WINSTON-SALEM -- The Wake Forest staff member who discovered Skip Prosser unresponsive and slumped on his couch last week is a certified CPR instructor with nearly two decades of experience.

Mike Muse taught life skills that included CPR for 17 years at North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem before Prosser last year made him Wake Forest's director of basketball operations.

He and assistant trainer Scott Spernoga unsuccessfully tried to revive Prosser after the veteran coach apparently suffered a fatal heart attack last Thursday.

"This teaches me that God's power is a whole lot more than what we can humanly do," Muse said. Spernoga "and I tried to do CPR, tried to revive him. God needed a heck of a basketball coach, and he got one."

Muse discussed his efforts to save Prosser's life Monday but requested that they not be published until after a funeral Mass for the coach Tuesday night.

His last conversation with Prosser came when the coach was in the middle of his regular noon jog and Muse left to cash a check in preparation for a recruiting trip to Las Vegas.

"He was running on the track and I yelled out, 'Hey coach, you doing your mile today? You going to ride your bike?' Muse said. "I said, 'Coach, I'll be right back, and I'll give you the rundown on camp.'

"He said, 'Great job this week, Musie. I'll see you in a few minutes.'"

When Muse returned to the basketball complex less than 10 minutes later, a secretary asked him to check on Prosser because his office was abnormally quiet. He discovered Prosser slouched on the couch. He immediately performed CPR and hurried to the nearby student health center in search of help.

He found Spernoga and the two of them worked on Prosser, with Muse performing chest compression and Spernoga trying to get the coach to breathe.

"I know we did what we could do," Muse said. "There's a reason I was there."

Medical personnel showed up with a defibrillator after about five rounds of CPR and took over. Prosser was then taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Muse gathered the current players, then undertook the difficult task of delivering the speech that closed that week's session of youth basketball camp -- a speech that Prosser usually gave.

"Probably harder than doing the CPR was closing camp," Muse said. "It wasn't Mike Muse doing it. The good Lord gave me the strength from somewhere. ... It wasn't me. It just wasn't me."

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