Drake ready for new challenge at Westwood
Rae Drake has been around the game of basketball for more than three decades. His last stint as a head coach was at West Iron County from 1996-2005.
Since then, Drake has been an assistant coach at the college level at both Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan. Drake was a part of Kim Cameron’s staff at Michigan Tech when the Lady Huskies made an appearance in the NCAA Division II title game in 2011.
He is currently a coach for the Northern Michigan Drive, the AAU basketball program here in the U.P. The veteran coach can’t wait to begin coaching the Patriots basketball team later this year.
“I just had the itch and the competitive juices came flowing back,” said Drake. “I wanted to call the shots again. Westwood has been a great program for many years. It’s declined a little bit, but I don’t see that as an issue. I’m eager to work with the players at Westwood and get it going again.”
Drake is already familiar with one of his players at Westwood. Patriots guard Luke Gray is a member of the Northern Michigan Drive.
Drake won 121 games in 9 seasons at West Iron County. He told ABC 10 Sports that Westwood plans on attending the Michigan Tech Basketball Team Camp next month in Houghton.