Coach’s Corner: A moment with the Eastern’s Men’s Basketball Coach.

Coach Dan Pruessner is the head coach for Eastern’s basketball team. During Pruessner’s time in college, he played for Northlands International University. He then went to the United States Sports Academy to obtain a masters degree in Sports Science.

Before he joined Eastern University, Pruessner spent fifteen years coaching for schools across the country. He spent eight of those years coaching at Florida Christian School in Miami. He achieved more district championships than any other coach in the school’s 45-year history. Later spent four of the fifteen years coaching Freedom Christian Academy in Fayetteville, N.C. Being named the Coastal Plains Independent Conference Coach of the Year, taking the school team to NCISA Final Four, and developing over fifteen players that obtained NCAA scholarship offers. After this, he joined the Eastern’s basketball team in 2018 as an assistant coach.

In 2019, Pruessner was promoted to head coach. Since then, they have faced some challenges, most of which involve the covid pandemic. In our 2020-2021 season, the team was only able to play up to eight games throughout the season. Some of these games were missed due to players contracting the virus themselves. Now that the pandemic has died down, the coach has big plans for the team’s upcoming season.

Pruessner plans on changing the team’s identity by making a faster tempo team, planning to make them score higher on their division’s ranks. Pruessner also intends to develop the team’s defense further. When asked about what teams he was nervous about playing, Pruessner responded, “The best teams are York, Alvernia, Albright, and Lebanon Valley.” 

I wondered why he wanted to coach at a collegiate level. Pruessner responded with, “Even at D3 level, the players have so much passion, and it’s amazing to teach the game.”. His wife’s family was also from this area which impacted his decision to coach Eastern’s Basketball team rather than take up the other offers he had. With the new season underway, the Eastern community can hold their heads up high as their Eagles soar through the ranks. With Coach Dan Pruessner’s game plan and the recruits, this looks like an up-and-coming season.