EPCHS Alum In The Spotlight: Joe Prisco, Class Of 1995

Joe Prisco has always been a big sports fan. But finding a career in athletics may have never come to be had it not been for his time as a student at Evergreen Park Community High School in the 1990s.

A 1995 alum of the school that has anchored the corner of 99th and Kedzie for more than a half-century, Prisco was a three-sport athlete in high school, playing mostly supporting roles on the Mustangs’ football, basketball and baseball teams.

“I was never the star of the team or more than a sometime contributor, but I had an enjoyable time and made some great friends that I still have to this day,” Prisco said.

He remembers the 1994 football squad that came out before games to AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” while in all black uniforms.

The team was “very intimidating” to their opponents, Prisco said.

“We also may have been intimidating since we had one of the best running backs in the state in Mike Tracy, were coached by Brett Nelson, and had an offensive line that was just bigger than everyone else,” he added.

The EPCHS boys basketball team the year before, Prisco remembers, “had a front court that averaged over 6’4” and were a force to be reckoned with in the area.”

That team was coached by Tom O’Malley, the father of the current EPCHS Superintendent Tom O'Malley. The older O’Malley is considered a Southland Chicago basketball coaching legend, with a successful 14-year stint on the Mustang sidelines, coaching at Leo and Reavis high schools, Saint Xavier University and winding up in the Illinois basketball hall of fame.

He’s one who Prisco said he was “inspired directly” from while at EPCHS.

“Coach O'Malley also played a large part later in my life when I interviewed him for one of my graduate classes after he had moved onto Saint Xavier University,” Prisco said. “By him giving me some of his time that day for a sit down interview it allowed me to get the confidence that talking and interviewing people was something that I enjoyed doing.”

It’s something Prisco still enjoys doing as the assistant athletic director for communications and operations at Dillard University in New Orleans. His role at Dillard continues a career in collegiate athletics that has spanned more two decades, with stops at six schools across the country, including Notre Dame, East Carolina University and SXU.

“It is definitely a challenging job and one that changes by the day as I have had to learn to transition from strictly writing to more of a design background to do graphics, media guide and other publications for my athletic department throughout my career,” Prisco said. “The job continues to evolve yearly and I have been forced to evolve with it to stay relevant with the times.”

Prisco said he was at EPCHS when his interest in the career path he would eventually choose was sparked.

“It was during my junior year during basketball and baseball season when I was on the bench helping tally rebounds or keeping the scorebook in baseball that it started to peak my interest in doing my current job in some form,” he said.

“My first time announcing anything also came when I was in high school,” Prisco added. “I served as the public address announcer through a borrowed bullhorn for a tournament we were hosting on the baseball diamond. It was so much fun to talk and get both teams to laugh at what I was saying. It also gave me confidence later that speaking in front of people and on a microphone was not a scary experience, or one that I needed to shy away from.”

On the basketball court, Prisco’s EPCHS athletic highlight came on Senior Day in 1995, when O’Malley gave him the start before he knocked down four or five three-pointers.

“The crowd erupted and it was such a great feeling to be cheered on, plus be written about in ‘The Reporter’ the next week,” he said.

Prisco’s advice for high school students today is “never stop reaching for your dreams.”

“EPCHS helps prepare you for so much, and the network from Evergreen Park is deeper than you would think and expect,” he said.

Interested in a career in college athletics? Prisco will gladly share his expertise with other EPCHS alums, or current students, on how to break into the field. He can be reached at jprisco@dillard.edu.