WORCESTER — Al Pettway is going home.
After leading the North High boys’ basketball team to back-to-back state championships the past two winters, Pettway is taking over as coach of the Worcester State men’s basketball program. He accepted the job Tuesday morning.
A 1994 graduate of Worcester State, Pettway is the all-time leading scorer for the Lancers and a member of their athletic Hall of Fame.
“I’m going back to my alma mater where it all started,” Pettway, 52, said. “To go back and be the head coach is a dream. I always wanted to coach at my alma mater, so I get this opportunity and I’m really thankful.
“I’m going back home.”
Pettway called 140 Harrington Way his hardwood home for the past 22 years, guiding North High to a 242-214 record in his two-plus decades on the bench. The Polar Bears won the Central Mass. Division 1 championship in 2005 and also reached the Central Mass. final in 2009 and 2010.
The past two years, the coach with a penchant for flair steered North to two straight Division 1 state titles — with the Polar Bears reeling off 45 consecutive wins overall. This winter, Pettway led his team to a perfect 24-0 campaign that wrapped up with a frantic 59-53 victory over Franklin in the Div. 1 state final in March.
“With Worcester never having won a D1 state championship, being able to bring that not only to North High but the Worcester community has been so real, and a dream come true,” Pettway said. “I’m at peace knowing that we were able to accomplish that. And whoever comes in, they can continue it.”
Growing up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Pettway didn’t play basketball until he was in seventh grade. By the time he was a senior at Warren Harding High School, Pettway garnered just enough attention to earn a spot on the Worcester State men’s basketball team.
During his time at Worcester State, Pettway scored 2,205 career points, and to this day, the former four-year starter and captain holds eight college records and a school record of 232 3-pointers.
Following his playing career, Pettway took assistant coaching gigs at Worcester Academy, Worcester State and Assumption. Then, in 2002, he took over as the coach of the North High boys’ basketball team.
Now, Pettway will coach a different basketball team in Worcester. Roughly 5 miles away from North High.
“It was hard to leave North,” Pettway said. “I really had to do a lot of soul searching. I just put it all together and just thought it was the best move for me.”
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Pettway says he plans to keep his job as dean of students at North High while providing any insight to whoever takes over as the next coach of the Polar Bears.
As for his own new job at Worcester State, Pettway wants to make the Lancers — who went 18-10 and won a MASCAC championship last season — one of the best Division III programs in the nation. He replaces Tyler Hundley, who earlier this month left Worcester State to take over the men’s basketball program at Nichols.
“But we’ll put a little Al Pettway spin on it,” he said.
In typical Al Pettway fashion. The newest men’s basketball coach at Worcester State University is happy to return home.
—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.