By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
For the past 30 years, Chad Prewett has gained a high degree of notoriety in the basketball world. A high school coach with 10 Alabama state championships under his belt, Chad joined the staff of Auburn University in 2014 and steadily worked his way up the Auburn University program’s ladder.
He has now reached an acceptable height at AU and is putting that ladder away to work fulltime under a new “coach.” The Atmore native and former Escambia Academy standout player and coach has decided to leave the hardwood behind for a more important mission that stretches far beyond the borders of Lee County, Alabama.
Prewett, who advanced to become one of Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl’s top assistants, helped Pearl turn the Tigers program into a national power. He announced last week he will leave the Southeastern Conference school and work fulltime with Unite US, a ministry founded by his wife, Tonya.
Prewett’s coaching career began in 1995 at Escambia Academy. For 10 school years he coached basketball, football, golf and track and served as EA’s athletics director from 1998-2004. Escambia Academy was winner of the Alabama Independent School Association Chairman’s Award for Outstanding Program in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
At Lee-Scott Academy (in Auburn), Chad’s girls squads brought home five state championship trophies and his boys, who posted a 139-31 record over seven years, also won a state title. He later coached at Faith Academy, where his boys hoops team won a state championship and his girls won four. He also coached the school’s track team to three straight AISA championships (2009, 2010 and 2011.)
Chad and Tonya (a former Escambia County High School cheerleader) will still travel to colleges and universities across the nation, but it won’t be to help keep the Tigers in college basketball’s upper echelon. Instead, their trips will now be designed solely to help college students experience salvation, find freedom and make connections that can help them build and sustain their religious faith.
Pearl said in a televised interview he had known for a long time he would one day lose Prewett to the assistant’s religious faith.
“Everybody knew when they hired Chad Prewett (a few months before Pearl) they were hiring a great man,” Pearl said. “This is not a surprise. Chad and I talked about for years that at some point he would take the leap of faith. We talked about calling God, and now God is calling Chad Prewett and saying it’s time to take everything he’s done in basketball and give it to (God) fulltime.”
Since Pearl and Prewett arrived at Auburn, the Tigers have won five SEC titles and have made six appearances in the NCAA championship tournament, including two trips to the NCAA Final Four (2019, 2025).
The outgoing coach admitted the AU accomplishments were sweet but pointed out that the road he traveled to get where he is now, was even sweeter.
“More than the accomplishments, it has always been about the journey,” he said. “The relationships I’ve built with my brothers on this staff and the young men I’ve had the privilege to coach, will remain the most cherished part of my time here.”
Unite US evolved from a prayer group founded on the Auburn campus in 2023 by Tonya, a retired educator. The group started with five members and quickly grew to 200, then drew national attention when hundreds of spontaneous baptisms occurred at a rally that drew more than 5,000 people.
Since then, the Prewetts have visited more than a dozen universities, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, Kentucky, Baylor and Purdue. The couple has three daughters: Madison (a former “The Bachelor” finalist who sometimes speaks on the ministry’s behalf and is now married to Grant Troutt), Mallory and Mary Mykal.
Chad, who said he is walking away from basketball for good, explained that he spent a lot of time in prayer and thought before finalizing his decision, but admitted that, in the end, it wasn’t his decision at all. He also admitted he wouldn’t give up his status as an AU hoops fan, and as a member of the Auburn family.
“This decision comes with deep reflection, prayer, and peace, knowing it’s time to follow where God is leading me next,” Prewett posted to his X (formerly Twitter) account. “I may be stepping away from the court, but I will always bleed orange and blue. Once an Auburn Tiger, always an Auburn Tiger.”
Anyone wishing to make a financial contribution to the Unite US cause may do so by visiting the ministry’s website, uniteusmovement.com.