2008 All Star Coach West
Assistant Coach Michael Pratley
Frankfort High School
Michael graduated from Marshall HS in 1968 and Spring Arbor College with a B.A. in 1976 after a four-year stint with the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam Era. He received his Master’s from Western Michigan University, and has done post-graduate work at Central Michigan University.
Michael has been teaching and coaching football for the past 32 years. He started at Litchfield HS where from 1976-1979 he coached junior high football and spent one year as head JV coach, before moving to Frankfort where he has spent the last 29 years as an English teacher and assistant varsity football coach. He also served as assistant baseball coach, assistant softball coach and athletic director.
Since moving to Frankfort, Coach Pratley has been part of a staff that won back-to-back state championships in 1990 and 1991, and has coached in the state finals five times, including 1988, 1992 and 1993. The Panthers, under three head coaches since 1979, are 249-69 and have made the playoffs 27 of the last 29 years. “I have had the good fortune to work for some great head coaches, Tim Klein, Roger Bearss and Matt Stapleton, and I am indebted to them for this opportunity. In 1993, Pratley was named an Assistant Coach of the Year by the MHSFCA, and in 2002, he was inducted into the MHSFCA Hall of Fame.
Pratley and his wife Wendy, who has been a dedicated football wife and supported him unconditionally for more than three decades, have three adult children: Anthony, Head Football Coach at Leonardtown High School in Leonardtown, Maryland (wife Mary); Andrew, Head Football Coach at West Branch Ogemaw Heights, (wife Kristen) and Rebecca, a former varsity volleyball coach at Frankfort (husband Andy Miller). They also have nine grandchildren: Keyarra, Kyra, Tyrus, Ellison, Troy, Breanne, Sydney, Blake and Payton. He said,”It is a great privilege to work with our state’s best players, and I am honored and humbled to be a part of the MHSFCA All-Star coaching staff.”