Plenty of memories for Parsel

Tim Parsel has seen a lot in more than four decades coaching and teaching in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

He said highlights for him include winning three league titles in four seasons as Estancia High boys’ basketball coach from 1992 to 1996. He coached one of the top players in Orange County in Jim Faulkner and guided the Eagles to an appearance in the 1994-95 CIF Southern Section Division III-A semifinals.

Even in the success, there were teaching moments.

“My first summer after taking over, we played Mater Dei in a summer league. We did a play, it was an alley-oop, and Faulkner dunked and kind of went crazy,” Parsel said. “It was still close, and I said, ‘Don’t celebrate too much.’ And Mater Dei went on an 18-0 run, so we learned a lesson quick. But yeah, he was a good player. I had four great years as the basketball coach.”

After resigning in April 1996 to spend more time working with his son, Weston, in his own basketball career, Parsel thought he might just teach at Estancia.

Then-principal Peggy Anatol thought otherwise, that Parsel was a good fit for the open boys’ athletic director job.

“Her husband was a provost at Long Beach State and he came to some of our games,” Parsel said. “She said, ‘My husband thinks you’re great. He’s seen your demeanor.’ And I said, ‘I’m not sure I want to do that, give me a couple of weeks.’

“After a couple of weeks, I said, ‘Do you have any other candidates?’ And she said, ‘No, you’re the person.’ So I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ That was the fall of ’96. At that time, there was a very limited budget. It was very tough. Almost everything was fund-raised. I think we got $5,000 as a budget from the school.”

Nineteen years later, Parsel, now 65, is nearing the end of the line. He retired last month as a science teacher at Estancia and also is giving up the boys’ athletic director post.

Parsel got to party plenty upon retiring as a teacher. He was honored at a district presentation for retirees, a science department party, a school faculty party as well as a big celebration thrown by his wife, Lori.

“It was almost like Irrelevant Week,” he said with a laugh. “I had about four different celebrations, so it was pretty nice.”

Nobody would call Parsel irrelevant. He actually is staying on in a part-time transition role for the upcoming school year, when Estancia will have two new co-athletic directors. Parsel said that new Estancia principal Michael Halt will introduce the two athletic directors, both of whom are full-time teachers on campus, when he returns from vacation.

For Parsel, there is pride in a 42-year coaching career in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, though he also will stay on as an assistant freshman football coach at Estancia and will help with the track program as well.

“I’m not quite retiring cold turkey,” he said. “I’m keeping my feet a little wet here.”

Parsel, a 1967 graduate of Newport Harbor High, coached with the Sailors before becoming the Costa Mesa boys’ basketball coach from 1979-85. He then went back to Newport Harbor as an assistant coach before taking over the Estancia program from Tim O’Brien, who left to coach at Orange Coast College a year after guiding Estancia to a CIF State Division III title in 1990-91.

Weston Parsel would go on to play for O’Brien at Northwood High, where Tim’s daughter, Tori, also attended.

“After I stopped coaching basketball here, I became the AD, but I was also a Northwood booster for a number of years,” Tim Parsel said.

Parsel likes seeing things go full-circle like that. He also takes pride in his time at Estancia. The Eagles won a pair of CIF titles during his tenure, a Division IV boys’ soccer title in 2000 and the 2004 Division III boys’ volleyball crown.

“Tim is one of the greats,” said outgoing Estancia girls’ athletic director Jessica Perry in a text message. “I will always be grateful for what I learned from him. I like to call him the walking CIF blue book.”

In Parsel’s tenure as Eagles basketball coach, a short point guard named Xavier Castellano came into the program as a freshman. Castellano is now entering his second year as Estancia boys’ basketball coach, after six years as girls’ hoops co-coach.

Of course, Parsel has a funny story about Castellano.

“One of my assistants was 6-10, and we got some basketball shirts for everybody, and we got a XXL for him,” Parsel said. “Xavy was a freshman, and he was about 4-10. We said, ‘Here Xavy, try this on.’ We put the coach’s T-shirt on him, and it looked like a nightgown. We had a picture of it, but we can’t find the picture anymore. It was funny.”

Castellano, in turn, has learned from Parsel, who helped him run the freshman tournament this past winter, as well as get teams into the annual Coast Classic varsity tournament.

“He was always there to support and help out whenever he could,” Castellano said. “With Parsel, you always felt like he was going to support you. Even with I was with the girls, I’d always run stuff by him, and he was always willing to listen, always willing to talk. The door was always open. A very welcoming individual

“I never heard him say one negative thing. I never saw him get worried. [It was] everything will be OK, everything will be fine, and it’s good to have that. I know that my brother [Robert, the Estancia boys’ soccer coach] and I tend to freak out sometimes.”

Estancia indeed has benefited from Parsel’s steady guidance, both in the classroom and on the athletic field.

“To me, coaching is like teaching an honors or AP class,” he said. “You’ve got students that really want to improve. They want to be there, and they want to be as good as they can be. That’s what makes coaching very rewarding.”