LEWISTON —Tiara Johnson had one name in mind for an assistant coach after being named Niagara's coach.
If she decided to come back, Angel Parker would be building on one of the best resumes in program history. Parker, who has been an assistant at Buffalo State and Daemen since graduating in 2024, has come back and is trying to bring the program back to the heights it experienced when she was wearing the purple and white.
During her career from 2019-2024, Parker scored 1,520 points, grabbed 444 rebounds, and she added 430 assists and 344 steals. She is one of 26 1,000-point scorers in program history and she owns five game, season or career program records, including the career record for most steals.
The Buffalo native also helped Niagara reach unprecedented heights, making it to the WNIT Tournament in 2022-23 and 2023-24. But, the team has fallen on hard times recently as in the two years since Parker graduated, Niagara went a combined 4-53 overall.
"Angel was my first call and the reason why is because she comes in knowing what it takes to build something successful from the ground up," Johnson said. "So her first two years, they went through it, and her last two years, they had some heck of some runs. So for me, it was to have someone like that who understood the grind of coming in and building something from the ground up."
When she was first hired on June 25, Parker officially joined a club which hadn't added a new member since 2018. She is the first former player to join the staff since Erika Harris, who coached from 2015-2018.
Parker is one of four assistant coaches on Johnson's staff this season. She will be working with the lead guards (or point guards), who handle the ball and bring it up the floor and the team's defense.
"I think the question is, what wouldn't (make me want to return)? I don't think there's anything that would make me not want to and I have all the reason to," Parker said. "This is somewhere that's familiar. It's my home, like coming back to back a place that I enjoyed some of the best years of my life. So it was a no-brainer."
Although she has coached in the area since she graduated from Niagara, she did not think about coming back until now. Over the last two years, Parker served as an assistant coach with the Buffalo State University and Daemen University women's basketball coaching staffs.
"I had already gotten into Daemen by the time everything was happening around here," Parker said. "... I wanted a little bit more experience getting before I even threw my foot into it."
As a coach, Parker helped Buffalo State and Daemen go a combined 31-24 in her previous two stops. As a result, when she thinks about what she brings to the staff, she brings her winning acumen and the fact that she knows the area and how to recruit the area.
During her one year working for Daemen head coach Nate Beutel, she worked on all aspects of the game, but spent a lot of time helping the team's defense because of her expertise on that side of the ball. Beutel laughingly added that Parker's expertise allowed him to throw her into practice occasionally to help the team.
Parker noted it was difficult to make the decision to leave Daemen but that coming back to Niagara was the right choice for her.
"She was our lone full-time assistant, so she was touching all areas of the program," Beutel said. "…. For us in particular, she did spend quite a bit of time on the defensive end of the floor primarily because that's what she's always known as, that Hurricane Havoc defense and the leader and ringleader of that with Niagara during her time there as a player. So she brought a ton to the table on that end of the floor for us."
While there are no players left from Parker's final year at Niagara in the 2023-24 season, she still does have the ability to relate to the players, having not been very far removed from being in their shoes.
She can tell the current players what it was like playing for Niagara and how she dealt with certain situations that they may come across.
Heading into this season, Parker laughed that there was no discussion about adding another former Purple Eagle to the staff, her sister Aaliyah. Instead, Aaliyah will be coaching at St. Bonaventure this season.
"Of course I would want to work with my sister but, I don't know," Parker said. "She's up at Bonnies, she's doing her thing. If it ever comes to be where we're able to work together, that would be wonderful but I don't know."
