Coaching change at View Park Prep

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James Wilkes, pictured left, is out as boys’ basketball coach at View Park Prep, and former New York Nets basketball player Brian Taylor is taking over as coach.

Taylor, whose son, Bryce, is a standout at Oregon, is also View Park’s middle-school principal. He will keep both jobs.

Taylor said Tuesday that Wilkes was dismissed as coach for ‘philosophical differences’ with the school. Wilkes guided View Park to the City Section small schools championship last year and to the state Division V final.

Wilkes was upset that View Park’s administration refused to allow All-City guard Jason Pruitt to play with the team while Pruitt was taking independent study courses. Taylor said View Park had to take a stand that students must be enrolled in classes on campus.

‘We feel very strongly that academics comes first,’ Taylor said.

Taylor has coached youth basketball for several years and was a former girls’ basketball coach at North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and boys’ coach at Shalhevet.

Taylor took over the team on Monday.

-- Eric Sondheimer

-- Image by Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times