Meet Jake

Hello! Welcome to my digital portfolio. My name Jake Pritchard, and this past May I graduated from the SUNY Cortland Physical Education MST program. I have a bachellors degree in Mass Communications from Oswego State. I attended Oswego from 2017-2021, and during my time at Oswego, I was a resident assistant, manager for the men's basketball team and ran my own video production company throughout Central New York. 

I am from Syracuse, New York and went to George Fowler High School. In high school, I played basketball and baseball. I knew I wasn't talented enough to be a college athlete and knew I had a passion for coaching, which led me to working for the Oswego State Men's Basketball team. During my sophomore year in 2019, we won the conference championship and advanced to the NCAA DIII Sweet 16. This was one of the first times that I experienced a winning culture firsthand, and a program that valued a "team-first" mentality. 

Coaching inspired my passion for teaching, as I navigated my college career. I was a broadcasting major at Oswego, which enhanced my ability to connect with others, instilled confidence in delivering material, and allowed me to work in a team setting. I felt more and more passionate about teaching in my undergrad years, as I began substitute teaching at Central Square High School. During this time, I knew I wanted to be involved in education and working with kids. I finally decided over the holiday break going into my senior year that I wanted to chase my dream of being a physical education teacher. Once I found out about the MST program at Cortland, I was very eager to begin a program that would provide me with the skillsets to excel in my future career. 

My senior year of college, the basketball season was canceled because of the COVID 19 pandemic. During this time I began taking on more responsibility as a student manager for the team because the rest of the coaching staff was sent home. Not far after graduating from Oswego, I was offered a job as an a assistant coach with Oswego's basketball team. My girlfriend Shea completed her masters in Art education at Oswego. The schedule of a college coach is very demanding and because of this we choose to reside in Oswego throughout graduate school. This made the 90 minute commute to Cortland each day a real challenge but I knew it was worth it to reach my goal of becoming a teacher. 

In my free time, I enjoy playing, watching and consuming the game of basketball in any possible way. All of my life I have loved sports and been attracted to the idea of team concepts. Outside of Sports, I love hanging out with my friends, spending time with my girlfriend, Shea, and our cat phoebe. I really enjoy being a a freelance videographer as a passion of mine, and substitute teaching. When I am not working or doing school work, I typically can be seen with my childhood dog Tanner, with my nephews Eli and Isaac or at a professional sporting event.