ASU Mid-South Athletics Director and Head Men’s Basketball Coach Chris Parker has submitted his resignation, and Greyhound Assistant Coach Cody Hastings was immediately promoted as the Greyhounds new Head Men’s Basketball Coach.
Parker, who just completed his 13th year at ASU Mid-South, has accepted an offer to become the Director of Athletics at Christian Brothers University (CBU) in Memphis, Tennessee. CBU is a member of the Gulf South Conference in NCAA Division II and competes in 17 sports. Parker helped start the athletics program at ASU Mid-South in 2010 and helped build the department from the ground up, serving first as Assistant Athletics Director before taking over as Athletics Director in January, 2013.
Hastings begins his head coaching career in his fifth year at ASU Mid-South. Over the last four years, he has served as assistant coach for both the Greyhound men’s and women’s basketball programs, going full-time with the men’s program this past season and helping the Greyhounds to their fifth Region Championship in the last seven years, the Central Plains District Championship and the program’s second NJCAA National Tournament where they finished eighth in the nation after garnering a 14-seed. Hastings has assisted both nationally-ranked programs win championships, including an incredible turnaround of the women’s program capped by a 25-2 record and a seventh-place finish at the NJCAA National Tournament in 2020-21. He will also serve as Assistant Athletics Director in 2023-24 after being involved in all facets of the department the last two seasons. Prior to his arrival in West Memphis, Hastings served as Graduate Assistant Coach at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, while earning his Masters of Business Administration degree.
Before beginning his coaching career, the Stockdale, Texas, native lettered two seasons at Howard Payne University under Head Men’s Basketball Coach Troy Drummond. Prior to that he played two years at San Antonio College in Texas, serving as team captain both years. Hastings was a three-sport letterman at Stockdale High School, earning All-District honors in football, basketball, and baseball. In basketball, he was named First Team All-District as a junior and senior as one of the top 50 scorers in the San Antonio area.
Parker leaves ASU Mid-South as the most successful NJCAA basketball coach in the state of Arkansas over the last decade as ASU Mid-South won six of the last ten Region Championships and finished Region Runner-Up the other four seasons. His teams have had ten winning seasons in a row, appeared in ten consecutive Region Championship games and advanced to the NJCAA National Tournament twice in the last six years, finishing 5th in the nation in 2018 and 8th in the nation in 2022-23. He finishes his Greyhound career with a 222-130 overall record, and saw 40 players move on to four-year colleges in the last 11 years. Ironically, the Greyhounds’ top three sophomores from this year’s 25-win team all signed to the same school for the first time in program history and will be joining Parker at CBU.
As Athletics Director, Parker oversaw the Greyhounds’ move into the Glen F. Fenter Athletic Complex which features a custom-designed parquet court, all chair-back seating, luxurious locker rooms, athletic training room, classrooms and coaches offices. He was also responsible for the creation, development and maintenance of the athletic department’s website, the department’s move to electronic ticketing as well as live-streaming all home games. In addition to managing the department’s social media presence, Parker also helped establish department infrastructure and a student-athlete preparatory program that included mandatory study halls, free tutoring, character development sessions and team service projects. He developed ASU Mid-South’s first student-athlete handbook, and to help supplement the program’s growing needs, the Greyhound Booster Club, known as “The Dog Pack”, was established along with a corporate sponsorship program that greatly enhanced the department’s visibility and support within the region.
In addition, Parker served as NJCAA Region 2 Women’s Director which includes two-year colleges in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and on the national stage has served on several committees including the NJCAA Student-Athlete Academic Success Council, the NJCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Committee, the NJCAA Division I Softball Committee, the NJCAA Tennis Committee, and the NJCAA Division II Oversight Committee.
The Greyhound Athletics Department will feature a new structure moving forward with Jeremy Reece, the college’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, serving as the Interim Athletics Director for the 2023-24 academic year with help from Hastings and Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Addie Lees, who will both serve as Assistant Athletics Directors.
https://www.asumidsouthsports.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/releases/20230609qss34h
