Play 411
June 6, 2023
Virginia Union University head football coach Dr. Alvin Parker always knew he would follow his passion.
For him, football and developing young men are what motivates him every day and during his 24 years of coaching football at the collegiate level, that is precisely what he’s done.
Parker is in his second stint with the Panthers and the 2022 season marked his ninth overall with his alma mater after he took over as the head coach in December of 2017.
Since then, Parker has led the Panthers to a 30-11 overall record and a 21-5 conference record in four playing seasons — Virginia Union didn’t play its 2020 season due to COVID-19. He was also named the 2022 CIAA Coach of the Year and had an assistant coach earn AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2018 and 2021.
The Panthers have also had the top-scoring offense in HBCU in two of the four playing seasons that Parker has been at the helm and have earned two Top 25 finishes in the same amount of time. Along with those accomplishments, Parker and the Panthers have earned a winning record in every one of those seasons.
But the Panthers’ off-the-field success has been just as big. For Parker, that’s just as important.
Following the spring 2020 season, 47 football student-athletes obtained above a 3.0 GPA and linebacker/defensive end Emmanuel Antwi was named the co-valedictorian of the 2020 graduating class.
“This is my passion and I think every coach must have one. Your passion is going to kind of drive you,” Parker said during his speech at this year’s AFCA Convention. “My passion and goal are to coach and develop young men at an exceedingly compelling and challenging level. I think what we think a lot of times is we are coaching these guys on what to do in a football game, and how to handle those types of things. But the biggest question you’re going to get from those guys is coaching them in life.
“You’re going to get to a point where a lot of the decisions that you’re going to help these guys make are not going to be about football. I just want to make sure that I develop and help these young men to get to an exceedingly competitive and challenging level because you know, life is a challenge, life is competitive, and it’s going to be much bigger than beyond football.”
For Parker, his journey to becoming a head coach at his alma mater all started for him as a player and then as a graduate assistant at the same school. It was there that he developed his mindset to always be willing to roll up his sleeves, no matter what level of the program he is at. To this day, Parker says he still has an assistant coach’s mentality, and that in turn has carried over to how he develops his staff as well.
“When I worked as an assistant coach, the main thing I wanted to do was make sure that I did it right for my head coach,” Parker said. “I think that’s what made me a great assistant, it’s that I wanted to make sure I did it a certain way and I wanted to do it right for the guy that I was working for. I also told myself, ‘Be the type of assistant coach that you will want once you become the head coach.’ So, I worked in that mentality and it kind of got me to where I felt like I wanted to be.”
Parker experienced success at both Elizabeth City State University and Saint Augustine’s University as an assistant coach and was named a finalist for AFCA Division II Assistant Coach of the Year every year from 2013 to 2016.
Now, the Panthers are coming off a 9-2 season where they went 7-1 in CIAA play and fell to Wingate, 32-7, in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. It was arguably Virginia Union’s best season since Parker became the head coach, but he and the Panthers are still in search of their goal, an 11th conference championship.
That goal is at the heart of Virginia Union’s “Play411” mantra. It is etched on t-shirts and hats and is also plastered throughout the Panthers’ facility.
“If you look at anything that’s associated with Virginia Union, or you are looking at anything that might be on social media, in our stadium, in our buildings, anything like that, you’re going to see a whole lot of that ‘Play411,’” Parker said. “It’s on every slide that I have because we believe in it, we talk about it. That’s the football team’s core values, that’s the program’s core values to ‘Play411.’”
Along with searching for an 11th conference championship, Parker says that there are three other values that tie into the “Play411” mantra. First, with 11 players on the field, each one has a job to do, and Parker wants his players to turn that thought into action.
“As a player on our team, you make a conscious effort to do your job,” Parker said. “It takes 11 guys to make anything work in a game of football. Everybody, all 11, has a job to do once they hit that field. So, when you go back and you look at the core values of Virginia Union, it marries into the portion of integrity. You have a job to do, everybody on the team has a job to do but when you touch the field, your job is not to do his job, his job is not to do your job, everybody has a job. It relies on all 11 doing their job for you to have some form of success.”
Parker also has a belief in Proverbs 4:11. “I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.”
“That’s one of my favorite scriptures so it kind of tapped into the ‘Play411’ whole thing that we have in terms of our values and the way that we want to move the team, the way we want to instruct those guys and the way we want to lead,” Parker said. “From the people that are leading the program, from myself to the staff, to everybody else that’s involved. You want to make sure we do this a certain way, and we want to lead those guys along straight paths.”
The last part of Virginia Union’s mantra is playing for Week 11. According to Parker, championship week is Week 11, which goes back to the Panthers capturing their 11th conference championship. So, the Panthers are always striving to play in Week 11.
“In our league, Week 11 is championship week,” Parker said. “So, you want to play for championships and in terms of playing for championships, that happens in Week 11 for us. You want to make sure you do that, you want to make sure you know, ‘Hey if we get to Week 11 that means we’re doing something right.”
There’s also a personal aspect of it for Parker. He said before he landed at his current job, he went on 10 other interviews and Virginia Union was his 11th one. But it doesn’t stop there either as Parker tries to tie the entire university into his program.
Parker says he works up t-shirts each year and hands them out to people on campus in the financial aid office, the workers in the cafeteria, and the people that help the football program on a regular basis.
“Everybody buys into it, and they feel like ‘You know what, I’m a part of this ‘Play411’ and I gotta do my job, there’s a job I must do to make sure I help those guys ‘Play411.’”
Since taking over at Virginia Union, Parker has looked to create his own culture and in five years with the Panthers, he’s made an impact. Outside of a down year post-COVID-19, Parker has improved almost every season, and with “Play411” intact, Parker and the Panthers are on a good track to continue their success.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
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Virginia Union University head football coach Dr. Alvin Parker always knew he would follow his passion.
