Parker: Coaches ‘stand tall’
CONWAY - After Bryant offensive coordinator Lance Parker spoke for about 20 minutes during a session of the Arkansas High SchoolCoaches Association clinic Friday morning at the University of Central Arkansas’ East McCastlin Hall, hetold the crowd that he was turning it over to the “real” Coach Parker.
That would be his grandfather, Jimmy “Red” Parker, 81, who is entering his fourth season as coach at Benton Harmony Grove.
“I have been highly,highly honored to have been a football coach,” Red Parker told the crowd. “You are in a great and honorable profession. The young people of this country need you. They need you to stand tall right now, and stand for the right thing.”
Parker touched on several subjects during his 30-minute talk, including his time as Clemson’s head coach in 1973-1976, starting a program from scratch at Benton Harmony Grove - a Class 3A school about 25 miles southwest of Little Rock - and taking his first head coaching job at Fordyce in 1953.
“I’ve gotten by with a whole lot of luck for a lot of years, lots of good luck,” Parker said.
He received a standing ovation following his talk.
After leading Fordyce to its first of three consecutive 12-0 seasons, Parker won the inaugural Lowell Manning Award as the AHSCA’s outstanding coach for the 1958-1959 school year.
Parker led Rison, his alma mater, to a 15-0 recordand the Class A state championship in 1995.
Father helps
A perk as an All-Star head coach is being able to have one of your assistants on the coaching staff.
East Coach Roddy Mote of Harding Academy chose his father, Gail, to coach defensive linemen this week. Gail Mote was co-defensive coordinator on Harding Academy’s 2012 Class 3A state championship team.
“It was a no-brainer to choose him, but I actually asked a couple of other people their thoughts on it,” said Roddy Mote, who is 59-7 in five seasons at Harding Academy. “I wanted to make sure that it was the right decision and they said, ‘Hey, it was a no-brainer for them.’ I think it was right.”
Roddy Mote was an assistant for the East in the 2012 All-Star game.
Heading north
Shaquille Hunter of Junction City, who playedcornerback for the East on Friday night, will walk on at Arkansas, where he will be reunited with former Dragons standouts Byran Jones and Alan Turner.
Jones (two-way lineman) and Turner (running back/ defensive back) were seniors on Junction City’s 2009 Class 2A state championship team.
Hunter, a freshman in 2009, said he decided earlier this month to walk on at Arkansas after turning down a scholarship offer from Ouachita Baptist.
“It happened weirdly,” Hunter said. “I just went up there and Byran was like, ‘You want to try and walk on here?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I would like to play with you all, of course.’ It happened really fast.”
Hunter was the Little Rock Touchdown Club’s Class 2A player of the year after leading Junction City to the state championship last fall at quarterback and cornerback.
Junction City straddles the Arkansas-Louisiana border south of El Dorado.
Sports, Pages 21 on 06/22/2013