OLINDA — Basketball has remained a constant for Scott Prather, who smiled through his face mask while talking about his long journey as a player, coach, teacher, father and athletic director.

After 14 years and counting with the Seabury Hall program, and prior to that eight years starring at Maui High and the University of Hawaii-Hilo, Prather couldn’t help but acknowledge all the people and opportunities that the sport has led him to.

“It’s been a really great experience, mainly because I got to work with just some fantastic players over the years that were really just a joy to work with and a joy to watch grow, and the same can be said about my students,” Prather said on Wednesday afternoon at his office inside the Erdman Athletic Center. “I’ve also got to work with some really great coaches — just a lot of these guys who have been really good men in my life and good influences to be around, the list goes on and on.”

Prather said he’s still settling in as the athletic director since assuming the position in 2019, and still plans on coaching the boys basketball team and teaching one math class via distance learning if everything pans out amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot to this job that you have to learn through experience and I think that every single day has been different, the learning curve is huge and I’m doing my best to figure things out,” he said. “The good news is I have really good people to work with. We all support each other and have each other’s backs, so I’m not doing it alone.”

Former Seabury athletic director, Steve Colflesh, who ran the department for 30 years before retiring in 2013, says the school was “lucky” to hire Prather back in 2006, though Prather says that he was the fortunate one to join “such a special school.”

Colflesh added that Prather has developed a quality basketball program that stresses “discipline, fundamentals and organization.”

“He is following that same path as an athletic administrator. He’s working hard and has a solid vision for the program’s future,” Colflesh said. “Scott has a tremendous work ethic and his character is beyond reproach. He’s humble and yet very proud, which makes him a strong competitor.”

Prather grew up in Kula, where he first picked up a basketball. He later became a star player for the Sabers under former head coach Bill Naylor.

With over 18 years of coaching experience between Maui High and St. Anthony, Naylor said he’s had the privilege to work with “a lot of great players,” but Prather stood out to him the most back then and still stands out now with the work he is doing as a Spartans coach and AD.

“Scotty was the best example of a player who demanded of himself really more than he had,” said Naylor, who was also the assistant boys basketball coach for Prather’s first two years at Seabury. “I had to kick him out of the gym after practice many times as he needed to hit a certain percentage of shots and he hadn’t yet reached that goal.

“There is only one Scotty P. and there will never be another like him.”

Although the Spartans were stacked with talent in the late ’90s, Colflesh recalled they were unable to beat the Sabers while Prather was on the team.

“He led his team as he’s leading the Seabury Hall program today, with perseverance,” Colflesh said. “That strong work ethic and a great drive to succeed. He’s special.”

At UH-Hilo and standing 5-foot-11, Prather was a four-year starter from 1998 through the 2001-02 season. His 37-point ­performance against NCAA Division I South Carolina State in 2001 ended the Vulcans’ 23-game losing streak in the Big Island Invitational. He was later named to the 2001-02 all-Pacific West Conference first team and in 2012, he was inducted into the UH-Hilo Athletic Hall of Fame.

After finishing up his collegiate career, Prather continued his basketball evolution by volunteering as a junior varsity assistant boys coach at Waiakea High School, which was “really eye-opening, rewarding, and fulfilling in a lot of ways,” he said.

But when it came down to it, Prather was a Maui boy.

“I wanted to be closer to my family, closer to my roots, and that’s kind of where my heart drew me,” he said. “I think when people come back to where they are from, I think it brings a lot of credibility with them, and you have the accomplishments and the accolades from high school, and in college, and you come back and you share those experiences with the younger generation, I think it really gives them hope and a dream and a goal, and something tangible to aspire to.”

Back in the 1980s, very few student-athletes who left the Valley Isle returned to the sports community, Naylor said.

“Now we have several coaches in many sports that have come back home and joined coaching staffs, many of them now head coaches,” Naylor said. “This is great for island sports, and I’m proud to have shared the court with them.”

Through Prather’s basketball evolution and working alongside other coaches and mentors on island, Prather said his coaching philosophies have transformed.

Stemming from his background as an athlete, Prather used to focus a lot on discipline and conditioning, and instilling work ethic into the players. Although those are still valuable pieces to the game, he said the biggest part now is mentoring Maui’s young basketball players.

“It’s really understanding them as people and trying to get to the heart of what really motivates them, and it wasn’t the fear of running, but the real joy of playing and learning the game,” he said. “That’s something we really focus more on now.”

And when the Spartans are motivated and work hard together, they play cohesively together. The Seabury boys have claimed the past 11 Maui Interscholastic League Division II championships. However, Prather said that one of the highlights that stands out above the rest is the team’s first league title over Molokai during the 2006-07 season.

“It gave all the guys on the team this belief that we can do this, we can make some noise in this league,” he said. “It was awesome to see their mindsets change.”

The other was in 2016, when the Spartans’ Cameron Hanisch made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime to topple top-seeded St. Francis and advance to the state championship game.

“Of all the moments, that was a special one for sure,” Prather said. “That’s not going to be forgotten anytime soon.”

To any student-athlete looking to compete after high school, Prather advises to put in the work, time and effort, but most importantly, “just believe in yourself.”

“I think there’s a natural sense that people elsewhere, off this island and in other places, are just better because there’s more competition, there’s more this or more that, and we have a tendency for the island guys to kind of get swallowed up,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that there’s a lot of good players here with tons of talent, tons of ability, that can play at that next level if they really believe in themselves. They can do it.”

Prather, 40, is still seen playing pickup basketball games around the community, just staying in shape and continuing to participate in the sport that has been a huge part of his life for so long.

“I still very much love the game, I’ve had to adjust as father time changes the way you feel, but I want to actively demonstrate to the kids that I’m coaching how to do certain things, so by keeping active in the sport, it helps me to be a better example when I’m coaching,” he said. “It’s been a journey for sure, it’s had its ugly moments, twists and turns, but overall I think it’s been a fun ride.”

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com