Bentonville names West High School football coach

BENTONVILLE — Bentonville West has its head football coach in place, more than a year before the Wolverines take the field for the first time.

Bryan Pratt was chosen to oversee the birth of the Wolverines’ program during Bentonville’s school board meeting Monday night. Pratt will assume his new duties April 20 as part of a shift done within the Bentonville football coaching staffs to accommodate the new school’s emergence, according to athletic director Scott Passmore.

Pratt, 42, will spend next season overseeing the Bentonville Gold ninth-grade team — which becomes West’s feeder team — before taking over the Wolverines in 2016. Current Gold coach Toma Whorton will become Bentonville Black’s head coach and replaces Chris Hutchens, who joins Bentonville’s high school staff as an assistant.

Pratt, the other finalist for the Bentonville job when Jody Grant was promoted, has spent the last nine seasons at McAlester, Okla., where he has compiled an 85-27 record with the Buffaloes, a Class 5A team in that state.

McAlester finished the 2014 season with an 11-2 record, and both losses were by one point — including a 50-49 overtime loss in the state playoff semifinals. The Buffaloes reached the Class 5A state title game in 2013 and finished with a 12-2 record.

McAlester’s teams have been potent on offense over the last two seasons. The Buffaloes compiled more than 700 points in 2013 — becoming the 19th Oklahoma team to accomplish the feat — and averaged 48.9 points and 428.9 yards total offense last fall.

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