Former Toros recall coach’s tough love
David Luders and his ninth-grade teammates at Poston Junior High were in the middle of football practice when the coach told them they needed to gather in the school auditorium. It was 1975. “We didn’t have a clue as to what was going on,” Luders recalled. “All of a sudden, here comes Coach Parker in red, white and blue. He goes up to the podium and all he says is, ‘I’m coach Jesse Parker. I’m the new head coach at Mountain View High School. You’re probably wondering why I’m talking to a bunch of ninth-graders at Poston. I’m here because I want to be the first to congratulate you because when you’re seniors, you’re going to win the state championship game. Congratulations.’
“Then, he turned around and walked out.”
In 1978, Luders was a quarterback on Parker’s first state championship team at Mountain View.
Luders is standing in Mountain View’s cafeteria on Friday, watching as dozens of Parker’s former players form a line to say hello and hug their coach. Pictures are taken. Kids and grand kids are introduced to the 77-year-old man with a hearing aid in one ear. The pizza and cookies are largely ignored because they’re on one side of the room and Parker is on the other, dressed to coach in a red-and-bluestriped shirt and a Mountain View cap.
One man walks around with a white Tshirt that says, “Jesse Parker for President.”
Here in northeast Mesa, he’d get a lot of votes.
At halftime of Mountain View’s 43-21 victory over Valley Vista on Friday, the Toros’ field was re-named appropriately, Jesse Parker Field, after the coach who won four state titles at the school and the man who shaped the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of kids.
“It was tough as heck playing for him, but it was the most rewarding thing,” said Dan Woods, a member of Parker’s 1993 state championship squad. "You worked so hard for him, but you just loved him so much. You knew he cared so much about you personally.”
As players wearing name-tags milled around the room, an older gentlemen in a wheelchair was pushed toward Parker. When Parker saw him, he bent down and gave the man a hug. A wide smile crossed Karl Kiefer’s face.
The two coaches were contemporaries and rivals, Tempe McClintock and Mountain View two of the state’s most celebrated programs in the 1970s and 1980s. The rivalry between the schools and the legendary intensity of the two coaches could have created hard feelings. Instead, Kiefer and Parker began a friendship that continues to this day.
“It was respect,” Kiefer said. “Respect for him and his program and how he went about things. He was the best. Matter of fact, I had to bring my coaching level up to where he was.”
After Mountain View’s eight state championship teams were introduced at halftime, a circle of cheerleaders gathered near midfield and a red ribbon was brought out. Parker, handed a scissors, cut the ribbon as the public address announcer proclaimed the field’s new name. Parker’s wife, Latsy, stood behind him, holding on to red roses given her by Arizona Interscholastic Association assistant executive director David Hines. “This is unbelievable,” Parker said. No, Coach, it’s a lifetime honor for a man who changed so many lives.
A couple of hours earlier, Luders was asked what Parker meant to him. He doesn’t say a word for a few seconds. Tears well up in his eyes. Finally, he expresses what so many other men have said on this night. Parker didn’t just teach them how to be better football players. He taught them how to become better people, to be, as 1983 state championship player Aron Pineda, said, better sons and husbands and fathers.
At halftime, one former player leaned in, brought Parker close and said, “I wouldn’t be who I am if it weren’t for you.”
“He had more influence on me than any man in my life,” Luders said. “I would have walked on glass for him after he talked to us at Poston. I still would. I’ll love him until I die.”
Peoria Sunrise Mountain, No. 4 in the 4A Conference, lived up to its ranking with 49-0 victory over Buckeye Union in Buckeye on Friday night.
Coach Steve Decker’s high-powered offense scored 42 points by halftime.
Senior quarterback Chase Cord paced Sunrise Mountain (1-0) with five touchdown passes in the first half. Most of the starters sat after halftime.
Sunrise Mountain is a dangerous team, coming off a 10-0 regular season in 2015, scoring no fewer than 50 points in a game until its 41-21 defeat to Buckeye Verrado in the second round of the state playoffs.
Decker said the loss last season, however, is a positive for his team this season.
“We thought we were better than we were,” Decker said about last year’s team.
That led to Sunrise Mountain scheduling tougher opponents this season, with championship aspirations once again. The defense was stellar. “They set everything up for us,” said Decker. “I think that’s what kind of made the difference today.”
Buckeye Union (0-1) came into the opener unranked, after a 7-3 finish last season.
Though Sunrise Mountain came in with high expectations, Buckeye coach Kelley Moore said those expectations did not alter his game plan.
“We can only do what we can do,” Moore said.
Moore’s team started strong, forcing a fumble on the first drive of the game.
Sunrise Mountain scored touchdowns on its next two plays on offense, highlighted by a 71-yard rush by sophomore Jay Anderson, and then followed up with a 20-yard pass from Cord to senior Zack Pells.
“Nobody likes to get beat like that,” Moore said. “But they’re a class act. It could’ve been a lot worse.”