MUSKEGON HEIGHTS – Dreams don’t always become reality overnight.

Sometimes life creates detours that take us away from the happy scenarios we envision for ourselves.

But that doesn’t have to mean the dreams are dead. Just ask Muskegon Heights head football coach Van Parker, who loved playing for a winning team at the Heights back in his high school days, and dreamed of coming back and restoring the program as a coach.

Parker is actually living that dream at the moment, with his team headed to the Division 8 district finals this Friday, but it took some time to accomplish.

As he put it, “I had a long journey.”

Back in 2009 Parker was a starting receiver and defensive player for a Muskegon Heights football team that made the playoffs and advanced all the way to the state semifinals.

The year before, as a junior, Parker had been the starting quarterback, but new coach Willie Snead came to town and brought his son, Willie Snead, Jr., to be the new QB.

The younger Snead, of course, went on to become a standout wide receiver in the National Football League.

Parker didn’t mind moving to wide receiver while becoming the backup QB in 2009, and he really loved the results on the field.

The Tigers finished 10-3 on the season and won their first three playoff games, before falling to Jackson Lumen Christi in the Division 5 state semifinals.

“It was the greatest time of my life,” Parker said. “We were a pretty good team, and we really supported each other and cheered each other on. Our first wins (in the regular season) were against Oakridge. It was exciting and fun.

“I learned a lot from Coach Snead. I was always a football guy, but he made me love the game even more. He was the first one to introduce us to a spread offense, and he showed me a ton. He made me a better football player.”

Parker said he didn’t mind giving up the starting quarterback duties to the coach’s son, because it made the team even better.

“I befriended Willie Snead,” he said. “I was probably the first one on the team to befriend him. I have always been a team player. Whatever helps the team, I’ll do.”

Lessons from working in a factory

Parker went on to play junior college football in Pasadena, California after high school, but that situation only lasted one season.

“California was rough for a 17-year-old,” Parker said. “We had to take long bike rides to practice every day, and I was eating off the McDonald’s dollar menu just about every day. I got discouraged, then I came home for Christmas and decided against going back to California.”

Parker transferred to a college in Chicago the next year, but had financial aid problems and never got on the football field.

After that Parker came home and worked in a factory for a few years. At the time that experience seemed like a defeat for Parker, who dreamed of playing college and pro football and someday coaching, but the factory work turned out to be quite valuable.

It made Parker realize that he wanted to revisit his dreams, and it really wasn’t too late.

“That job let me know that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life,” he said. “At the same time, it gave me more respect for my mom, who had worked in a factory my whole life. But there I was at 22, when I was supposed to be graduating from college, and I was working in a factory.”

With the help of Mona Shores assistant football coach Aaron James, Parker returned to college as a 22-yard-student-athlete at William Penn University in Iowa.

He did not play on the football team in his first year at William Penn, but was voted the scout team player of the year. In his second year he made the team and was voted the special teams player of the year. By the time he was a senior he was the starting quarterback, the team’s offensive MVP, and helped the Statesmen win a conference championship.

After college Parker spent two years playing pro ball in the Czech Republic, before a torn ACL he had been playing on for some time finally demanded medical attention. He could have gotten surgery and attempted a comeback as a player, but decided it was time to move on to coaching,

He spent two years as an assistant coach at William Penn, before the head coaching job opened up at Muskegon Heights, and Parker eagerly returned to his alma mater.

“I was coaching at the college level, and a lot of people said I was crazy to come back to this situation, but from the time I was in high school I wanted Muskegon Heights to have a respected football program, and suddenly I had an opportunity to live out my dream,” said Parker, who also teaches physical education and health at the high school.

Coming home to build a winner

Parker became the head coach in 2018, and started with a team of mostly freshmen. The results were predictable – the Tigers went 0-9 in that first season, then 1-8 in 2019. They had high hopes of increasing the victory total in 2020, but never played at all because of COVID considerations.

Muskegon Heights was the only team in the area to completely skip the 2020 season.

Headed into this season, most people expected very little from the Tigers, considering they hadn’t played a game in almost two years. But Parker knew he still had that same core group of players who were freshmen back in 2018, he knew they would be very hungry to prove themselves this fall, and he made sure they put in the necessary work before they returned to the field.

He told everyone before the season that his team might be better than expected, and he turned out to be right.

“I knew about the work we had been putting in, and I knew we were following the process the right way, without skipping any steps,” Parker said. “I also knew we had talented kids who were capable of putting it all together.”

Muskegon Heights opened the season on the road with a surprisingly easy 42-6 victory over Potterville. Then came a 36-12 win over Calvin Christian, a forfeit victory over Wyoming Lee and a 34-28 conference win over Manistee.

The second half of the season was far more bumpy, with losses to Ludington, Muskegon Catholic,  Carson City Crystal and McBain, mixed in with a  forfeit victory over Orchard View.

But the 5-4 record was enough to get the Tigers into the Division 8 state playoffs – the team’s first appearance since 2010, the year after Parker graduated – and a first-round matchup with Holton last Saturday.

Parker’s team responded to the playoff atmosphere, racing to a 66-44 victory over the Red Devils.

Senior quarterback Ja’Kari Edwards, one of the original freshman who played for Parker. in 2018 – had an amazing game, with six rushing touchdowns and two TD passes. He totaled 160 yards on 10 carries and was 8-for-16 passing for 178 yards.

As a former quarterback who has played and learned from some great coaches, Parker has taken a special interest in Edwards’ development, and couldn’t be happier about his growth.

‘I have definitely been trying to groom him as a quarterback, and on our coaching staff we have three guys who played quarterback at the Heights and another one who played at the college level, so he has lots of quarterback whisperers,” Parker said. “I have been teaching him a lot of things I learned from Coach Snead and some things I’ve learned since then.

“He definitely has another level or two of growth in front of him, but we’re starting to see his full potential.”

Now the Tigers are preparing for a rematch against Carson City Crystal this weekend in a district championship game.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the way for Muskegon Heights, Parker has finally experienced his dream – to coach his old high school team, and return it to the same level of success that he enjoyed as a player.

“It’s the amazing feeling of seeing something that I had always dreamed of come true,” he said. “Back when I was a player here, people said we couldn’t, and by my senior year our only goal was to show everyone we could. Now as a coach, it’s the same thing.”