Spratt takes reins at alma mater Marple Newtown

When Sean Spratt talks about consistency in a basketball program, he’s seen both sides of the coin.

For the last two years, he worked as an assistant to Mike Doyle at Penncrest, a model of Central League consistency. When he reflects back to his time at Marple Newtown and the three coaches he played for at the program he is now inheriting, he sees the exact opposite.

That is Spratt’s challenge as he takes over as the boys basketball coach for the Tigers.

“It’s exciting. It’s a place I’m very familiar with,” Spratt said by phone Friday. “I’m comfortable in that environment, with the people in the community and inside the building. So it’s exciting to get back and try to build the program up to where it belongs.”

Spratt replaces Brian Shane, who led the Tigers for three seasons, including 2014-15’s District One Tournament qualification. Shane took a leave of absence during last season for health reasons, and Eric Houck replaced him on an interim basis, piloting a youthful squad to a 4-18 record.

Houck, an assistant athletic director at Marple, was among those considered for the full-time job before he pulled his name out of consideration. Spratt joins Strath Haven coach Dave McFadden as recent Marple assistants with local high school roots to land head coaching gigs in the Central League.

Spratt’s roundabout history at his alma mater diverges from the steadiness he hopes to instill. A member of the class of 2006, Spratt played baseball, basketball and football for the Tigers before graduating from West Chester University. He played for three coaches at Marple — Steve Cloran, Rick Pergolini and Kevin Newsome. Newsome and his replacement, Jerry Doemling, each lasted three years, as did Shane.

Spratt served four seasons as an assistant at Marple before two seasons under Doyle’s wing. Doyle has steered Penncrest to eight consecutive berths in the District One Class AAAA Tournament, including two trips to the PIAA Tournament. The hallmarks of that effort, which involve engaging the community in the program’s success and getting the talented players built up through feeder programs to stay home instead of heading to private schools, is directly applicable for Spratt at Marple.

“He is mature beyond his age and his basketball IQ is off the charts,” Doyle said of Spratt, who is the 11th former assistant to branch out to a head coaching job on Doyle’s impressive coaching team. “… He just has an acumen for the game. He understands it, he sees it and he has a way of communicating it.”

Spratt got to see Marple at a distance last season, the Lions beating them twice by an average of 20.5 points. It’s obvious to Spratt that the talent, while green, is there. So is the infrastructure that, with a little dedication and hard work, can resemble what Doyle has built at Penncrest.

Spratt is also encouraged by the fight he saw from the Tigers. They won three of their last five after enduring a tumultuous December in which Shane’s health forced him from the bench. The transition from Shane to Houck included a 15-game losing streak.

With such youth, the results fail to tell the whole story to Spratt.

“Lot of potential, ceiling is pretty high,” Spratt said. “You can never fault their toughness. It’s just a bunch of hard-nosed athletes and they step on the court and battle. Ability is one thing, but the effort that they put forth was never in question. … The four wins doesn’t really dictate how they played. There were in a lot of close games, lot of games they led through three quarters, and four wins doesn’t really showcase that.”