New coach wants a championship repeat

Laura Pruitt has a simple mantra she lives by this time of year.

“Happiness is Game Day.” 

“There‘s always excitement,” said Pruitt as she enters her first season as the women’s basketball coach at Mount St. Vincent. “I’m a complete basketball junkie and I have been since I started playing. To me, happiness is game day. I live for those moments. I enjoy the pressure of it. I embrace the challenge of putting a team together. I really get a kick out of all that.

“I don’t really pay attention to the pressures and expectations,” she continued. “This journey is more about me making sure our student-athletes, not just as the women’s basketball coach but as the director of athletics, are given the best experience we possibly can. And the main piece of that is instilling that family environment and atmosphere.”

Pruitt took the position of new Dolphins head coach and athletic director a little over a month ago after being the head women’s coach at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia the past four seasons. The native of Westmeath, Ireland played four seasons at Dowling College before becoming an assistant coach at Dowling for six seasons prior to her stint at Chestnut Hill.

Pruitt inherits a Dolphins program that won the Skyline Conference championship for the first time last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

“No pressure,” Pruitt said with a laugh.

But she knows there will be some pressure, and is more than up for the challenge.

“We’re really working on trying to get a real grit and a real attitude about how we play,” said Pruitt, who was named to her new position on Oct. 2. “Get a mind of a champion in basically everything we do. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot this year, so we look at it like we’re not defending a championship but we’re looking to get another. It’s just an understanding that no one is going to give us anything. It’s the same goals, but just with a different approach. I bring fresh eyes from the outside looking in. I feel like we really can get to the next level.”