Female coach instills discipline at Hillcrest

The secret to Hillcrest’s success is rather typical of a high school basketball team.
Discipline and structure is emphasized. Miss a practice or come late, and a player loses his uniform temporarily. With a roster of 19, the best practice players are the ones who play on game day.
After two consecutive losing seasons and then a mediocre .500 finish last year, a coach with previous success on the jayvee level had the Hawks believing in the system from the outset.
That coach is where the story veers off from the norm, although in speaking to Hillcrest, not by much. Their leader, Cally Prasinos, a former assistant coach at Queens College and the Division II school’s third all-time leading scorer and rebounder, is the only female coaching a boys high school varsity basketball team in Queens, and just the second in the city - Ruth Lovelace of Boys & Girls being the other.
“She’s incredible,” says Chris Donley, a dean at the Jamaica school. “The kids respect her, they love her desperately. She insists on them doing what they have to do in school and they know they aren’t cutting classes and getting away with it. She’s on top of them.”
From day one, the Hawks say, Prasinos’s gender was never an issue. “A [female] coach can do the same as a guy,” center Marko Budija maintained. “It’s all about heart.”
The 11-3 record the jayvee accumulated a season ago is what they focused on. The opportunity she afforded every player on the roster was, too. “It was very spontaneous,” senior guard Reggie Azemar said. “You don’t know who’s going to start. It’s fun to watch everyone play different roles.”
“In the beginning of the year,” Prasinos says, “I was trying to find who would click with one another.”
Prasinos had recently settled on a starting five - Azemar, Budija, Arnell Hogan, James McGhaney and Shyrone Burnett. With a rotation as deep as 11, however, the final five is sometimes very different. “It’s whoever’s on, whoever’s giving us a spark,” she says, “especially on defense.”
The continuity has enabled Hillcrest (9-6, Queens A-West) to win five of their last seven to earn a respectable third-place finish in Queens A-West and a sure playoff berth. “She’s got all the respect from us,” McGhaney says. “She’s a female Coach Carter.”
Her impact isn’t just in the team’s record, but how she’s changed the character of her young men. Azemar was formerly seen as somewhat of a loose cannon, but, after continuous - and at times intense - counsel from Prasinos, he has become controlled. McGhaney was admittedly a poor student, one who missed time due to poor grades, but now has regained eligibility and is thriving in the classroom.
“I wouldn’t give up these guys for anything,” she says.
Prasinos denied any negative feedback from opposing players, coaches, or fans since taking over. Azemar did recall one game January 10 at Far Rockaway, a 76-66 road win, when the home crowd got on the female coach pretty good. But she just continued to work her sideline. “She didn’t look,” Azemar says. “She didn’t pay attention to it.”
Now, the only reaction they get regarding their coach’s gender, McGhaney says, grinning, “Is they feel bad they’re losing to a female coach.”