Coach Rebekah Parker makes a point with her Tippecanoe Valley JV girls basketball team during a game earlier this season. The former Valley star player is in her first season coaching at her alma mater (File photos by James Costello)

AKRON – “There’s no place like home”.

Dorothy may have made the line famous in the classic movie The Wizard of Oz, but Rebekah Parker is proof positive that it rings so true.

Parker is in her first season as the junior varsity girls basketball coach at her alma mater Tippecanoe Valley High School.

The former Indiana All-Star and one of the greatest players ever to wear a Viking uniform is ecstatic to be back among family and friends.

“It really means a lot to me to be back home,” said Parker. “It’s tough to put into words what it means to me to be back here around my family and to have their support.”

“I wanted to be back here to spend more time with my family. It’s been really nice. They are such a big part of who I am.”

Parker, a Silver Lake native who has eight siblings, served on the coaching staff for the girls basketball program at Plymouth last year. She is now teaching physical education at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School and coaching at Valley after being hired in June.

“So far, so good,” said Parker. “I miss playing the game, but I love to coach it, too. That fills the void. I love teaching the game.

“I’m passionate and energetic about the game. Passion is what I coach with. I work hard because that is the only thing that I knew as a player. That is where my success as a player came from. I get after it and want our players to do that, too.”

Parker had a prolific prep career playing for coach Gary Teel at Valley. The former hard-nosed 5-10 backcourt star, who graduated in 2004, led the Vikings to a 73-21 mark in her career. The Vikings won the first three sectional championships in program history during her final three seasons. Parker averaged 18 points, seven rebounds, and four assists per game her senior season as Valley went 21-3. She was the second leading scorer on the Indiana All-Star team in 2004 where she averaged 10.5 ppg. and was the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,420 points until Anne Secrest broke that mark last season. Secrest, who led Valley to a Class 3-A state runner-up finish in 2015 and is now playing at Youngstown State, finished with 1,580 points.

Parker went on to even bigger things following her tremendous high school career. She started all 120 games at the University of Evansville, where she earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors three times. Parker finished her collegiate career with 1,480 points, 650 rebounds and 409 assists. Parker played with former Triton star Ashli (Senff) Faulkner and former Rochester standout Courtney Felke at Evansville. She then went on to play professionally in both Finland and Germany.

“I loved my time as a player at Valley,” noted Parker. “But I don’t want to known now as just a good basketball player. I want to work and establish myself as a good basketball coach.”

“Basketball has taken me a lot of places and helped me experience a lot of things. I’m very thankful for that. But I was always ready to get back here to my family.”

Parker, who also spent three years as assistant coach at Toledo, gives credit to a familiar name to Valley fans for her success as a player.

“Bill Patrick had a huge hand in helping me become the player that I did,” said Parker of the longtime Valley boys basketball coach and Hall of Famer. “He was a big part of it, a big resource for me. He used to let me come in and play against the boys.”

Patrick stepped down back in May after 19 seasons as the Valley coach. He won 765 games in his 48 seasons at Whitko and Valley, which ranks second in state history for victories by a boys coach. Patrick is now an assistant coach to his son Chad in the Valley boys hoops program.

“Coach Teel was also very influential for me,” added Patker. “He put me in positions to be successful.”

Parker, the daughter of Lynn and Dianna Parker, has a lot of fond memories every day when she steps into the Valley gym. But one sticks out more than the others.

“I think about when we beat Warsaw my senior year at home,” recounted Parker. “They were ranked No. 1 and Valley had not beaten them in like 30 years. What sticks out was coach Teel’s message at halftime of that game. He told us we were winning that game for everyone here that night and everyone who had played for Valley.

“We won that game and everyone rushed the court after it. I know that game meant a lot to this community. It’s a memory that I will always take with me.”

Valley, which was playing its second game, beat Warsaw 54-45 in the season opener for the Tigers during the 2003-04 season. Warsaw was  No. 1 in Class 4-A at the time and had won 30 in a row versus the Vikings. The Tigers went on to finish 26-3 and as state runner-up that season in coach Will Wienhorst’s final season. Warsaw, which has played Valley more than any other school and has beaten the Vikings 46 times in 52 games all-time, was led by Indiana Miss Basketball Jaclyn Leininger that season. Leininger, Warsaw’s all-time leading scorer with 1,608 points, went on to play at Miami of Ohio.

Valley, which has beaten Warsaw three times in their last four meetings, hosts the Tigers Friday night.

“I feel like I learn something new every year and enjoy every year as a coach,” Parker said. “My goal is to be a head coach at some point. I would like to see what I could be with my own program.

“But being able to be back coaching at Valley is just a great thing. To be closer to my family and to get to spend more time with them means the World to me.”

Truly, there’s no place like home.

Rebekah Parker loves being back in the gym where she was a star guard for the Vikings.