News-Record.com

WINSTON-SALEM -- When Tony Woods came off the court at the AAU tournament in Florida, the five-star recruit had an unsettling voicemail waiting for him.

The voice -- future Wake Forest teammate Ty Walker -- was familiar. The tone was not.

Skip Prosser, the beloved coach who had convinced Woods to commit to play for the Demon Deacons, was dead of an apparent heart attack. For Woods, the news simply couldn't be true. Just one day earlier Prosser was right there, in Orlando to scout him and AAU teammate and fellow blue-chip big man Al-Farouq Aminu.

"Coach Prosser's last night alive, he was at my and Farouq's basketball game in Orlando," Woods said Thursday. "Seeing his last night on earth, and then the next day he died that morning. ... He was just at my game."

Indeed, Prosser's name will forever be linked to those three high-profile players he spent the final days of his life recruiting, the future stars that Wake Forest counted on to return the program to the lofty status it enjoyed with Chris Paul. And as the anniversary of Prosser's untimely death approaches Saturday, the three members of his final recruiting class have arrived on campus with a determination to honor the coach they never got to play for.

"I still feel as though I'm still playing for him," Walker said. "He's in my heart always."

Walker has a tattoo on his left arm that says, "R.I.P. Coach Prosser."

The subtle reminders of Prosser are everywhere for Dino Gaudio, the longtime right-hand man and eventual successor. He is uneasy about this year's trip to the Florida AAU tournament.

"... Two days after Skip passed, (Florida coach Billy Donovan) called me (and said), 'I can't believe it, we were just standing there talking recruiting, basketball and that was the last time I saw him.' "

Prosser spent his last days at two tournaments, watching Walker play in Las Vegas and Aminu and Woods in Orlando before heading back to Winston-Salem last July 26. He went for a noon jog on the campus track and returned to his office, where he was found unresponsive.

The campus took his death hard, and so did the three players who had given Prosser their word that they would play for him.

"The thought of him not being here tomorrow or the next day hit me kind of hard," Aminu said.

Then came the phone calls and messages from other coaches, some calling to offer condolences while others -- the players wouldn't name names -- subtly attempted to persuade them to reconsider their verbal commitments to Wake Forest.

Ultimately, all three players remained committed to Wake. Walker insisted he never wavered, and Georgia AAU teammates Aminu and Woods kept in contact with assistant Pat Kelsey, who Woods said was referring to Gaudio when he assured them "the right guy was going to get the job."

Gaudio went on to propel Prosser's program forward last season by finishing 17-13, and not only keeping the Deacons together but giving them reason to smile again.

Through it all, the late coach has never been far from anyone's mind.