MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Peterson

(Azusa) – Azusa Pacific named A.J. Parnell its next head football coach to lead the Cougars back into the sport in 2026. APU dropped football in 2020 when it competed as a Division II program and will return in the fall of next year as an NCAA Division III team.

Parnell has had experience in DII and DIII. He was most recently the quarterback and running back coach at Winona (Minn.) State University, a DII school in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.  He previously spent seven seasons on staff at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota where he helped lead the program to four NCAA DIII playoff appearances, two elite eight finishes, and a 2023 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship.

At Bethel, Parnell coached two 1,000-yard receivers in a single season and had multiple All-American honorees. He also had high school head coaching experience in Washington state, where he earned 3A/2A KingCo Coach of the Year honors in 2015. Parnell was a quarterback during his collegiate playing days at Bethel.

Parnell grew up in the Seattle area and began his coaching career at his alma mater, Juanita High in Kirkland, Washington where he served as an assistant coach for six years. He then moved over as the head coach of crosstown rival, Lake Washington High, in 2014.  In 2015, he was named the KingCo 3A/2A Coach of the Year.

Parnell entered the college ranks, returning to Bethel in 2017 as the defensive line coach and special teams coordinator.  Four years later, in 2021, he was named the Royals’ offensive coordinator and developed one of the MIAC’s most prolific attacks which averaged over 33 points per game in the course of a three-year span. His 2022 Royal team averaged over 405 yards of total offense a game.

Parnell was a four-year quarterback for Bethel and graduated in 2005. During his senior season he completed 74-of-135 passes for 915 yards and six touchdowns.

Parnell will now spend the next year or more putting together his coaching staff and hitting the recruiting trail in California and across the nation.