking warmup shots before Forest City Regional High School’s first alumni basketball game Wednesday night had contributed in some way to their alma mater’s rich basketball history.

The school’s top two leading scorers.

Members of the 1,000-point club.

Former team captains and league champions.

But above all they were there for one man: legendary coach Julius Prezelski.

Although the gym has already been named after him, Prezelski’s impact on theForestCityprogram now is displayed more prominently.

Two decals were revealed on opposite ends of the gym floor that read “Julius P. Prezelski Gymnasium,” accompanied by “757” – the number of victories to which he led the Foresters before his retirement in 1993.

“The first thing I think about is the lives he impacted as a coach and an educator,”ForestCityboys basketball coach Billy Jones said. “We’re all here to win, but in the grand scheme of things, we’re here to teach kids life lessons.

“There’s probably not a player that he’s coached that doesn’t think of him at least once a day.”

Before the game, Prezelski, 84, sat on a corner of the gymnasium bleachers as a steady stream of spectators and old friends and faces stopped to speak with their former coach.

He took the time to talk with each person, shaking hands and laughing much before he had to take up his duties as Gold team coach for the evening.

“I played all four years under him, and it was a great experience,” said the school’s all-time leading scorer Jason Maile, who finished with 2,473 points and went on to play at theUniversityofPittsburgh. “He’s a great coach and a great person. He was more of a father figure, a guy that would take you under his wing but work you.

“He wanted to bring out the best in you. He got to know all the players and know their roles, and I think that’s what made him successful.”

But Prezelski said the real measure of his success was not the numbers – 19 seasons with 20 wins, 12 league championships, 13 district titles.

Instead, the evidence of his mark on Forest City was in the boys he coached.

“I think probably the biggest most outstanding thing was I had a lot of nice kids, and I could work with them,” Prezelski said. “They stuck with me.

“I was fortunate. I played for a period of time when the kids were really with me 100 percent.”

When the buzzer sounded to mark the end of warmups Wednesday night, Prezelski leaned all his weight on his cane and began to shuffle toward the Gold team’s bench.

“Time to get to work,” he said.

Some things never change.