MUSKEGON HEIGHTS – Muskegon Heights varsity football coach Van Parker has resigned, a year after leading his team to a breakout playoff season and just a few weeks before the Tigers’ first game of the 2022 campaign.

Parker has accepted an offer to become the new receivers coach at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, an NCAA Division 2 program.

“I had an opportunity and I feel now is the right time to try to advance my career,” said Parker, 30. “I’ve coached college before and I know a lot of people at that level. I follow websites that post college jobs, a few months ago I applied, and they gave me a call a few weeks ago. It kind of just happened over the past two or three weeks.

“This has been one of the toughest decisions of my life. I literally prayed about it. It was really, really really tough, especially yesterday, the moment of truth, when we had a team meeting and I had to tell the players. That was a super hard pill to swallow. I love the community and my guys. I’m a Heights guy.

“But at the end of the day I think it was a decision that had to be made.”

There has been no announcement from Muskegon Heights officials about a replacement for Parker. The Tigers will open their season on Aug. 26 against Godwin Heights.

Parker grew up in Muskegon Heights and has a long history with the school’s football program.

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 he was the starting quarterback for the Tigers.

He went on to play a season of junior college football in California, and eventually transferred to William Penn University in Iowa, where he became the starting quarterback and was voted the team’s offensive MVP.

After college Parker spent two years playing professional football in the Czech Republic, before a torn ACL 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.

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.

Heading into last season, few people expected much from the Tigers, but Parker predicted that they would be a pleasant surprise, with the same core group of players who were freshmen back in 2018 and were eager to get back on the field.

The coach’s prediction was accurate. Muskegon Heights won its first four games (including one by forfeit), snuck in the state playoffs with a 5-4 regular season record, then won its first playoff game since 2010 with a wild 61-42 victory over Holton.

The Tigers went on to lose in the district championship game, 35-26 to Carson City Crystal, but it was a great year for the program.

“That season was very special,” Parker said. “I will never forget that class of players and what those guys did for the city and our program. They laid it all on the line, and those were the guys who were here with me from the start.”