By TAFT COGHILL JR.
There was only one thing that could make Ron Prady leave Fredericksburg--an opportunity to return home.
Prady got just that when he was hired as a math teacher at Latrobe High School, which sits about 10 minutes from his hometown of Jeannette, Pa.
Prady, 34, spent 10 years in the Fredericksburg area as a football coach at Stafford, North Stafford, Caroline and most recently James Monroe.
In between assistant coaching stints at North Stafford and James Monroe, Prady was the head coach at Caroline for three years. For the past two years, he was an offensive assistant at James Monroe and a math teacher at Walker-Grant Middle School in Fredericksburg.
Prady, who has already begun his job as the offensive line coach at Latrobe, said his choice to leave was a "family decision."
"That's what the entire decision was based on," Prady said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I want my kids to be around their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We weren't leaving Fredericksburg for anywhere but home."
Prady and his wife, Liz, have a 6-year-old son, Jake, and a 3-year-old daughter, Allison.
Prady said he got a thrill when he received an ovation when he and Jake arrived at the youngster's youth football league practice two days ago.
"It was pretty cool," Prady said. "I got a warm welcome. It felt nice to be back home."
Prady was a standout at nearby Penn Trafford High School and later at Thiel College.
His new team plays in the same conference as his high school alma mater.
Latrobe also competes against Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which has produced Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino and current St. Louis Rams signal-caller Marc Bulger.
Latrobe has had a topsy-turvy run of late.
"It's been kind of up and down," Prady said. "It's been nothing real consistent. One thing I want try to do is develop some consistency."
Prady said his stay in Fredericksburg was successful personally and on the field.
He said it was an honor to work under former Stafford coach John Kraus, North Stafford ex-coach Chris Beatty and longtime James Monroe coach Rich Serbay. He said he also enjoyed competing against rivals like Tim Coleman, who once coached at Spotsylvania, but is entering his third season at Colonial Forge.
"It was hard leaving," Prady said. "The people are great and the football people that I got to work with are awesome. Fredericksburg was great to me and my family, and I think the coaches in the area are second to none."
New fields are nearly doneThe North Stafford and Liberty football teams have a scrimmage scheduled for Friday. But neither team will be able to host the game on its playing surfaces.
The game will be played on North Stafford's practice field because both schools are in the final stages of completing its new fields.
Wolverines coach Tap Pace said his team's new Bermuda grass field will be completed by the team's home opener against Brooke Point on Sept. 15.
"It's going to be in great shape by the time the game rolls around," Pace said.
Pace said both he and his players can't wait to get on the field.
"It's going to be nice to play on," he said. "It's filling out nicely."
At Liberty, coach Tom Buzzo's team hopes to unveil its new $800,000 synthetic turf field on Sept. 1 when the Eagles host Fauquier in the season opener.
The money for the Eagles' field was donated by Fauquier County businessman Kip Hall, who is a graduate of Liberty.
"It's one of the nicest things I've ever seen anybody do in my life," Buzzo said of Hall's donation. "It's amazing."
The Eagles' field has the words Liberty and Eagles in each end zone and a large Eagle at mid-field. The installation crew is from Texas, and has worked on three college fields and an Olympic training center in the past.
Buzzo said his players stop and look at the field every chance they get. Pace has also made a visit.
"It's literally a million dollar field," Pace said. "It has to be one of the premier playing surfaces in the nation."
To reach TAFT COGHILL:
Email: tcoghill@freelancestar.com