Prep Hoopster Making Impact for SWOSU Footballers

September 12, 2005

Weatherford, Oklahoma - Southwestern Oklahoma State University has gotten its hands on a big-time playmaker at the cornerback position even if it was unknowingly and unplanned for at the start.

Sophomore Trent Pratt has emerged in two short games as one of the Bulldogs top defenders despite playing a position and a sport that was largely unfamiliar to him.

Pratt did not anticipate he would one day find himself wearing shoulder pads and a helmet, given that he was a basketball star at Texas’ Olney High School .

At Olney, located 200 miles straight south of Weatherford, Pratt was one of the state’s top scorers averaging 29.4 points per game and leading his squad into the regional playoffs.

A college basketball scholarship for Pratt seemed assured after initial interest from nearby Midwestern State , North Dallas Community College and even NCAA Division I Kansas Sate. Basketball signing date came and went and no such offers materialized for a 5-10 shooting guard.

Unsure of his collegiate future, Pratt phoned older brother, Chase, who for two years had been a star wide receiver with the Bulldogs under then coach Paul Sharp.

“I asked Chase to check if there was any chance of getting me some (financial) help to go to school there,” Trent said. “He said he’d talk to the coaches, but told me not to get too excited.”

A football scholarship was a long shot considering Trent had not played the sport until midway through his senior year at Olney.

Although his high school football credentials were considerable, even if limited at Olney – 1,027 yards and 17 TD’s as a running back – a five-game senior season, a 160-pound frame and his basketball prowess didn’t attract much notice from collegiate coaches.

Still Sharp liked what he saw and offered Trent a small scholarship to join his older brother on the Bulldog football team.

Pratt was moved to wide receiver and spent 2004 floundering as a third-stringer, playing in four games and catching three passes the entire season.

The Bulldogs went 1-9 and Sharp resigned clearing the way for Ryan Held to be the school’s new football coach in December 2004.

Held, who had built Oklahoma Panhandle State into a winner, quickly realized that the younger Pratt could help the Bulldogs more as a defensive back than running as a reserve behind his older brother and teammate Danny Howard.

"Trent was a person we needed to get out on the football field because of his ability to make things happen,” Held said.

Pratt meanwhile begin to build strength and physical size putting on 30 pounds in the Bulldogs’ vigorous off-season weight program. His adjustment to the new position of cornerback was quick and he established himself as a starter midway through spring practice.

The move was appeared validated when Pratt intercepted a pass and broke up two others in the spring game.

Now as the Bulldogs make their way through the 2005 season, Pratt’s impact has been immediate and often. His returned a fourth-quarter interception 37 yards that led to SWOSU’s game-winning field goal in a 13-10 victory over Oklahoma Panhandle State .

Pratt, who still is learning not just his new position but the game of football, tries to find ways to better himself in practice and by watching a few selected professionals on tape and television.

"I try to pattern myself after Deion Sanders,” he said. “A lot of things he does go unnoticed because people look at his talk and his flair and not the way he plays. He does things right. He’s always in position and makes plays. That’s what I want to do.”

Pratt is in the right sport and now in right position for the Bulldogs. Both places he never imagined as a high school hot shot whose fancy was hoops not helmets.