Mike Pratapas, who has more than 17 years experience as a college athletics administrator, serves as President of Proehlific Park.

Pratapas, a standout football player at Wake Forest in the 1980s, is involved in all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the facility. He helps oversee marketing, membership sales, operations, personnel and programs.

At Wake Forest, Pratapas played four years of Demon Deacon football and one year of baseball. A four-time Brian Piccolo-Scholarship recipient, Pratapas played football for the Deacons from 1981-84. Once his football eligibility was exhausted, Pratapas joined the Deacon baseball team for one season in the spring of 1985.
 
Soon after graduating from Wake Forest in 1985, Pratapas embarked on a career in college athletics, where he gained experience in a number of areas. He worked as a graduate assistant football coach at Wake Forest in 1986 and 1987 while completing his master’s in education. Pratapas then worked 13 years at WFU as an administrator, first as an academic advisor followed by an 8-year stint as Associate Athletic Director for Development from 1995-2002.

While working in development at Wake Forest, Pratapas directed three capital campaigns totaling more than $50 million.

Aside from his administrative duties, Pratapas also served as a color analyst on the ISP/Wake Forest Radio Network for Deacon football games.

Following a long and successful stint at Wake Forest, Pratapas was hired by Rice University in Houston as Associate Athletic Director. He directed a $3 million capital campaign during his one year (2003-04) with the Owls’ program. During Pratapas’ tenure at Rice, the Owls won the NCAA Championship in baseball.

From 2004-06, Pratapas served as Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of Pittsburgh, where he oversaw all external operations for the athletic department, including development, marketing, licensing and media relations. He helped plan and launch a $45 million capital campaign at Pittsburgh, which helped erect new facilities and increase scholarship revenue. During Pratapas’ stay at Pitt, the Panther Club Athletic Scholarship Fund increased from 5,000 to 7,000 members and fundraising increased from $3.2 million to $6.5 million annually.

Before enrolling at Wake Forest, Pratapas was a standout high school athlete in the Chicagoland area. In football, he was a high school All-American, a first team all-state linebacker in Illinois in 1980 and the Catholic League Player of the Year, also in 1980. In baseball, he was an All-Catholic League performer and a Chicago All-Area selection 1981. He has been inducted into the Chicgo DeLaSalle High School Sports Hall of Fame.