‘It truly is a dream come true’: Winthrop names Mark Prosser as new basketball coach
Mark Prosser will be back on the Winthrop bench starting with the 2021-22 men’s basketball season — this time as the Eagles’ new head coach.
Prosser, the 42-year-old son of the late, legendary head coach Skip Prosser, was officially hired as Winthrop’s head basketball coach Friday. It’s Mark Prosser’s third head coaching job of his career.
“It truly is a dream come true to be back in the Rock Hill community, and we certainly look forward to getting to work as soon as possible,” Prosser said Friday in a news conference on Winthrop’s campus. “I’m honored to stand before you today to continue the tradition that’s been laid here for years and years. You know, we were talking a little bit: It seems as though it’s hard for Winthrop coaches to leave. Sometimes they come back in minutes. Sometimes they come back in a couple days.
“It took us about three years to get back, but it was well worth it.”
Prosser, who was joined on Friday on-stage by returning players DJ Burns and Micheal Anumba, was an assistant coach at Winthrop under now-gone Pat Kelsey (who left Winthrop last week for College of Charleston) for six years before being hired at Western Carolina in March 2018. Kelsey at the time called Prosser’s move to Western Carolina “a grand slam hire. ... He is a terrific basketball mind who is highly respected in our profession. He has been an integral part of our success here at Winthrop. Those that know Mark like I do would all agree.”
Most of Prosser’s coaching staff at WCU — Tony Rack, Brett Ferguson, Mitchell Hill — were assistant coaches with him at Winthrop before he moved to Cullowhee, North Carolina. (His video assistant, Matt Erps, was a walk-on player at the Rock Hill school while Prosser was there, too.)
Prosser is Winthrop’s sixth head coach since becoming a Division I program in 1987. He’ll succeed Steve Vacendak (1986-92), Dan Kenney (1993-98), Gregg Marshall (1998-2007), Randy Peele (2007-12) and Kelsey (2012-2021).
With Prosser, all but two of those coaches did not have D1 head coaching experience before taking the Winthrop mantle. This is also the first time Winthrop has hired a sitting Division I head coach.
“We know you’re going to thrive here,” Winthrop president George Hynd said Friday to Prosser.
Prosser was briefly head coach at Division II Brevard College before joining Kelsey’s staff at Winthrop. He also coached under Mike Young at Wofford College and for Pat Flannery at Bucknell University.
He is a native of Wheeling, West Virginia and played at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Prosser is 42-76 overall as a head coach. His best year at Western Carolina was 19-12 over the 2019-20 season. He was 37–53 overall with the Catamounts.
Ken Halpin offered The Herald insight into his hiring selection at Friday’s news conference.
“Those three candidates really rose,” he said, in reference to former Winthrop assistant Justin Gray, Tennessee assistant Desmond Oliver (who recruited Winthrop star Burns to Tennessee) and Prosser — those who were understood to be final candidates for the job. “A big reason is, our guys voiced somebody who really understands our guys and our culture.”
Prosser’s contract has not been finalized yet, Halpin told The Herald.
What team will the next coach be inheriting?
It’s no secret that Winthrop’s roster has changed since Kelsey announced his departure a week ago.
Three players — Adonis Arms, Charles Falden and Josh Corbin — have entered the transfer portal. Big South Player of the Year Chandler Vaudrin reportedly will forego his final season and enter the NBA Draft. (All of these players have the option to return to Winthrop.)
And most recently, a Winthrop signee who was part of the 2021 class, Reyne Smith, announced that he’ll be following Kelsey to the College of Charleston instead of descending on Rock Hill. The university let him out of his national letter of intent, Smith told The Herald Thursday.
When asked how he’ll handle the roster being in flux this offseason, Prosser told The Herald after the press conference that the issue was a priority for him and his staff. His hiring might even be advantageous for Winthrop in this respect because he recruited many of the players now at the Rock Hill school.
“I meant what I said: We’re going to recruit the guys,” he said through a mask with Winthrop’s emblem on. “You know, if you’re two feet out the door, there’s nothing we can do. But if you’re like sorta testing the waters, and only have one out the door, we’re absolutely going to make every effort to get those guys back.”
Even with the expected lineup attrition, though, Winthrop’s expectation to be a perennial power in the Big South Conference will be unchanged: The Eagles have won Big South Conference tournament titles two years in a row and have made 11 NCAA tournament appearances since 1999.
Mark Prosser’s record as Western Carolina head coach
- 2018-19: 7-25
- 2019-20: 19-12
- 2021-21: 11-16
Prosser was 5-23 in one season at Brevard.
This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 11:51 AM with the headline "‘It truly is a dream come true’: Winthrop names Mark Prosser as new basketball coach."
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