Pleasure Ridge Park High School boys basketball coach Dale Mabrey will be on the sideline Wednesday night during the 39th annual McDonald’s All American Game in Chicago.
Mabrey will be the head coach for the West squad when it faces the East team at 9 p.m. The game, which matches 24 of the top high school seniors in the nation, will be televised by ESPN.
Mabrey will be joined on the West bench by longtime PRP assistant coaches Larry Kihnley and Mike Baxter. The trio arrived in Chicago on Saturday.
Mabrey said he’s not sure how he was selected to coach in the game.
“All they told me was that someone nominated me,” Mabrey said from Chicago on Wednesday afternoon. “They weren’t at liberty to say who it was. I have no idea, but I’m glad they did, whoever it was.”
Mabrey has an 874-242 record in 35 seasons as PRP’s head coach and ranks second all-time in victories among boys coaches in Kentucky, behind Scott County’s Billy Hicks.
Mabrey called his last few days in Chicago “basketball heaven.”
“Everything is just so detailed and organized,” he said. “You start with meetings at 7 in the morning, and you’re not back to your room until 11:30 at night. … You’re going constantly, but I’ve never been around something this first-class. I’ve been treated well before, but this is a totally different world.”
Elizabethtown’s Erin Boley will represent Kentucky in the girls game, set for 6:30 p.m. and televised by ESPNU. Boley, a Notre Dame signee, will play for the East team.
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.