Perkins Co. Schools pays tribute to Larry Pritchett

Perkins County Schools paid tribute to one of the school’s most recognizable icons—teacher, coach and school board member Larry Pritchett.
    The tribute took place during the halftime of the boys varsity game against Bridgeport Friday night.
    Activities Director Jeremy Struckman said they had originally planned an event in mid-January to recognize Pritchett and all of the other state champion coaches from Grant, Madrid, Elsie and Venango schools.
    COVID-19 threw a big wrench in those plans, which included inviting all former players to join the coaches at the halftime tribute.
    Pritchett completed his second stint on the PCS school board in January and turned over his final duty at the school—TeamMates.
    Struckman said Friday’s focus was on Pritchett for his iconic service to the school, kids and community.
Came to Grant in 1964
    The Byers, Kansas native and Fort Hayes State graduate first came to Grant in 1964 as an English teacher and assistant coach. He coached football under another icon, Ed Haenfler, and basketball and track under Bill Ramsey.
    After Ramsey left for Cozad, Pritchett became the head basketball coach in 1968, bringing home his first state championship.
    “It felt pretty easy,” Pritchett said. He found out it wasn’t easy, however.
    “I didn’t know it would take me 20 years before I got another.”
    Pritchett felt like he wanted to coach in a bigger school, so he followed Ramsey to Cozad, hearing Ramsey was close to retirement.
    Another well-known coach, Fred Bessler, was an assistant football coach looking to become Cozad’s head football coach.
    Bessler was told that Cozad never moved assistant coaches up to head coaching jobs.
    With that in mind, Pritchett started looking. He remembers getting a phone call from Leonard Gloy in Imperial, informing him of a head boys’ basketball opening there.
    He was able to get out of his contract in Cozad and took over in Imperial. Bessler also left Cozad for Imperial.
Called back to Grant
    He served as head coach for the Longhorns for five years before the pull of Grant called him back in 1979.  
    This time it was as the owners of the Gambles hardware store. That eventually became Pritchett Hardware, affiliated with the Hardware Hank supplier.
    During the 10-year ownership of the store with his wife Marlene, Pritchett also served eight years on the school board.
    But that coaching bug caught up with him again—while he was still running the store.
    In 1986, he went back to teaching half-time and resumed his duties as head basketball coach for the Plainsmen.
    That year was only one of two losing seasons Pritchett ever experienced. The second came in his last year in Imperial.
    By 1988, Pritchett had restored the tradition of the program, taking a team back to the state tournament where they lost in the first round.
    The magic came back in 1988-89 when two loss team won the state tournament.
    Next year, they brought home back-to-back state championships.
    In 1990-91, the Plainsmen lost in a buzzer beater in the state finals, suffering their only loss of the year.
    All told, Pritchett has coached in the state tournament 14 times with three championship and two runner-up finishes.
First retirement
    In 2000, Pritchett decided it was time to retire. Then, after a coaching resignation, he was called back into duty one more time as the Plainsmen’s head coach—a position he held through 2008 before turning the reins over to present head coach, Shawn Cole.
    Right beside him has been Marlene.
    Marlene knew early in their marriage that her life would be as a coach’s wife.
    Despite all time Larry spent away from home and following the team to games—often sitting alone, she said she never felt it was a sacrifice.
    Coaching was just part of their lives and family, she said, so it never seemed out of the norm.
    Pritchett said he’s still helping some with the TeamMates, a program he helped start at Perkins
County. Other than that, they are settling into retirement, which means more time to see kids and grandkids.
    They have two sons, Troy and Travis.
    Troy is an administrator and tech coordinator at Malcom Public School. He and his wife have a four-year-old daughter.
    Travis is an accountant in Lincoln. He and his wife have two boys, ages 9 and 10.