For him, football and developing young men are what motivates him every day and during his 24 years of coaching football at the collegiate level, that is precisely what he’s done.
Parker is in his second stint with the Panthers and the 2022 season marked his ninth overall with his alma mater after he took over as the head coach in December of 2017.
Since then, Parker has led the Panthers to a 30-11 overall record and a 21-5 conference record in four playing seasons — Virginia Union didn’t play its 2020 season due to COVID-19. He was also named the 2022 CIAA Coach of the Year and had an assistant coach earn AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2018 and 2021.
The Panthers have also had the top-scoring offense in HBCU in two of the four playing seasons that Parker has been at the helm and have earned two Top 25 finishes in the same amount of time. Along with those accomplishments, Parker and the Panthers have earned a winning record in every one of those seasons.
But the Panthers’ off-the-field success has been just as big. For Parker, that’s just as important.
Following the spring 2020 season, 47 football student-athletes obtained above a 3.0 GPA and linebacker/defensive end Emmanuel Antwi was named the co-valedictorian of the 2020 graduating class.
“This is my passion and I think every coach must have one. Your passion is going to kind of drive you,” Parker said during his speech at this year’s AFCA Convention. “My passion and goal are to coach and develop young men at an exceedingly compelling and challenging level. I think what we think a lot of times is we are coaching these guys on what to do in a football game, and how to handle those types of things. But the biggest question you’re going to get from those guys is coaching them in life.
“You’re going to get to a point where a lot of the decisions that you’re going to help these guys make are not going to be about football. I just want to make sure that I develop and help these young men to get to an exceedingly competitive and challenging level because you know, life is a challenge, life is competitive, and it’s going to be much bigger than beyond football.”
For Parker, his journey to becoming a head coach at his alma mater all started for him as a player and then as a graduate assistant at the same school. It was there that he developed his mindset to always be willing to roll up his sleeves, no matter what level of the program he is at. To this day, Parker says he still has an assistant coach’s mentality, and that in turn has carried over to how he develops his staff as well.
“When I worked as an assistant coach, the main thing I wanted to do was make sure that I did it right for my head coach,” Parker said. “I think that’s what made me a great assistant, it’s that I wanted to make sure I did it a certain way and I wanted to do it right for the guy that I was working for. I also told myself, ‘Be the type of assistant coach that you will want once you become the head coach.’ So, I worked in that mentality and it kind of got me to where I felt like I wanted to be.”
Parker experienced success at both Elizabeth City State University and Saint Augustine’s University as an assistant coach and was named a finalist for AFCA Division II Assistant Coach of the Year every year from 2013 to 2016.
Now, the Panthers are coming off a 9-2 season where they went 7-1 in CIAA play and fell to Wingate, 32-7, in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. It was arguably Virginia Union’s best season since Parker became the head coach, but he and the Panthers are still in search of their goal, an 11th conference championship.
That goal is at the heart of Virginia Union’s “Play411” mantra. It is etched on t-shirts and hats and is also plastered throughout the Panthers’ facility.
“If you look at anything that’s associated with Virginia Union, or you are looking at anything that might be on social media, in our stadium, in our buildings, anything like that, you’re going to see a whole lot of that ‘Play411,’” Parker said. “It’s on every slide that I have because we believe in it, we talk about it. That’s the football team’s core values, that’s the program’s core values to ‘Play411.’”
Along with searching for an 11th conference championship, Parker says that there are three other values that tie into the “Play411” mantra. First, with 11 players on the field, each one has a job to do, and Parker wants his players to turn that thought into action.
“As a player on our team, you make a conscious effort to do your job,” Parker said. “It takes 11 guys to make anything work in a game of football. Everybody, all 11, has a job to do once they hit that field. So, when you go back and you look at the core values of Virginia Union, it marries into the portion of integrity. You have a job to do, everybody on the team has a job to do but when you touch the field, your job is not to do his job, his job is not to do your job, everybody has a job. It relies on all 11 doing their job for you to have some form of success.”
Parker also has a belief in Proverbs 4:11. “I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.”
“That’s one of my favorite scriptures so it kind of tapped into the ‘Play411’ whole thing that we have in terms of our values and the way that we want to move the team, the way we want to instruct those guys and the way we want to lead,” Parker said. “From the people that are leading the program, from myself to the staff, to everybody else that’s involved. You want to make sure we do this a certain way, and we want to lead those guys along straight paths.”
The last part of Virginia Union’s mantra is playing for Week 11. According to Parker, championship week is Week 11, which goes back to the Panthers capturing their 11th conference championship. So, the Panthers are always striving to play in Week 11.
“In our league, Week 11 is championship week,” Parker said. “So, you want to play for championships and in terms of playing for championships, that happens in Week 11 for us. You want to make sure you do that, you want to make sure you know, ‘Hey if we get to Week 11 that means we’re doing something right.”
There’s also a personal aspect of it for Parker. He said before he landed at his current job, he went on 10 other interviews and Virginia Union was his 11th one. But it doesn’t stop there either as Parker tries to tie the entire university into his program.
Parker says he works up t-shirts each year and hands them out to people on campus in the financial aid office, the workers in the cafeteria, and the people that help the football program on a regular basis.
“Everybody buys into it, and they feel like ‘You know what, I’m a part of this ‘Play411’ and I gotta do my job, there’s a job I must do to make sure I help those guys ‘Play411.’”
Since taking over at Virginia Union, Parker has looked to create his own culture and in five years with the Panthers, he’s made an impact. Outside of a down year post-COVID-19, Parker has improved almost every season, and with “Play411” intact, Parker and the Panthers are on a good track to continue their success.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
