Husband-wife team leading Berlin

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December 17, 2006

By MIKE MASTOVICH The Tribune-Democrat Sun Dec 17, 2006, 12:40 AM EST

BERLIN — Pace Prosser is approaching his first birthday. Perhaps the Berlin toddler will receive a basketball as a gift.

Of course, Pace already has a head start on his dribble. That’s to be expected considering his parents, Tanner and Rachel Prosser, coach the Mountaineers boys and girls hoops programs, respectively.

“I think he’ll be a basketball player,” mom Rachel said. “We’ve got his hands moving already and dribbling a ball. When he sees a ball, he loves it.”

Coaching and basketball come naturally to the Prossers, who met at Grove City College, where both Tanner, 25, and Rachel, 24, played four seasons.

Tanner scored 1,263 points (fifth all-time), grabbed 801 rebounds (second all-time) and had 361 assists (first all-time). He was a forward for the Presidents Athletic Conference championship team as a junior.

Tanner and Rachel met when he was a senior and she was a sophomore playing both basketball and softball.

Rachel tallied 369 points, 267 rebounds, 168 assists and 129 steals in basketball and batted .276 in softball at Grove City.

“We both had good careers and had a good time playing,” said third-year Mountaineers coach Tanner, a native of Brentwood, outside Pittsburgh. “We both really enjoy basketball. We try to give the kids something they can enjoy and understand. We try to teach them.”

The Berlin boys are out to a 4-2 start. Last season, the Mountaineers finished 17-10, giving Prosser at 35-19 mark through his first two years.

“He is the best leader in my coaching career and one of the finest human beings I have ever met,” Grove City coach Steve Lamie said.

Rachel is a first-year head coach of the girls program after serving as an assistant last year. The Berlin girls are 2-3 this season.

“The thing about Rachel was you could never tell her value to the team by her stats,” said Grove City women’s basketball coach Melissa Lamie, who is part of a husband-wife college coaching tandem. “In basketball, she was the type of player who would dive on the floor for every loose ball. She was a hustler who got the absolute most out of her talents and set a positive example for the rest of the team.”

That approach has been a solid fit for Berlin.

“They’ve been great for the program,” Berlin Athletic Director Dave McCall said.

There have been adjustments while juggling Pace’s needs, work and coaching.

For a while, Tanner and the boys teams held early morning practices. Now, the husband and wife often pass each other as one practice ends and another is about to begin.

“We actually practiced at 6 a.m. most of the preseason,” said Tanner, who teaches Spanish at Berlin. “She had some time off. I’d come home after school and she’d come back to school. It really worked out good. We’ll see how it goes with the games starting. We have a lot of people willing to help out.”

Basketball and family are a winning combination for the Prossers.

“Our love for basketball and competition is what drew us to each other to begin with,” said Rachel, an Erie native. “I guess it’s just in our blood or something. We go home and we talk basketball all night until we go to sleep. I ask him for suggestions and he gives me input.”

That input almost certainly will be passed along to Pace.

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