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Staff

HEAD COACH/DIRECTOR OF BASKETBALL: Ryan Bernardi

Ryan Bernardi was named the head basketball coach at Prolific Prep on April 8, 2022. 

Ryan Bernardi is a Boston, MA native who spent the past 4 years as a head basketball coach in North Carolina.  In 4 years as a Head Coach, Ryan graduated 16 players to go on and play college basketball.  He achieved a 99-31 overall record in 4 years, 2 state championships in back to back seasons, and 1 state runner up. Ryan was named the North Carolina Times News Coach of the Year in 2021-2022.

Ryan was hired as head coach at Burlington Christian Academy in April 2018.  He was hired as a 19 year old, he set the program record of 18 wins (18-9), reached state quarterfinals and produced the first ever division 1 player at the school.

With his successes, Ryan was then was hired at The Burlington School in July of 2019. In 3 years at TBS, Ryan won 2 North Carolina state championships (2021 and 2022) and 1 state runner up (2020). Ryan had a 81-22 record as head coach of TBS. TBS ranked as high as #17 in the country by MaxPreps, first ever national ranking for the school.

Ryan also served as the athletic director at The Burlington School from August 2020- June 2022. Ryan is an Elon University graduate, where he served as an undergraduate manager from 2016-2018.

ASSOCIATE HEAD Coach: Caleb Vanderburg

Caleb Vanderburg joins Prolific Prep as Assistant coach. He joins Prolific alongside Ryan Bernardi from The Burlington School in NC, where they won back to back state championships.  At The Burlington School, Caleb served as the defensive coordinator, leading the Spartans in defensive game plans and adjustments. Their swarming defensive approach helped place Burlington amongst the top teams on the east coast.  

Prior to his time at The Burlington School, Caleb was a student manager at Elon University,  working under Davidson assistant coach Matt Matheny, and Duke special assistant Mike Schrage. While with the Phoenix, he helped with video coordinations, team and individual workouts, and operations. 

Caleb graduated from Elon University in 2021, earning a bachelor degree in Public Health.   Caleb was also a STEM teacher at The Burlington School for the past few years.   Caleb was born and raised in Durham, NC.  

ASSISTANT COACH - DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT: Matt Handy

Matt Handy is an assistant coach for Prolific Prep who specializes in overall player development.  Before joining the Prolific Prep staff, Matt coached at The Burlington School (NC), winning back to back State Championships.  Prior to his time at The Burlington School, Matt was an operations assistant at Elon University under head coach Matt Matheny,  who worked directly with Steph Curry at Davidson.   While at Elon, Matt earned degrees in both Exercise Science and Physical Education. 

Outside of his time coaching, he has worked with the best in the business on the individual player development side. While being mentored by Drew Hanlen, Tyler Relph, Jordan Lawley and Luke Cooper, Matt was able to work closely with NBA All Stars Jayson Tatum, Zach LaVine, Bradley Beal, Gordon Hayward and Julius Randle among dozens of other NBA players.   Matt currently runs his own business, Cross Court Training, where he works with hundreds of professional and collegiate basketball players. 

What makes Coach Handy special is his approach to the player development side which focuses on overall development. Accounting for all sides of player development such as skills, strength and conditioning, nutrition, IQ, mental health and the spiritual side of personal development, he is able to determine what will best help a player.  With a strong emphasis on film, his player development plan is very specific to each player which maximizes long term development. 

 

Director of Operations: Philippe Doherty

Philippe Doherty is currently the program’s director of operations at Prolific Prep. He was the program’s first official head coach in the program’s inaugural year in 2014-2015 but for the last 2 years has helped run the operations for Prolific Prep which includes scheduling, travel, academics, and helps with recruiting and community relations.

Coach Doherty was born in France and lived in West Africa as a child but was raised in San Francisco.  He is fluent in 3 languages and has a wealth of playing and coaching experience having spent the last 18 years coaching NCAA Division 1, high school, and elite-level AAU basketball. 

