BELPRE - Dave Parsons is the new head boys basketball coach at Belpre High School,
Hired by the Belpre Board of Education Monday night, Parsons, 44, takes over the Golden Eagle boys cage reins from Curt Plummer, who decided not to return to the position after two seasons at the Belpre helm and a composite 21-23 record.
Parsons, an assistant for two seasons under Plummer's predecessor Chris Stout, is the father of Channing Parsons, who will be a senior on the Belpre varsity squad next season.
Dave Parsons knows his personnel, having ''coached most of this same group of boys in the seventh grade for Belpre'' that he'll have on the varsity for the upcoming season.
He seems to have been the popular choice to succeed Plummer.
''I had an interest in doing it and the boys had an interest in me doing it,'' Parsons said. ''So we'll kind of work together on this and see how things go.''
And, he added, ''I think it will go real well. I believe in them - I've believed in them since they were in third grade. This is a good group of boys, and there's a another good group coming underneath. I think we'll really have a good season.''
Parsons indicated his familiarity with his players ''would help any coach, because you know their tendencies and what they're really capable of doing - and also what they're not capable of doing in some instances. I think by knowing them that well, you can get the best out of them - and I think they'll do the best for you too.''
Gone via graduation are last season's three seniors, 6-4 Jared Azar and Scott Loyland and 6-5 Kelvin Eaton.
''That's a pretty good loss underneath, as they were pretty much the forwards and centers,'' Parsons said. '
'But at same time,'' he continued, ''that now gives (seniors 6-4) Tyler Leasure, (6-2) Josh Campbell and sophomore Brooks Sizemore (on JV last year) their opportunity.''
Other returning varsity players include starters Tyler Watkins and Erik Waderker, both now juniors, and senior Markie Tate as well as junior Rashawn Miller, sometimes starter Channing Parsons when Watkins was injured late in the regular season, and senior Jordan Williams.
''We've got at least seven coming back that have varsity experience, so that's a good thing,'' said the new coach, ''not to mention six of them are seniors, so they should be pretty mature.''
And style-wise. Parsons is ''a firm believer in defense. You can't outscore everybody, but you can play harder defense than anybody else. It's a team sport and defense is a team effort - that's where we'll put a lot of emphasis. And a good defense is a great offense. You get seven or eight steals a game, and you can make those turnovers turn into points - that's a big momentum-getter. Good defense definitely feeds your offense.''
Parsons, a Guysville, Ohio native, played basketball for Joe Crislip at Federal Hocking, where he was ''a pretty small center, about 6-foot-3,'' was team captain, ''scored more than my share of points,'' and graduated in 1983. He has coached his children extensively in AAU basketball. ''I was watching them play, and I couldn't stand to see them do it wrong, so I kind of got back into coaching,'' Parsons said, although this is his first head varsity coaching job.
''I don't know if I actually thought about coaching varsity,'' Parsons stated. ''I just enjoy the game, enjoy the kids, and really love to see the kids learn and improve their game and work hard as a group. It just kind of led to this. Over the years, it just kept pointing me this way. Hopefully, this will be a good experience and I'm real confident that it will be.''
Parsons has been a laboratory technician for 15 years at America Styrenics, formerly Chevron Phillips, on Ohio 7 south of Marietta.
