Dalon Parker poured everything he had into the Durango Demons for six years. Now, the coach is ready for his next calling.
Parker, the head boys and girls varsity soccer coach at Durango High School, accepted a men’s college soccer head coaching job at Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon. He will leave Jan. 2 to take over the Lions’ program in 2018.
“This gives me an opportunity to continue to grow,” Parker said. “I’ve learned a lot here and continued to grow here in Durango for six years. I grew up coaching here. This gives me the chance to take the next step. I’ve always wanted to see if I could coach college.
“I’ve read so many books the last few years that say if you’re not dreaming then you’re not working hard enough. This is the dream, so we will see how it goes.”
Durango athletic director Adam Bright said the girls soccer coaching position for 2018 has been opened to applicants. The school also is searching for a girls lacrosse coach for this spring along with a Nordic ski coach for this winter.
Parker will have a chance to grow the Multnomah program, which is a four-year NAIA institution that has had a men’s varsity soccer team since 2014. The Lions have gone 6-58 overall and 2-37 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Parker will be the second head coach in team history and will replace Tom Stephens, who resigned effective Dec. 3.
“It’s exciting because it gets to be mine,” Parker said of the chance to build a program from the ground up. “Every staff I’ve had at Durango High, we took pride in building the programs to what they are today. It’s something I’m good at, taking over programs and building them. I’m coming in with no stress because they already know it’s going to take three to five years to make the program competitive. It’s an opportunity to try to start something, build traditions and a family atmosphere.”
Parker’s focus to building a family atmosphere was key to his success at Durango High. The relationships built resulted in wins on the field. Parker, who also took over as a full-time assistant on the boys basketball team for the Sweet 16 run and league championship for the 2016-17 season, was part of six league championship teams at DHS. He amassed a 62-18-5 overall record with the boys soccer program that included a 31-8-3 mark in the 5A/4A Southwestern League. With girls soccer, Parker’s teams went 48-26-4 overall and 34-10-4 in league. Both teams enjoyed historic years during the 2016-17 school year, as the boys reached the final four of state before losing to eventual state champion and private school powerhouse The Classical Academy. The girls soccer team reached the second round of state and earned a home playoff win in 2017.
Parker said the hardest aspect of taking the college job was not being able to coach the girls soccer team this spring.
“The toughest part is leaving my girls,” Parker said. “I had already coached the boys for the year, we’re in the middle of boys basketball right now, so the only team I hadn’t got a chance to see how they would do this year was girls soccer. It’s really tough. Nothing against boys basketball or boys soccer, but the girls I really wanted an opportunity to finish with. We have 11 seniors I wanted to finish the year with. When I was mulling the offer, the hardest part was them telling me I had to leave and couldn’t coach the girls team.”
Parker worked for four different athletic directors at DHS and was a steady presence during a time of high turnover within DHS athletics. The passion he brought to the sidelines was unparalleled, and he never focused on wins and losses as much as he focused on building high-character student-athletes.
“His unbelievable passion for coaching, not just soccer but everything, was always fun to watch,” said former DHS athletic director David Preszler. “It was always a joy to be able to see him coach hard and at the same time coach well. He exemplifies everything that should be happening with coaching with the great skills and life lessons he teaches. Durango is such a soccer community, and there’s no question Durango was extremely fortunate to have him.”
Bright said Parker was deserving of a chance to coach in college and has no question he will succeed.
“It shows that hard work and dedication can lead you to as big of heights as you want to reach for,” Bright said. “Dalon lives and breathes coaching. That’s his calling, and he puts all his energy into it. It shows with how the programs here have grown year after year.”
Parker’s absence will also be felt by the basketball team as a group of young players surround head coach Alan Batiste.
“He’s been awesome. He’s been everything I could have asked for,” said Seth Johnson, a senior on the DHS boys basketball team. “I’m super happy for him, but I’m going to miss him a lot. He’s made a huge difference in our team, and he’s made a huge difference in me as a player. I wouldn’t be even close to where I am right now as a person and as a player if it wasn’t for Dalon.”
Parker applied for the head boys basketball coaching position at DHS after Batiste originally resigned after last season. Parker took the players to summer camps and was offered the basketball coach position but was told he could only coach two varsity sports and not three. Parker, who is originally from Texas, did not want to pick a soccer team to relinquish, so he turned down the basketball offer. Batiste immediately re-applied for his old position and was once again named the coach.
Parker, who is a full-time coach and does not teach at the school, decided to start looking at college jobs after he was denied the opportunity to coach three sports at DHS. He was deemed to not have enough experience for the first job he applied for, but Multnomah was willing to take a chance on a young coach with ample success at the high school level.
“Once I didn’t get the basketball job, I felt like maybe there was a reason behind that,” Parker said. “Maybe God had a plan of why I didn’t get that job. He did have a plan. I put my name out there. This one ended up working out really well. I told myself I needed someone to take a chance on me and they wouldn’t regret it. Multnomah is taking that chance on me.”
Parker said he is blessed Multnomah would give him a head coaching job without having collegiate assistant experience. But Parker isn’t shy on college athletics experience, as he played college basketball and soccer at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, before he transferred his sophomore year to Dallas Baptist University to continue playing both sports. He played professional soccer in Germany with three teams before returning to the Dallas area.
He moved to Durango in 2013 with his wife, Sarah. While in Durango, the couple had a son, Elijah. Sarah worked at The River Church in Durango.
Now, the Parkers are on the move to Portland with fond memories of Durango to hold dear to their hearts.
“I’m going to miss all the relationships built here,” Parker said. “Every relationship, the good, bad and mediocre, have all helped me grow. It’s the hardest thing to leave. I look back at my graduating classes at Durango, and I have kids all over the country doing different things and working their butts off to be successful, just like they did on my teams.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared. Portland is going to be a great city to recruit to and live in.
“It won’t be Durango, but it’s going to be a good move.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