Philippe also helped develop NBA 1st Round Pick Jared Cunningham (2012 1st Rounder), NBA lottery pick Marquese Chriss, who was drafted 8th overall in the June 2106 NBA draft, and Josh Jackson who was drafted 4th overall in the 2017 NBA draft.  Furthermore, Philippe has also coached multiple NFL players who played for him in AAU.  Players like TE Zach Ertz of the Philadelphia Eagles, DB Trumaine Johnson of the St. Louis Rams, and TE Julius Thomas of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Philippe Doherty played at Santa Clara University in 1995-1997 for Coach Dick Davey where he was a member of two WCC championship teams in 1995-96 and 1996-97, one of which (95-96) advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament with 2 Time NBA MVP and Future Hall of Famer Steve Nash and that team entered the Santa Clara Hall of Fame in the Spring of 2017.  Philippe also was teammates in college with current Philadelphia 76ers asst. coach Lloyd Pierce and with current Phoenix Suns asst. coach Marlon Garnett.

Coach Doherty also coached Division 1 basketball for 4 years at the University of San Francisco from 2002-2006 under head coaches Phil Mathews and Jessie Evans.

HEAD Strength and Conditioning/NUTRITION: Joseph Hughes

Joseph (Jojo) Hughes joins Prolific Prep & GSP as Director of Sports Performance. Prior to joining our organization, Jojo has helped create athletic performance programs at various elite gyms, universities, high schools, and his private practice Fightletics. Since starting his business in 2015 he has guided over 100 professional athletes throughout their career and coached countless collegiate athletes. During the 2016 school year, he was hired by the University of California to assist with operations as weight room staff. He has also held strength and conditioning positions at the high school level with some of the top public/private programs in the state (Pittsburg/De La Salle/Carondelet). 

Now Coach Hughes is developing first-round picks on the Golden State Warriors, players on the Sacramento King’s, various collegiate athletes, boxers/UFC fighters, and multiple players in the NFL. His love for development and performance throughout athletics has lead him to work with our program to prep basketball players to fulfill their potential.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, after graduating high school he enrolled in junior college at Diablo Valley College and later attended Cal State East Bay. At 19, JoJo was enlisted into the United States Air Force at the 349th Aerospace Medicine Squadron. Now he is currently licensed/certified for strength/conditioning and sports medicine. It is clearly outside of his love for God and family there is nothing he enjoys more than performance and competition. JoJo hopes to create a level of energy and expertise that will maintain the standard of excellence that Prolific Prep/GSP has obtained.

Prolific Prep Assistant Coach - MO HAROON

Mohammed “Mo” Haroon joins Prolific Prep after 6 years of experience in the basketball world. 

Mo, a Los Angeles native, spent the 2022-2023 season as an assistant coach for University of Rio Grande (NAIA), helping the team to a 25-7 record, which included a conference championship & the programs first national tournament win in 22 years. During the 2023 spring & summer, Mo was the head coach for Midwest Basketball Club-Cincinnati Gold 2026, helping

lead the team to a 36-9, including the Bill Hensley Platinum & GRBA Gold National championships. 

Prior, Mo spent time doing film work for DJ Sackmann, an elite player development trainer, helping him build online basketball courses, used by players all over the world. Mo also served as a video scout, for Sports Information Solutions, helping feed third party data to NBA teams about upcoming  NBA draft prospects.

Mo is a Xavier University alumni, where he served as head manager.

Assistant Coach Prolific Prep / Select: Carl Pierre

Carl Pierre joins Prolific Prep as a first-year assistant coach from Randolph, MA.   Prior to his arrival at Prolific Prep, Pierre was a 4-year starter at UMass and transferred to Rice University to play out his extra COVID year.  Carl finished his collegiate career with over 1,800 career points,  350 career three point makes, and an all-conference nomination in his time at Rice. 

Carl was invited to participate in the collegiate three point contest at the 2021 NCAA Final Four in New Orleans alongside some of the best shooters in the nation.  Following his collegiate career, Pierre spent some time with the Houston Rockets summer league team and the Maine Celtics. 

Pierre graduated from UMass with a Bachelor's degree in Communications as well as his Master's degree in Public Policy in 2021. 

 

Prolific GREEN HEAD COACH - Stefan Maksimovic

This is coach Stefan's  first season with Prolific Prep.  After graduating  from Miramonte 2016 and attended the University of Arizona.  Before attending Prolific Prep, Coach Stef coached at Miramonte High School for four years as the Head Assistant, defensive coordinator, and video coordinator. He helped Head Coach Chris Lavdiotis and Rich Forslund accumulate a record of 53-23.   

Furthermore, Stefan was the head assistant at the College of Alameda (CCCAA) from 2021-2023 and recruited 9 players to the program including 3 international players and 6 local players.  There at the College of Alameda Coach Stef was a part of  sending three players to higher level programs including Jase Brock (Dakota State NAIA) Jordan Jackson (Warner Pacific NAIA) and Petar Mijatovic (King's University NCAA D2). 

