CoachDarrel Parker
parker mug
  Hometown:
Cozad, NE		  High School:
Cozad H.S.
  Position:
Head Coach (4th Season)		  Alma Mater:
Huron College


Darrel Parker enters his fourth season as Head Coach at NJC. In his first season, Parker was named the Region IX and the South Sub Region Coach of the Year after he led the Plainswomen to a 25-7 finish.  All of Northeastern's 7 losses in 2006-07 were to top 15 ranked NJCAA teams.  The 25 wins in the season was the second best in school history behind 29 victories in 2001-02.  The Plainswomen finished with a 3.11 team grade point average.  In his second season the team finished with a identical 25-7 record and another South Sub Region Title.   The team was also ranked in the top 10 in the nation early in the year.  In Coach Parker third year he guided the Plainswomen to an amazing 30-2 record and an 8th place national ranking.  He garnered his second Region 9 Coach of the Year honor.

Parker coached the Sterling High School Lady Tigers for 27 years prior to joining NJC.  He resigned as coach of the Lady Tigers in June of 2005 after leading Sterling to it's first Class 4A state title in March of that year. From 1979-2005, Parker posted a career mark of 465-132, the most wins by a girl’s basketball coach in Colorado history.  He had only one losing season, that coming in 1981 when the Lady Tigers were 9-11.  Under Coach Parker’s guidance Sterling won 20 or more games in ten different seasons as well as capturing 12 conference championships in the tough Northern Conference.  Parker's teams won 15 district titles and he coached 20 state qualifying teams.  Sterling has been to the Final Four of the state basketball tournament 11 times under the direction of Parker, and the Lady Tigers were state runners-up three times before Sterling won the title in 2005 with an outstanding 27-1 record.

He has also garnered numerous High School Conference and State Coach of the Year honors, and was named the United States Regional Coach of the Year for the 2005 season by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association for girl's basketball.
Parker grew up in Cozad, Nebraska and now lives in Sterling with his wife, Jonelle and their two daughters and one son. Daughter Sara is a senior at Colorado State University while son, Shay, is a junior at CSU, and daughter, Shelly, is student at NJC.