Gameday Q&A: Oakton's Fred Priester
Fred Priester is in his 13th season as the head girls basketball coach at Oakton, where he has compiled a 287-59 (.829) record entering the Concorde District Tournament this week. Priester-led Cougars teams have accounted for eight district and two Northern Region championships, and in 2001 advanced to the Group AAA state final. Priester, who has 417 career victories in his 23 seasons (13 at Oakton, 10 at McLean) as a head coach, guided a team led by All-American Jasmine Thomas to a 21-1 regular season record this winter. This week, Priester took some time to field some questions from Gameday Magazine's Joey Kamide...
Gameday Magazine: Jasmine Thomas will go down as one of the top players in the history of Virginia high school basketball. What has it been like to coach her?
Fred Priester: It has truly been a delight. She is not only a consummate player, but she is one of the finest young women that I have ever known. She knows the game, plays hard, has tremendous skills and brings unbounded enthusiasm to our team. She is by nature an inclusive person, who reaches out to everyone that she meets. She is universally loved and respected in our school. She is a great student (3.54 GPA) and a superior leader. She is everything and more than you could ever ask of an athlete or a student.
GM: You have coached and coached against several players that have become top college players, such as Katie Smrcka-Duffy and Kara Lawson. How does Jasmine stack up against them?
FP: I think when comparisons are made between players of different times, it is difficult. Kara Lawson was a strong, physical player with tremendous court savvy and vision and she has gone on to prove herself at the college and pro level as well as one of the best basketball analysts they have at ESPN. That all lies ahead for Jasmine, who is a super quick, athletic player who shares that court savvy and vision. Katie Smrcka-Duffy was an extremely hard-working and dedicated player who had a knack for scoring in a number of ways. Jasmine too is a dedicated and hard-working player who can score in a number of creative and athletic ways, but her shot is still becoming consistent. I think that Jasmine is certainly a complete player with nearly 2,400 points, 900 rebounds, 500 steals, 500 assists and nearly 200 blocks. I think she stands up well in any comparison. I know that she considers it an honor to compared to such successful players.
GM: What was the recruiting process like with Jasmine before she decided on signing with Duke before the 2006-07 season began?
FP: Jasmine was extremely mature throughout the process. In her heart, I think she wanted Duke fairly early on, but I insisted that she go through the process and I think she was glad that she had the opportunity to talk to such great coaches as Geno Auriemma, Debbie Ryan, Brenda Frese and all the other coaches. She felt in the end that she had made the right decision and her call to Coach G was a very happy moment for her.
GM: Oakton has had tremendous success during your tenure, but has come up short of a state championship thus far. Would a state title be the defining moment of your career?
FP: We cam very close in 2001 losing in [overtime] to Hampton and then despite Jasmine's illness, we were there to the very end in the semifinals vs. eventual champ Forest Park in 2005. I feel very fortunate to have even been in those games. My only goal each year is that we play at or near our potential in every game. Sometimes we don't and win (and I'm not happy); sometimes we do and lose. I have never lost sleep over those two games and if I never win a state title, I won't lose any sleep - as long as we have done our best. I may feel disappointment for our kids, but not for myself. I have been too blessed with great, great kids to ever be disappointed by that.
GM: Who is the toughest coach you've coached against since coming into the profession?
FP: I believe that our coaches in the Northern Region are among the best in the whole country, so I think they are all tough. Our teams have had some very competitive games against Coach [Pat] Deegan (Madison/Westfield), Coach [Bill} Gibson (West Springfield) and former coaches Linda Jones at South Lakes and Dwight Trimmer at Fairfax and Robinson. We also have a number of great new coaches in the area including Dianne Lewis at Edison, Rudy Coffield at Lee, George Porcha at TC, Denise Weining at Madison and Chummy Gill at Yorktown to name a few. It also very tough to coach against my former assistants Noel Klippenstein at Marshall and Derek Fisher at Lake Braddock.
GM: This season, Edison and Oakton have both been the top-ranked teams from the Northern Region. Who else should basketball fans keep an eye on from the region through the postseason?
FP: I think there are a number of very dangerous teams. Never count out Westfield or West Springfield. Lee is playing well as is [T.C. Williams] now that Tierra [Ruffin-Pratt] is back. Marshall and Madison in the Liberty as well as Yorktown and Wakefield in the National are strong teams.
GM: The Northern Region has not had a boys basketball state champion since 1981, while a number of girls teams have won numerous titles. Why have boys teams struggled in the state tournament while the girls teams have had so much success over the past 25 years?
FP: I give some credit to the AAU programs in our area - starting with
the Vogues in 1981 and expanding with the Cardinal, the Fairfax Stars, Gym Rats and several others over the years. Our girls have gotten competitive opportunities with solid coaching and that exposure to varying techniques and styles has helped in the development of individual players. The rest of the state has caught up now, but that gave our girls an edge. A factor for both the girls and the boys currently lies in the differing rules for Fairfax County vs. the rest of the state. Elsewhere, including Arlington and Alexandria, eighth graders can compete as high as [junior varsity] - giving those schools an opportunity to develop younger players. There are also differences in the number of players that a Northern Region coach can coach on an AAU or club team (1/3 of roster) vs. other state coaches (all but 1), and numbers of team camps, etc. In each case, the competitive balance is tilted to schools downstate. It has been particularly tough for the boys, but hurts the girls more and more each year.
GM: What does Fred Priester do to keep himself busy during the off-season?
FP: From 1978 to 1992, I also coached football at McLean, and from 1978 to 2005, I coached baseball at McLean, Oakton and Chantilly. I also coached American Legion Baseball and was part of a couple championship teams managed by my basketball assistant Chris Kestyn. And of course, I've coached AAU basketball with the Vogues since 1985, earning 10 top 16 finishes at AAU Nationals, four top 10 finishes and one fourth place while coaching over 150 young women who have gone on to college playing careers. I have had the great opportunity to coach players who went on to professional careers in each of these sports as well as three of my own children. I also run a private basketball instruction business. Though I only coach basketball now, coaching has been my passion and has consumed much of my life for the past 29 years. I consider myself to be very lucky to have a family that supports me and to have had the opportunity to be a part of so many young people's lives. They have meant the world to me and I am proud to say that I am in regular contact with many of them. To me being a teacher and coach is the most important job in the world.