Stef also coached the last two springs for West Coast Elite 17s National GXL team as the head coach and had a record of 63-7. 
Coach Stefan  hopes to find a Division 1 coaching job in the near future as a Video Coordinator in hopes of becoming a Head Coach for a Division 1 program one day.

DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA- Justin Binaday

Justin Binaday joins Prolific Prep as the Director of Creative Content & Social Media. With four years of experience in social media management, Justin specializes in digital marketing, content creation, and brand storytelling. In addition to social media management,

Justin has a background in sports content creation, videography, and photography — capturing high-quality visuals and crafting cinematic edits that engage audiences. He holds a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from San José State University.

Support Staff Prolific Prep-GSP / Select: Scott Ergas

Born and raised in San Francisco and South San Francisco, Scott has won multiple championships as a player and a coach spanning four decades .  Scott played at South San Francisco High in the 1970’s then started his coaching career at El Camino High School from 1988 until 1994.  He then moved on to South San Francisco High School from 1994 until 2003 where his teams were known for all out pressure defense and always being the team nobody wanted to play against.   Furthermore,  Scott coached AAU basketball in Citrus Heights and Roseville

Scott has lived in Napa for the last 15 years enjoying his retirement but is excited to be back into coaching and being on the coaching staff at Prolific Prep.

GSP Assistant Coach/Director of Operations - Paul Murray

Paul Murray spent the past five years coaching at the high school level in North Carolina. Last season, as the Head Coach at Henderson Collegiate, he led the Pride to a conference regular season and tournament championship. Known for his full court press and uptempo style, Paul's team forced more turnovers than nearly everyone in the region, including multiple games over 40. 

Prior to his time as a Head Coach, Paul spent six years as an assistant to current Prolific Prep Head Coach Ryan Bernardi.  In his three years at The Burlington School, they won back to back state championships, along with a state runner up. Before that, he helped guide Burlington Christian to its winningest season in school history. 

The Princeton, NJ native attended Elon University. There he gained Division 1 playing and coaching experience, as a scout team player and manager. He graduated in 2018, earning bachelor degrees in History and Strategic Communications.

GSP HEAD COACH - HUMPHREY JACKSON

We are happy to announce Humphrey Jackson to the GSP coaching Staff.   Coach Jackson is from Oakland, California, and played his high school ball at Woodside High School where he was a 3-time league champion.   After High School, he spent his freshman season at Utah State University where the 23-7 Aggies made the NCAA tournament.   Coach Jackson then transferred back home and was an All-League and State performer at Foothill Junior College, where he was one of the top scorers in the conference.   After that, he then went on to receive a basketball scholarship to Southern Oregon University where he was the conference leader in assist for 2 seasons while finishing top 10 all-time in SOU history in assist.

For the past 5 years, he has been a vital part in AAU with Team Arsenal one of the top programs on the west coast, coaching and training helping players receive scholarships.  Furthermore, Humphrey will be a house leader at our off-campus housing.    Humphrey is also an Assitant Coach for the Prolific Prep National team. 
 

President & CEO: Jeremy Russotti

Noted early on in his career as one of the Nations top basketball developmental minds, Jeremy has proven that he can make the most elite players more efficient with his hybrid relevance training program.  Because of numerous requests in the past from top high school clients/families wanting to train with him year-round, Jeremy founded Prolific Prep in 2014.  “Prolific Prep is an accumulation of a community coming together to support our group's vision in creating the top basketball prep  academy in the world.”  Jeremy is not only a master at achieving quick results with his progressive skill training curriculum but also an inventor/businessman for some of the top basketball products and coaching resources out on the market today.  

Reinventing himself at the Prep School level, Jeremy has lead Prolific Prep as one of the top basketball prep brands in the USA.  If it's increasing the standard on social media, collaboration with media platforms for TV series, the formation of new teams, or breaking new ground with corporate sponsors and marketing, Jeremy has progressed Prep School basketball, creating its own lane for its players and for the Prolific brand.   

Jeremy is currently the CEO of Global Sports Innovation (GSI), inventing products such as the J-Glove Shooting AidJ-StrapV-BandsO-Bands, and T2G Golf Aid.  Furthermore, Jeremy is the creator of the Millennium Instructional Series DVDs, as well as the founder of www.SkillTrainingU.com (online training program for coaches/players).