I don’t write about myself that much. But this year I’m making some exceptions. The AC “A” Board announced that I’ll be inducted into the Austin College Hall of Honor in the summer of 2025. My sport is tennis, and Legends Weekend 2025 is igniting a bunch of Marc tennis stories. Here’s one:
Jon Stein and I have a few things in common. We are both being inducted into the AC Hall of Honor in the summer of 2025. Our inductions are both for the sport of tennis. And our tennis histories include the Grapevine Mustangs at the Texas UIL State Tournament.
Making it to State is HARD. Coach Stein knows. Stein has led the McKinney North High School tennis program for over 20 years. His resume as Bulldog coach during that time includes 500+ wins, 11 District titles, and 18 trips to the Regional playoffs. His is an exceptional coaching tenure.
To make it to State though, you have to WIN Region. That’s hard to pull off in Texas, one of the top tennis sections in the country. But Stein and his Bulldogs did just that in 2014, advancing to State with a 22-2 record. Awaiting McKinney North at State was Grapevine.
Stein’s squad gave it their all but came up short. Grapevine beat the Bulldogs in the semis and then earned the Class 5A state title one day later. 2014 was Grapevine’s first appearance at State in 28 years, since they had lost in 1986 to……well………to me believe it or not!
My 1986 A&M Consolidated Tiger tennis team knows also how hard it is to make it to State. But we pulled it off, advancing to State before falling in the semifinals to eventual champion Austin Westlake. Unlike today, a third-place match existed back in 1986; we earned that UIL bronze medal by defeating Grapevine:
From the B/CS Eagle:
“A&M Consolidated placed third at the Class 4A [now 5A] state tennis tournament by beating Grapevine Saturday morning, 10-1. Once the Tigers got ahead 10-1, the remaining seven matches were called. Posting doubles victories for Consol were [among others] Matthew Berry & Marc Parrish.”
Stein’s resume as a player is as impressive as his coaching record. Like me, Stein earned 1st team All-Conference and won the Carroll Pickett MVP award winner at Austin College. But Stein was more than that; he was also an NCAA D3 All American. In high school, Stein earned a Top 30 ranking. Marc, who is proud of his #73 ranking in 1988, knows exactly what it means to be Top 30.
But it is Stein’s two decades of coaching at McKinney North that is worth writing about. Those 20 years include mentoring countless players and leading 6 of those players to the individual State Tournament. I’ll be proud to share the stage with Coach Stein, an AC tennis player whose contributions to the sport exceed my own.
Stein’s Mustangs fell in the 2014 semifinals at State; interestingly, my A&M Consolidated Tigers fell in the OTHER semifinal. It was the beginning of a remarkable run for my high school. The Tigers reached State six times from 2014 to 2020, falling in the semifinals each year. A banner of each of these six squads can be found hanging on the A&M Consolidated tennis courts.
I know about these banners, because I recently hung one on the Consol tennis courts. It was a banner of my brother Gavin, a Class 4A (now 5A) state qualifier for the Tigers in 1991. The banner was a 50th birthday present for Gavin; I worked closely with Coach Daniel Marshall, Tiger tennis coach during the 2014-2020 run. I also worked closely with fomer Consol Principal (and former AC Kangaroo!) Chrissy Hester.
Writing about Stein this week also allowed me to become familiar with my own high school’s tennis history at State. No A&M Consolidated team during the 2014-2020 run advanced past the semifinals. And because no third-place match existed during this era, Coach Leslie Davis’s 1986 Tigers remain the most successful tennis team in school history.
Which means Marc has a new project: Take this photo of the 1986 Tiger team you see here, work with Coach Marshall & Chrissy Hester again, and hang a new banner of my 1986 squad on the A&M Consolidated tennis courts. The 1986 Tigers are worthy because, like Coach Stein’s 2014 Mustangs, we know how hard it is to make it to State.
See you this summer Coach Stein! Looking forward to hearing about your tennis past, learning about your Roo past, and talking about those pesky tennis playing Mustangs from Grapevine High.
Kenny McAllister, Paul Schultz, Matthew Berry, Aimee Ash, Julianne McNamara, Kevin Read, Gary Stevenson II, Carol Safe Creel, Kim Bane Parish, Derek Moore, Shad Rahman, Paige Adams, Sharon Bradley Perry, Eloise Angulo, Felicia Smith McKinney, Melissa Wait Simmons, Melissa Wait Simmons, Darcy Cuthill, Coach Leslie Crook
