Pioneer QB Mitchell Parsley becomes one of youngest high school head coaches

Since almost the first time they met, Wayland Baptist head football coach Butch Henderson knew Mitchell Parsley would one day make big news as a coach.
 
It didn't take long for Parsley to prove Henderson right.
 
Less than a week after Parsley took his final snap as quarterback of the Pioneers, he was on the job as head football coach and athletic director back in his hometown of Crowell, Texas.
 
"It's going well so far," Parsley said.
 
At just 23 years old, Parsley is one of the youngest, if not the youngest, head football coaches/athletic directors in the state, probably the country.
 
"Everybody thinks I'm the youngest," Parsley said.
 
He's certainly the youngest that Wayland's veteran coach has ever heard about.
 
"He has a great future ahead of him," Henderson assured.
 
Parsley was born and raised in Crowell (pronounced CROE-l), a town of close to 1,000 people about midway between Plainview and Wichita Falls. When he was a junior and senior at Crowell High School, Parsley became the toast of the town for leading the Wildcats to back-to-back six-man state titles and a combined 28-1 record, and being named Texas six-man offensive MVP both years.
 
Parsley went on to play parts of five seasons at Wayland, including a redshirt year. In 30 games, he completed 447-of-858 passes for 6,347 yards and 49 touchdowns, all school records. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder is a three-time all-conference honoree, making the second team his sophomore season and honorable mention twice.
 
Parsley earned his math degree with a minor in education last summer and now is working online toward his Master's degree in Sports Management.
 
And he's serving as head football coach at Crowell, where school officials first contacted Parsley about coming home to coach in early November. A week later, about the time Parsley and the Pioneers were headed to Fort Worth to play the Texas Wesleyan Rams, he accepted the job.
 
His first day with Croswell ISD was Dec. 2.
 
Parsley said coaching is something he always knew he wanted to do.
 
"Ever since I was little (I knew). It never fluctuated. It's been pretty set in stone for as long as I can remember," he said. "I've always loved sports."
 
But there's more to it than that.
 
"Crowell is a stepping stone for a lot of coaches," said Parsley, pointing out that from his seventh grade year through graduation he had three different football coaches, and a different basketball coach every year. "I had tons of coaches when I was in school, and I've seen a lot of good coaches."
 
Because he experienced the impact a coach can have on a young person, Parsley knew he wanted to do the same.
 
"I wanted to be able to impact lives at a young age," he said.
 
Parsley – who also will coach track, assist in basketball and at least this year teach classes after a classroom teacher recently fell ill – was not born into a coaching family, although his sister, Haley Santos, is in her first year at Crowell as an assistant in volleyball and basketball.
 
Parsley's hiring as a head football coach right out of college came as no surprise to his coach at Wayland.
 
"There's no question he's ready to be able to do that," said Henderson, who has long contended that Parsley would make an excellent coach after watching him quarterback the Pioneers the past five years. Henderson said Parsley regularly sat in on position group meetings besides the quarterbacks in order to gain a better understanding of the game. "He'd be in there with the linemen, wide receivers…just so he had a more complete picture.
 
"He was like a coach on the field for us."
 
Now, Parsley is the coach on the field.