Football legend: Angelo Prassa
Photo Credit: courtesy of Betty O'Connor
Prassa celebrates after the '81 state championship
Jack Cameron
November 19, 2009
Filed under Sports
Angelo Prassa served as a coach, history teacher, dean of students and administrator for eight years at Bishop Kelley, and for many Kelley alumni,“Prassa” is more than just a name associated with the football field.
Prassa, a Chicago native, came to Tulsa to play college football for the University of Tulsa.
While Prassa was very passionate about Bishop Kelley, it is ironic that he was brought to Kelley from neighboring, rival Cascia Hall in 1975, where he had spent many years coaching.
In Prassa’s first year coaching at Kelley, he posted an impressive 10-2 record for a football program that had been struggling. That year he also faced his former team,Cascia Hall, and Prassa’s Comets came out victorious 32-7. This was the last game Prassa coached against his former school.
“I am sure it was hard for Prassa to coach against his former school, where he spent so much time coaching and teaching,” sports information director Mr. Dan Schmitz said.
Alumini Randy Heckenkemper (’76) played quarterback for the Comets and remembered Prassa as the most organized coach he ever had.
“As a coach he instilled in us the importance of being a team and recognized an individual’s performance as being set up by other team members. Through his coaching style, we were over-achievers my senior year going 10-2,” Heckenkemper said.
During his coaching career at Bishop Kelley, Prassa posted an overall record of 60-32 (with a winning percentage of 65 percent.) Prassa also coached the only football state championship team at Kelley. The 1981 Comets coached by Prassa, defeated Union 42-41 in the state semifinals, and defeated El Reno 33-6 in the 3A State Championship. After the ‘81 season, Prassa had a short retirement before coming back for one final season in ‘85.
After his retirement, Prassa stayed very involved in the Kelley community. He was involved in the Jr. Comet program, where he coached many of the Jr. Comet teams until he passed away in 2002. Prassa was also a follower of the high school team, attending a majority of the games.
“He was a very influential person in the community; he helped me get my first coaching job here at Kelley,” head football coach J.J. Tappana said.
While Tappana was looking for his first coaching job, he met Coach Prassa at an All-Star football game.
“I was introduced to him by one of his former players and one of my old friends. He looked me up and down at the game and told me to call Alan Weyland [former president-principal] and to mention his name, and I was able to set up an interview and got an assistant job coaching tight ends and defensive ends,” Tappana said.
It is easy to see from statistics and facts that Prassa was a superb coach, but the impression he left on his players went further than just wins and losses.
“It was my good fortune to have been so positively influenced by Coach Prassa. He taught you how to prepare yourself to win football games, which later translated into knowing how to be successful in other walks of life,” former Kelley running back and defensive back Ned St. Ville (’76) said.