WHITEHALL – Before a playoff game last season, several cheerleaders from a rival school saw the Whitehall football team coming out on the field and teased Alec Pruett a little bit.
“They were laughing and telling me I wasn’t big enough to play football,” said Pruett, an admittedly undersized player who checks in at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds. “It just motivated me. I’ve been getting that sort of thing for a long time.”
By the time the game was over, the cheerleaders probably felt a little stupid, because Pruett rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and Whitehall won by 41 points.
If anyone still doubts Pruett’s abilities, they should check this week’s MuskegonSports.com high school football leader board. He’s currently leading the Greater Muskegon area in rushing with 1,309 yards on 139 carries, with 14 touchdowns.
[1]A few years ago, nobody ever dreamed that Pruett could be the top rusher in the area, or a running back at all, for that matter.
He didn’t even start playing organized football until the seventh grade, and only played defense until his freshman year, when he joined the junior varsity.
In the Whitehall high school program, all players must have a defensive and offensive position, and Pruett had no idea where he might fit on offense.
“I always thought running backs were the coolest guys on the field, but I had only played defense,” Pruett said. “All I knew was linebacker.
“When I was a freshman I talked to Coach Sigmon right before the Muskegon veer camp we went to. I told him that I didn’t have an offensive position, and he said they would figure it out. Then they looked at me and figured I could play running back.”
After showing how well he could run the ball, Pruett was quickly inserted as the Whitehall JV’s featured back. Unfortunately he barely got started when his new adventure was interrupted for a year by a torn ACL – which occurred on his very first run, in his very first game.
[2]“I broke a big run and tore my ACL right near the goal line, about three yards short,” Pruett said. “I was just running the ball, I broke a couple tackles, made a cut to come inside, and all the sudden my knee caved in, I fell down, and that was that.”
Pruett worked hard at physical therapy and returned to the JV squad as a sophomore, and finally demonstrated his skills at running back.
He joined the varsity last season, replacing All-Stater Kayleb Venema as the featured back. He didn’t disappoint, rushing for more than 800 yards in 2020.
It was a good season for Pruett and the Vikings, but definitely not the season they were hoping to have. A double overtime loss to Montague cost them a league title, then they bowed out of the state playoffs in the third round with a painful 41-13 loss to Forest Hills Eastern.
This season has been much better for Whitehall. The 7-1 Vikings were tripped up once, in Week 2 against Oakridge, but have responded by winning six games in a row. The defense has been very strong, going four straight games without giving up a point between Week 3 and Week 6.
Pruett has had a real breakout season, gaining at least 100 yards in all eight games so far.
Pruett opened the season with 136 yards in a win over Kalamazoo United. He had 120 yards against Oakridge, 151 against Ravenna, 126 against Shelby, and 158 against North Muskegon. Then ne really turned on the jets, rushing for 308 yards against Ludington, which was the week he reached 1,000 yards and the top of the local rushing chart. The next week he gained 193 yards against Hart.
[3]Pruett’s favorite game this season, at least so far, came last Friday against archrival Montague, in a battle to gain a share of the West Michigan Conference championship.
He didn’t have his best game of the season – 116 yards and one touchdown – but his team was still smarting from last year’s double-overtime loss to the Wildcats, and the Vikings were anxious to win their first conference trophy since 1999.
Whitehall won 34-14, and the Vikings were jubilant.
“That was a really tough loss last year,” Pruett said. “I felt we could have won that game. It was 364 days and counting afterward. We dreamed about it all the time. We really wanted it, and I think that showed on the field.”
When asked what his strengths are as a running back, Pruett said, “I break a lot of tackles. I’m a little slippery, I think. I don’t know about running over people. It just depends on how big they are.”
Whitehall Coach Tony Sigmon said that Pruett is surprisingly strong, has great balance, and is very intelligent, which helps him on the field.
“He does a lot of great things,” Sigmon said. “He’s a very strong kid, a thousand-pound lifter, his balance is second to none, and he uses (his low center of gravity) to his advantage all the time. He’s also elusive enough, so that when he gets to the second or third level of the defense, he’s really hard to tackle.”
Pruett said he hoped to rush for at least 1,000 yards this season, and admits he likes to check out the stats to measure himself against other top backs in the area. But he also said team goals are the most important consideration, and his biggest motivation.
“It’s cool,” he said about his statistics. “I like to look at stats every once in a while to see where I line up. It’s fun to know you have the most yards in the area. But mostly I just want to win football games and make a deep run in the playoffs.
“This is a big statement year, and I think things are really starting to come together for us. We have a lot of kids who really want to prove themselves, and prove that Whitehall is a legitimate football power.”
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