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STARKVILLE — Starkville High School girls soccer had its first practices of the year last week and new head coach Parker Hoyt hit the ground running.
Hoyt has been a teacher for SOCSD for three years, teaching biology at the high school. Despite his lifelong passion for the game, Hoyt didn’t have coaching in mind when he began his career as an educator. He knew he wanted to get involved at some point, but he didn’t know it would happen so soon.
Hoyt joined as an assistant in 2023 under then head coach Rafa Costa.
“I know most of them from last year,” Hoyt told The Dispatch. “It has definitely helped and I’m thankful for the year as an assistant coach. I learned a lot from Rafa and I feel pretty good coming in this year and knowing the team. It’s a good opportunity and it’s been pretty seamless so far stepping into the role.”
Costa recently moved to Jackson to take a new coaching position after leading the Jackets to a 6-11-1 record in 2023-24. The search for his successor didn’t go too far, and Hoyt was named head coach on June 10.
“When I started coaching I knew I wanted to get involved somehow, but it opened up my first year and I stepped into it easily,” Hoyt said. “When Rafa left I knew I wanted it, and I put myself forward as someone who could do a good job and they asked me to take it. I was happy to do it.”
Hoyt doesn’t have an assistant coach of his own yet but is currently in the process of finding someone. In the meantime, he’s gotten support from friend Evinn Watson, who is going into his fourth year as head coach of the boys’ team, as well as Costa and several other friends who work as club coaches in the area.
“I’ve been thinking about all of the coaches I’ve played for and worked with,” he said, “and the drills that helped me improve as a player and how they interacted with me that got a good response from me. I’m trying to do those same things, and even though I don’t have a ton of coaching experience I’ve seen a lot of effective coaching, and I’m trying to implement it.”
Hoyt’s familiarity with the team is helping his preseason planning, but so is his experience in the classroom. He has an idea of how he wants the team to play and is centering it on where he knows he can put players in a position to succeed, but he still wants to keep his options open in terms of tactics and formation to see what works best over the preseason.
“It is pretty similar to coaching and there’s lots of crossover,” he said. “In a classroom, you want to go smoothly between activities and manage the class. In coaching, you want to come in and set up a practice that will run smoothly, transition well between one drill and the next, and then you want to manage the team well and develop relationships that give everyone the best chance to succeed.”
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