Austin Parkinson

Austin Parkinson was a four-year basketball starter at Northwestern High School, leading the Tigers to an impressive 77-17 won-lost record. The 6-foot-1, point guard started in each of those 94 games that produced three Howard County Tournament titles along with sectional (2) and regional (1) crowns. He departed from NW as its career leader in points (1,667, 17.7 per game), assists (678, 7.2) and steals (382, 4.0).

As Howard County’s No. 2 career boys leading scorer, behind Kokomo’s Jim “Goose” Ligon, he later became Northwestern’s first player named to the Indiana All-Star team.

Parkinson played four seasons at Purdue, appearing in 120 of 124 games and averaged just over 15 minutes court time per game. He led the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio in each of his last three seasons. Following graduation, Parkinson served on the Purdue men’s coaching staff before joining the IUPUI men’s staff for two seasons.

He was named IUPUI’s women’s head coach just days before the 2010-11 season opener. He took over a program that had struggled in past years, winning just three games in 2009-10. His first squad won four games, then in 2011-12, Parkinson’s group improved to 13-19. In 2012-13, IUPUI had its break-through season, finishing 20-12. A berth in the Women’s 2013 NIT was a first for the program and Parkinson was named Summit League Coach of the Year.

IUPUI’s success under Parkinson continued in 2013-14 as the Lady Jaguars set a record for wins with a 23-10 finish. The team earned a berth in the Women’s NIT and there posted the program’s first Division I post-season victory ever.

In September 2014, Parkinson married Whittney Beechy of Kokomo.