Parker plans Laney return

If you're a Laney football fan, you can relax. Your football coach is safe for another year.

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Thomasville City Schools filled the vacant position of head football coach at Thomasville late Thursday morning.

It was not Laney's Eric Parker.

Parker met with Thomasville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Sabrina Boykins-Everett at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. He was one of three finalists for the job.

Former East Carolina University defensive coordinator Jerry Odom Jr. and current Valdosta High co-defensive coordinator Richard Marsh were up for the position with Parker.

The choice was Marsh. He was approved at a special session of the school board Thursday afternoon. He is expected to assume his duties in the next two weeks.

"I can say it really wasn't a consensus," Thomasville principal Dr. Tom McCall said. "But coach Marsh was in everybody's top three. All our finalists had good records and experience. In the end everybody felt the most comfortable with coach Marsh. The superintendent felt the most comfortable with him and so did the school board."

When reached, Parker was like most would be after coming close to one of the top jobs in his field.

"They went in another direction," Parker said. "I got a funny feeling this morning that maybe this wasn't go to my way. Don't know why. Just a feeling."

Parker was also thinking about his the next move up ahead.

"I am going to have no problems going back next season at Laney," Parker said. "My administration has always been great. I feel like we've got good players back. Our team looks strong coming up maybe not next year, but two years down the road."

Parker built a program that was in shambles when he arrived in 1997. Laney has made the playoffs each of the past five seasons, winning at least one playoff game in all but one of those years. He's reached the state semifinals at the Georgia Dome two out of the past three years.

Parker lost his first 17 games. He's gone 51-26 since.

His peers within the Laney administration supported his application for the opening.

"His candidacy is a compliment to both Eric's ability as a coach and what he has done for our program," Laney principal Dr. Hawthorne Welcher said. "I viewed him taking a look at that job as trying to better himself and his family. I encourage all our educators to see what's out there as they continue to build their credentials."

Parker would have been the first black head coach in Thomasville history. The school is made up of approximately 900 students, roughly 300 more than at Laney. The Thomasville student body is predominately black.

Marsh, who is white, had previous head coaching experience at Bartow High in Florida. He'd spent the past few seasons in Valdosta, the national leader in all-time wins, as a defensive assistant coach.

McCall's comments about the process removed skin color as means of consideration.

"Each of these men were excellent coaches who would have fit in well at Thomasville," McCall said. "Each would have been successful. Coach Parker was a legitimate candidate. The job of our committee was to select the best possible coach and we think we came to that conclusion with coach Marsh. The only consideration was who was going to do this school and these kids here the best."

Parker was visiting with a coach at Thomas County Central when he got the news.

"I've enjoyed the process," Parker said. "It was worth it to see what was out there. It was a job I had to look into."

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.