Sports

Finding His Way Back to East Hampton

Teacher, coach, husband - for Parker Strong, 2011 was a very good year.

 

It doesn’t always work out this way, where someone returns to teach at the high school they graduated from.

That is what happened to Parker Strong, however. The Class of 2000 graduate of East Hampton High School returned in March as a long-term substitute, then a full-time member of the faculty teaching Algebra, Trigonometry and Probability and Statistics. It was where he wanted to be, and from there his 2011 only got better – a lot better.

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“It’s been a great year. Thankfully married my wife. Able to come back to where I’m from … I don’t know if you can draw it up any better,” Strong said. “I have no complaints. I am really happy where I am. When I went to college it was ‘I want to teach here’ and ‘I want to coach here,’ but I understood that wasn’t very realistic. That’s not how it always works. I feel blessed to be in this situation. Thankfully I caught a break, was able to come home, able to stay on board as a teacher. Talk about perfect timing for me, the basketball job opens up as soon as I get here.”

Strong played for the Bellringers, helping them to a 13-7 record his senior year. When the head coaching position for the boys’ basketball team opened up, he was hired over several other candidates.

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Before the end of the school year, Strong had been hired as a teacher and coach, but the road back to East Hampton did have its twists and turns.

Strong went to central Connecticut State University to study Actuarial Science, but switched majors to Physical Education, graduating in 2006.

“Actuarial Science was high advanced math and I enjoy doing that stuff,” he said. “Being a math teacher was kind of natural for me. It was always math and PE. I ended up choosing PE first. Honestly it was close. I wasn’t really sure which one I wanted.”

His first teaching job was at Har-Bur Middle School in Burlington, but after three years, that uncertainty between math and PE began to take hold again.

First, Strong looked into coaching basketball at the college level, looking to see if he could land a graduate assistant job. It was an itch he needed to scratch. When it did not pan out, he left Har-Bur in 2009 and went back to school to get cross-endorsed in Mathematics.

Whether as a coach or teacher, wanting to work with young people was something he never wavered from.

“I’ve always liked working with kids,” Strong said. “I worked a lot at summer camps where I was a junior counselor. So, working with kids was kind of natural. I always did well in math class and a lot of teachers told me to be a math teacher. It’s kind of funny how that turned out. “

While working on getting certified as a match teacher, Strong landed his first high school head coaching job as the girls’ basketball coach at Housatonic Valley Regional in Falls Village. He led the Mountaineers to consecutive 10-10 regular seasons in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

During his brief time there, his girls did provide some memorable moments, including taking Portland into overtime in the first round of the 2010 Class S tournament. The Highlanders prevailed and went on to play in the championship game.

“We were very happy with how we played that day,” Strong said. “I got lucky based on scheduling. I was able to see them play in the Shoreline tournament. So, we had a good read on what they wanted to do. We gave them a real run. We had the lead in overtime, but we couldn’t hold on.”

That wasn’t his most memorable game, however.

“My first game we lost by 27 to Nonnewaug and then later in the year we ended up beating them [45-39]. If I had to pick one game, it would probably be that one because they were so much better than we were,” Strong said. “We continued to improve and by game nine or 10 we played them again and upset them. They had two All-Leagues and a third kid that was borderline and we just had one. We just executed really well that day and took care of the basketball. It was an incredible game because we weren’t really supposed to stay close.”

Certified in math, Strong began the 2010-11 school year as a math teaching assistant at Conard High School in West Hartford. It was while he was there that he found out about the long-term substitute teaching position available in the math department at East Hampton. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I ended up cross-endorsing in math and thankfully I’m here, back home,” he said.

A new job can test anyone’s nerves, but the fact it was familiar surroundings allowed Strong to quickly adjust.

“At first I was a little nervous about it,” he said. “There are plenty of teachers that were here when I was a student. I’m familiar with the whole school. I really enjoy being in town. I know some of the students’ family members from when I was in school. If I could teach anywhere, I’d rather teach here. It’s a comfort zone. And I really enjoy being here.”

Among the challenges when he first arrived was taking over classes in March.

“The kids were great,” Strong said. “They were excited to learn, which was good for me because we missed a lot of stuff. So, we came in and we went right at it and the kids were with me. I was thankful for that. They were willing to get to work instead of trying to coast the rest of the year. That made my job easier that they wanted to be involved and work with me.”

It was also a help that the faculty was there to assist with his transition.

“The teachers were very warm, accepting and helping,” Strong said. “A lot of them knew me, some of them didn’t. There was a lot of people who helped me. Sherry Banack did a great job. Laura Martin in the math department. They were very helpful getting me started.”

It helped, too, that Strong had two other Class of 2000 graduates on the teaching staff, Jarad Demick and Karen Oliva.

“I’ve known Jared and Karen forever almost,” he said. “Working with them has been great. It makes things a lot easier when you have faculty working together instead of shying away from each other. We have really good faculty moral and togetherness and help each other out. That always makes work a lot more enjoyable when you have people working together.”

