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Familiar name gets the call for Metea Valley

The Parpet dynasty of football coaches now extends to Metea Valley.

On Tuesday Metea athletic director Jason Ward announced John Parpet, a former offensive coordinator at Plano and for the last three seasons at Lisle, as the Mustangs' new coach, the third in program history.

Parpet is the nephew of Lisle coach Paul Parpet Sr., cousin of Addison Trail coach Paul Parpet and son of John Parpet Sr., a former assistant for the elder Paul Parpet when he coached at Addison Trail.

"It's a great opportunity to work with an amazing administration," said John Parpet, a 1995 Morton graduate and former high school quarterback and pitcher, married with three children and living in Plainfield.

"Over the last 10 years I've had interviews at a bunch of places and had never felt the genuine enthusiasm and overall passion for success - academically, athletically and socially - as I had when I sat down with (Metea principal) Dr. (Darrell) Echols and Jason Ward. I felt we had a great connection instantly. We were finishing each other's sentences."

Parpet, 41, has been a special-education teacher and baseball coach at Plano since 2013. At Metea Valley he succeeds Ben Kleinhans. Kleinhans resigned Nov. 14 after seven seasons with a 20-44 record, 1-8 last season.

"He's bringing a wealth of experience, he's bringing a wealth of energy, and he comes from a great football family," Ward said of Parpet, hired from a pool of more than 50 applicants.

Ward said Parpet will tour Metea Valley this week, "then hopefully the end of this week or early next week we'll get him in front of the kids."

More than two decades of coaching experience at Downers Grove South, Morton, Lyons Twp., Addison Trail and Plano culminated last season at Lisle, Parpet's third year as his uncle's offensive coordinator.

John Parpet's balanced, prostyle "Power Coast" offense helped the Lions achieve a number of program bench marks in 2018 - their first 10-win season and state quarterfinal appearance since 1985, their first win over Wilmington since 1995, and Lisle's first conference football title since 1981.

"I'm gonna miss Johnny," Paul Parpet Sr. said. "We've been together a long time, but I'm happy for him, really happy for him."

"One thing I learned from my uncle," John Parpet said, "is you control what you can control and make the absolute best out of it, and that's my plan," said John Parpet, who last season had only two called run plays go for negative yardage.

"There's so much potential there (at Metea Valley) for growth," he said. "We'll get it done, I don't doubt that one bit. We'll find them, in 3,000 kids. We found them at Lisle and at Plano and to have the success that we've had, we'll get it done. I'm excited about the competition."

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