Thinking about basketball teams in the town of Argyle, the Eagles and Warriors would certainly come to mind— but, what about the Prowlers?
That’s right, the North Texas Prowlers of the Texas Basketball Association formed last fall and plays their home games at Davis Gym on Hilltop Road just outside Lantana.
The team was started by Heath Tipton in October 2018, who had been running city recreation teams in the North Texas area for several years.
Tipton decided to join the Texas Basketball Association (TBA) for 2019 and put together the North Texas Prowlers.
“Our team is comprised of players of all capabilities,” General Manager and Head Coach Colby Collatt said. “Some players use the league to stay in shape, while others are looking at it as a stepping-stone to get to a paid league. The TBA has some of the best basketball talent in Texas and makes for great competition from very experienced players.”
The Prowlers just signed a contract with the American Basketball Association– to play games starting in November– and with the North American Basketball Association (NABL), to begin competing in February 2020.
Collatt said he enjoys coaching the Prowlers and sees similarities between it and his professional life.
“I grew up loving sports; and, particularly the coaching side,” Collatt said. “Managing a group of people in my professional career has a lot of similarities to coaching. Heath was the one who reached out to me about coaching. Although he was the owner, he still had the desire to play and needed a head coach. We had a meeting and agreed for me to be head coach for our first official year.”
Collatt said the North Texas Prowlers welcomes any adult interested in basketball and who wants to compete.
“Our goal as an organization is to help our players grow in life and basketball,” Collatt said. “We support our players and give them the resources they need to achieve their dreams in anything they want to do. We are getting into national leagues to give our players more of a chance to be seen outside of Texas.
“We will have our own film crew to film games, but also to make game film of our players to send out to other teams. We want to be the organization that gets players recognized and uses us to help them get where they want, or just to stay in shape during the off seasons.”
The organization held initial tryouts on July 27 and again in a yet-to-be-set date in August.
For more information, visit: northtexasprowlers.com or www.facebook.com/ntxprowlers.