The substitute position, created when a teacher in the math department left, provided Strong with an opportunity he was able to turn into a full-time position.

“I’m very happy to have Parker on board,” Principal John Fidler said. “I coached him way back in the day when I was coaching and he was in the program. It’s always good to see somebody come back home and wanting to give back to the community. He’s done a great job as a math teacher for us. Very excited about the subject and kids really relate to him.”

To the point where Strong has quickly established himself as a “popular” teacher, though he won’t use that word to describe himself.

“I don’t know that I would go that far,” Strong said. “I have difficulty saying that. I think I have a lot of kids who can relate to me and I have good relationships with kids. I have formed a lot of good relationships with a lot of different kids and I’m happy to be able to help them grow and that’s why I wanted to be a teacher. You want to help kids grow into a quality adult. Coaching goes along with that, too. We’ve already had a few different team rules broken and we’ve had to suspend kids for different amounts of time. I’m hoping the kids are getting the message that they have to act properly in school and out of school and what they do reflects on everybody on the team. We’re hoping to instill those morals with the team. That’s what I hope I portray when I teach and when I’m around school, that you should do things the right way. That you should respect to your elders, and respect to your teachers and respect to the students and that’s what I try and do when I’m in school.”

His players, though, don’t mind using the word popular to describe Strong, at least those who have had him as a teacher.

“He’s an easy-going guy, easy to get along with,” Spencer Daly, a senior, said. “You just know he cares, without him even telling you. He’s a good guy.”

Sophomore Colin Parks had a slightly different explanation.

“I think it’s because he’s young and fun to be around,” he said. “He knows what kids like and stuff.”

Whether he’s teaching X’s and Y’s in the Algebra classroom or X’s and O’s on the court, there is no denying the kids do relate to him.

Just as his youth, Strong is 29, might be a reason for his ability to relate to the students, it also was a selling point when he applied for the boys’ basketball coaching position.

“I felt Parker had a good mix of enthusiasm, energy,” Athletic Director Shaun Russell said. “I think he had some varied experiences in his background - he’s been a high school freshman coach, a high school JV coach a high school varsity coach. I thought that as a young coach, this would be a good fit for him with a team he could grow with. We thought he was the right guy for the job and I am hoping I made a good 10-year decision. We feel very good about the opportunity for his ability to build a program and his longevity to stay in the program, and I’d say those were two of the most significant factors in us making the decision.”

Strong was the East Hampton boys’ Junior Varsity coach in 2003-05 while he attended Central. Also while at Central, he was the team manager in the 2001-02 season, earning a ring when the team won the Northeast Conference tournament.

”That’s where I learned a lot of my ins and outs I guess you could say, with Coach [Howie] Dickenman,” Strong said. “So that’s how I started out growing in the coaching ranks. … I learned so much from Coach D. To sit on the bench and watching what they’re looking at and what they see, and tape break down, and scouting, you learn so much and it was a lot of fun.”

Strong’s first order of business as the boys’ basketball coach is to change the culture around the program. The team has not won 13 games since Strong’s senior season in 1999-2000 and has not had a winning record since 2000-01.

“That’s what we’re hoping to change, sooner than later,” Strong said. “I still feel really good about my team. Even though we’ve had some tough spots … there’s going to be a day where we turn that corner. We think once we turn that corner we could take off and we’re hoping to do that soon.”

Fidler, who coached those winning teams, thinks Strong might be the one to get things turned around.

“Very passionate about basketball,” he said. “We had a great opening game against Cromwell that people kind of counted us out of, but he never gave up on the team and the team never let up and fought back. He’s really got them playing a fast, involved game of basketball where they have to know the game, react to the game and understand the game. We’re very happy with him in the classroom and what’s happening on the court.”

Three games into the season the Bellringers are 0-3, showing glimpses of what the team could be. Strong is optimistic, but honest about what the team needs to do to realize its potential.

“We have things to work on,” he said. “I’ve been pretty happy for the most part with our offense. I think will be able to score on most teams. We have a lot of offensive talent with [Matt] Vasquenza and we got [Kyle] Adams and [Jeff] Pratt on the inside and we have a lot of three-point shooters on the wings. We don’t have any dead spots, where we have to play 4-on-5. What the season is gojng to come down to is whether we can defend anybody. As optimistic as I am, it’s all going to be defined by our defense and rebounding. If we can get stops, we have a greater chance to win a lot of games.

As if getting a teaching position he always wanted, not to mention being named the boys' basketball coach at the same school wasn't enough good news for one year, Strong recently became a husband. Strong married Alicia McCain on Dec. 17. The new couple will take their honeymoon this week, meaning Strong will have to miss Thursday’s game.

“I have been very thankful with the administration and Coach Russell being very supportive of my missing time for the wedding and honeymoon,” he said. “They’ve been very supportive.”

With a year like 2011, what can Strong possibly hope to accomplish in 2012?

“Get some wins,” he said.

 

Correction: The spelling of Jarad Demick's first name was incorrect in the story and has been fixed. Patch regrets the error.


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