An offseason of questions surrounding the head coach of the boys basketball team at Durango High School finally found answers this week.
Alan Batiste will return to the Demons’ bench for an eighth season during the 2017-18 school year. Batiste, who is a health and physical education teacher at DHS, had announced his decision to resign from the position after last season, in which the Demons went 21-5 and won their first Southwestern League title in a decade.
Batiste said he wanted to take a break from coaching to spend more time with his wife, Rhita, and their two young children. DHS athletic director Adam Bright took applications for the open position and interviewed five candidates, including Batiste’s top assistant, Dalon Parker, who is the head coach of the boys and girls varsity soccer teams at DHS.
Parker was offered the position but was told he would have to surrender the head coaching job of the girls soccer team to accept. He declined. The job was re-opened, and Batiste put in an application a week later. After going through the interview process, Batiste was offered the job he had stepped away from only four months earlier. He accepted.
“When he was put in the mix and we looked at the candidate pool, it was obvious he was the best candidate for the position,” Bright said of Batiste. “We know what we’ve got and what he’s built here, and we are excited to keep going with it. We won’t have the growing pains of losing a great senior class and having a new coaching staff now. We will continue to build the program.”
Batiste also will serve as the boys tennis head coach for a second season. Batiste said the combination of Parker, a close friend, not getting the job and the recent death of one of his former players inspired him to continue coaching and forgo his planned break.
“I had a long conversation with my wife,” Batiste said. “I know I am a teacher and a coach, but she reiterated how much of an impact I have on these kids’ lives. That was my green light to go.
“I saw the dilemma the school was in feeling that it probably wasn’t in the best interest for (Parker) to have three jobs as a varsity coach and how much he has on his plate. It’s unfortunate, and I also didn’t want to lose a good coach. If I could get the job back and keep him on staff, it was a great opportunity for the players and myself.”
Parker led the team in summer camps. Without a set head coach, he took it upon himself and coached the varsity, junior varsity and freshmen at each team camp. Parker has been a highly-successful coach at DHS, leading boys and girls soccer teams deep into the state playoffs, including a semifinal appearance with the boys a year ago along with his best girls soccer playoff run in his five years in Durango. Including his job as an assistant on the boys basketball team last season, he led Demons teams to a league championship in all three sports he coached. Parker is a full-time coach and focuses all his professional work into training area athletes and preparing for the high school seasons.
“At the end of the day, my calling and my job in coaching is to change as many lives and touch as many kids as possible through sports,” Parker said. “When they brought me the pitch of having to choose, that was something I haven’t had to do in five years. I’ve coached three sports for five years here, on top of the (Durango Youth Soccer Association) and everything else I do in town.
“I couldn’t do it. I told the hiring committee, ‘You all have kids, so you go pick the kids you love the most and keep them in the house and send the others away. Can you do that?’ Obviously, the answer is no. What do you think my answer is going to be? They’re all my kids at the end of the day, and I couldn’t leave any one group hanging. I didn’t want to choose, and I don’t feel like I should have been put in a position to choose after all the success I’ve had in five years at the high school. It’s tough, but if anybody had to get the job, I’m glad it’s Alan.”
Batiste and Bright were thankful for Parker’s dedication to the basketball program during the summer and for maintaining continuity during a difficult time.
“Dalon stepped up being the No. 1 assistant when nobody was there to keep the program moving forward,” Bright said. “He’s invaluable. It happens at every school at some point where you have to have someone take the reins, be selfless and do what’s best for the kids. This is academic-based sports and it has to be about the kids.”
In seven seasons, Batiste has amassed a 97-59 overall record and a 35-32 mark in the 5A/4A Southwestern League. Last season, the team won the SWL and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the Class 4A state playoffs. The Demons were the No. 4 seed in the tournament and lost on an overtime buzzer-beater to Evergreen, which tied the game in regulation with a 3-point shot that came after the buzzer.
That emotional defeat didn’t influence Batiste’s decision to step away, he said. The Demons graduated 11 seniors from that team and now will turn their focus to building the younger players into contenders.
“We lost so many players,” Batiste said, “but we didn’t lose our culture. We’re gonna start a brand new thing with the new players, and it’s gonna be a blast.”
Parker is happy to have the opportunity to stay on the bench with the basketball team and keep coaching all three sports.
He’s also excited to continue his partnership with Batiste and see how far they can take it.
“As coaches, we have circles we hang out with,” he said. “Inside those circles, we have best friends and brothers. That’s what Alan has been for me. He comes to every soccer game with his kids and is one of my biggest supporters. We have a brotherhood, and I’m glad it’s not gonna go away.”
Batiste played at Fort Lewis College from 2003 to 2004. He returned to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona, for a few years before coming back to Durango. He said he is committed to the Demons for the foreseeable future and has no plans to reconsider after next season.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to step away from coaching,” he said. “The day I do forever will be one of the hardest things I’ll do in my life. I’m here to coach. I never guessed I’d be in Durango, Colorado, but I’m here and I’m here to stay.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
