Scholastica’s Parkevich Takes Iowa Wesleyan Head Coaching Job

Feb 14, 2012

Northland Sports Online

St. Scholastica Defensive Coordinator Tom Parkevich has been named the head football coach at Iowa Wesleyan College; it was announced on Monday.

Parkevich, who has been the Saints’ defensive coordinator since its inception, guided a CSS defense that led all of NCAA Division III in turnover margin (+2.00) and was second in all of NCAA College Football. In just its fourth year as a program, St. Scholastica went 10-0 in the regular season, captured its first Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Championships and made its first NCAA Playoff appearance.

During his time at CSS, Parkevich coached 19 All-UMAC players, including nine first team selections. He also had three players named to the D3football.com All-West Region third team this past season.

Parkevich was the second hire for the St. Scholastica football program in August of 2007 after Greg Carlson was named the head coach. In his four years coaching the defense, the Saints went from being last in the conference in scoring defense and total defense in their first season in 2008 to second in scoring defense and total defense last season.

“The four years here have been awesome,” said Parkevich. “To be part of a start up program and to see how St. Scholastica wanted to do things right, from the guys we recruited, to facilities, to the support has been great. From 1-7 the first year to being in the trophy case as the first NCAA playoff team is something special. The school has been tremendous to my family as has the city of Duluth. These will be four years that I will never forget and there will be a lot kids that I’ll never forget.”

Parkevich takes his talents to Iowa Wesleyan College, who announced in October that they applying for NCAA Division III membership as they are currently a member of the NAIA. Then in December, the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) accepted Iowa Wesleyan as its 10th member and will begin competition in that conference in 2013-14. Currently, four SLIAC schools are associate members of the UMAC in football (Eureka, Greenville, MacMurray, Westminster). The Tigers are presently part of the Mid-States Football Conference and went 4-7 in 2011.

“The opportunity is a unique situation like it was up here because there is new era starting at Iowa Wesleyan going from NAIA to Division III,” described Parkevich. “So it’s kind of like starting over. A lot of my experiences here at St. Scholastica have prepared me for that. I always tell players that you want to try and better yourself and take that next step. This is a great opportunity for me.”

Prior to coming to St. Scholastica, Parkevich spent 10 years at Earlham (Ind.) College where he served as the football team’s defensive coordinator over his final eight seasons with the Quakers after spending his first two years as the program’s linebackers coach. He was also the head baseball coach throughout his decade-long stay at Earlham. This will be his first head football coach appointment at the college level.

“I want to thank Tom for his contributions to the building of the St. Scholastica football program,” said head coach Greg Carlson. “In that first year after he was hired, he helped get the program up and running so I am appreciative of the time and effort he has spent to help make this program what it is today.”

Carlson will initially look in-house for a replacement and hopes to hire a new defensive coordinator by March 1st.

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