It is not unusual for coaches to transfer to different schools or spend years as an assistant to learn how to be a better head coach. It is the nature of the beast.
But what is unusual is for a grandson to learn how to be a better coach from his own granddad.
Such is the case for newly appointed Sheridan High School football coach Lance Parker, the grandson of Jimmy “Red” Parker, who coached for 62 years and won 322 games at the high school and collegiate level.
Red Parker coached for the University of Arkansas at Monticello, the University Southern Arkansas University, and Ouachita Baptist University amoung others on the collegiate level and was the first football coach for the Haskell Harmony Grove Cardinals.
“I got to spend hours and hours after practice, talking to him about different things and situations that had come up,” Parker said. “I was very fortunate in that regard with him being close.”
Parker said his granddad lived about a mile from the stadium, and every day after practice, he would spend about two hours talking shop with the legendary coach.
“If I tried to live up to him, I would definitely fail,” Lance Parker said. “I am thankful that he is my granddad and that he taught me.
“He spent a lot of time trying to help me understand everything he knew about coaching.”
Parker, who currently lives in Bryant, said those conversations were less about the schemes or play-calling and more about how to deal with off-the-field situations.
“It was more how you handle people, kids, how to organize things, how to lead people or how to run a program,” Parker said.
He said he grew up in a different era of offense than the one his granddad created.
“So there wasn’t a lot of continuity there,” Parker said, “but I think people are people, and kids are kids.
“Even at 84, that guy could still connect with kids, and I think there are some universal qualities, no matter what the age is.”
Red Parker, a Rison native, retired from coaching on Nov. 13, 2015, after the Haskell Harmony Grove Cardinals lost in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs at Fordyce — where his career began in 1953.
“In my eyes, he is the best football coach to ever live,” Lance Parker said. “So trying to live up to that is probably never going to happen.
“The only thing I can do is try to be me and apply the lessons I learned from him.”
According to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Red Parker, who died in January 2016, was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and was 186-94-5 in 24 high school seasons.
“I probably had a thousand of those conversations,” Parker said. “Not everyone is fortunate enough to get to have a two-hour conversation a day with a legend like that.”
Parker graduated from Bryant in 2003 and went to Vanderbilt on a football scholarship. He quickly transferred to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway before finally settling on Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, where he was a three-year starter at quarterback. He graduated from OBU in 2009, and he also has a master’s degree from Arkansas State University.
“I went to Vanderbilt, but I wasn’t good enough to play there,” Parker said. “So I transferred to UCA in hopes of some better playing time, but I was in a quarterback competition with Nathan Brown, and he was a better quarterback than me.
“I was trying to get on the field, and I felt like I needed to go somewhere where I could play because that’s what I love to do. … It took me a couple of tries, but it worked out for the best.”
Parker said he is still really close with the coaches at OBU, including head football coach Todd Knight.
“I have known Lance since he was 2 years old,” Knight said. “I have been around him his whole life.
“He was a fantastic player for us, and he was really the talent that got us started. He and his teammates got us to seven wins for the first time. He and that group of kids built OBU football to what it is today.”
Knight said Parker is a good leader, a good quarterback and a good player.
“We have good memories of the impact he made in the program,” Knight said.
Last year, Parker was the co-offensive coordinator and wide-receivers coach at Russellville High School, and prior to that, he spent four years at Bryant High School as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under then head coach Paul Calley. Before moving back to Bryant, Parker was the defensive coordinator at DeSoto Central High School in Southaven, Mississippi, for a year, and for two years, he was the wide-receivers coach in Paris, Texas.
“I was trying to learn under different people and get different experiences,” Parker said. “I always knew I wanted to be a head coach, but I felt like I needed to learn a lot of different ways to do things. That way, I could pick what was the best and have different answers for different problems.
“I was pretty calculated with who I tried to work for, and I feel like the guys that I worked with did a really good job teaching me a lot about this role that I am in now.”
Parker said this isn’t a job that one can ever be fully prepared for, “but I don’t think I could have picked any better people to work for.”
Russellville won the 6A state championship last year, defeating Greenwood 37-23 in the finals.
“Russellville has had some winning seasons, but they never had that next level of success,” Parker said. “And so I think before coach [Billy] Dawson, the previous five years had really been a down portion of their program, so morale was low.
“Watching him, the strategies he used, and how he talked and dealt with the kids, is very similar to how I want to be here in Sheridan.”
Parker replaces Louis Campbell, who is retiring and planning on moving to Northwest Arkansas to fish and spend more time with his grandkids. Campbell was the head coach at Sheridan for seven years, and the Yellowjackets finished 1-9 last season.
“I think he is a great man, and I have really enjoyed being around him,” Parker said. “He’s coached for a long time, and he has a lot of wisdom, and he has been very beneficial.
“I can’t wait to spend the next few months with him before he goes because I think he has a lot to offer as far as what this place needs to take it to the next level.”
Knight said Parker has some big shoes to fill, not only being Red Parker’s grandson, but also replacing Campbell.
“Louis Campbell is an icon in his own right in the state of Arkansas,” Knight said, “but Lance will get it done. Schematically, he will do a great job. He loves the game.
“He will be a good head football coach.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.