Ben Park's Bio (Coach at M-A from 1968-1999)

Coach Parks has supported and coached troubled youngsters, trained professional athletes from all sports, including Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, and Roger Craig, as well as found the time each year to raise thousands of dollars for local charities. Through his tough approach, Coach Parks has profoundly influenced both the athletes and students of Menlo-Atherton High School in ways that have inspired, changed, and healed thousands of lives.

He has dedicated over forty-two years of his life to selfless service and giving. Coach Parks is the sponsor of such events as "Coach Parks Celebrity Golf Classic," the "Run For Opportunity" (in which Parks runs a mile for every year of his age on his birthday for charity), the annual "Circle of Giving Dinner" and many other events that raise money for needy families. He personally leads groups that go inside tenant housing, migrant worker camps, and inner-city neighborhoods to bring food, clothing, blankets, furniture, clean-up crews, and Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys to poor families. The yearly M-A Holiday Food Basket program organized by M-A Leadership students and community is done in partnership with his charity work.

Coach Parks’ unmistakably strong personality has also gained him national recognition. For the past five years he has been invited to Washington, D.C., to serve on the President's Council for Building Character in Youth Through Sports. Coach sits on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. Among the many awards he has received, The Fifty-Plus Fitness Associated bestowed on him the Emil Zatopek Award in 2000. He is involved in Fifty-Plus' lecture program throughout the year, often stopping in to talk about aging and physical fitness and leading runs. In 2002, the M-A PTA made him an honorary member, he is being honored with a "Coach Parks Day" on October 4, and he is being inducted into the Menlo-Atherton Sports Hall of Fame on November 1. "Coach Parks", is the name of a documentary written by producer-director and M-A graduate David Mueller in association with Wakan Films about him.

Coach Parks' life began in extreme poverty. Deserted by his mother as a child, he went to live with his grandmother in the rural town of Hollister, California, where he grew up among migrant field workers. Often going hungry for days as a child, he learned the value of giving from families that took him in and fed him. After graduating from the College of the Pacific, he started working in 1957 at his alma mater as a Graduate Assistant Football Coach. Later that year he became an educator at John Marshall Jr. High School, in Stockton, California. From 1958 to 1968, he was the Assistant Football coach at Edison High School, in Stockton, where he was also an educator/coach (football, tennis, baseball, track, wrestling and gymnastics). He was the Principal at Peterson Juvenile Hall School while still coaching at Edison High School from 1960 to 1965.

Coach Parks came to Menlo-Atherton High School in 1968, and over the years has held a variety of positions such as head football coach (1968-84), wrestling coach (1968-1999), physical education instructor and vice principal (2 years). Over the years, he has been named “Coach of the Year” several times. Although he was supposed to have retired in 1999, for the last two years he has been the wrestling coach at Sequoia High School while helping with detention at M-A.

[We want to thank David Mueller, producer-director and M-A graduate, for providing much of this information.]

"The motivation that kept me playing well and continues to enthuse me and push me is Coach Parks. One thing he says is, 'Life isn't a choice, but living is.' It's inspiring. You have all the choices in the world, why not choose to live life the right way? Why not choose to help people? It makes you stronger within." -- Former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott

"Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others." -- Coach Parks

"Life isn't a choice, but living is." -- Coach Parks

"Service is the rent we pay for living." -- Coach Parks

"But I do know that you don't get anything by yourself. There are a lot of people involved, and what needs to be done is to share ourselves with each other. When you're together, as a class or a team, it brings out camaraderie." -- Coach Parks

"Harder, harder, you can do more!" -- Coach Parks

Links to more on Coach Parks

[Wakan Films' documentary: "Coach Parks"]

[Almanac Story]

[50 Plus award]

[Boys & Girls Club]

[Palo Alto Weekly]