The first thing coaches at Waco La Vega noticed about Kourtney Parr Jr. was his last name. 

Parr was peppered with questions as he wandered the halls on his first day of his freshman year, like the coaches were testing the young quarterback to see how he could handle the blitz.

“Are you going to live up to what your dad and uncle did?”

You can’t write the story of La Vega’s athletic program without a chapter about the Parr family. Kourtney Parr Sr. was a two-year starter at tailback in the mid-2000s. Coach Don Hyde described him as a guy who could go the distance any time he touched the ball. His brother, Chris, was a star running back on La Vega’s 2008 state finalist team before legal troubles derailed his chances at a Division I career. Over a decade later, Parr Jr.’s cousin, Kiyleyah, was the back-to-back girls’ basketball Class 4A Player of the Year in 2022 and 2023. She now plays at Texas State.

Every day since he was a child, Parr Jr. has looked at pictures hanging in his home of his father and brother in La Vega’s blue and yellow, dreaming of the moment he’d be placed on the wall next to them. There’s a fierce resolve underneath his goofy personality, and it comes out on Friday nights. He’s always known that every Parr at La Vega is expected to be a star. 

“You have to carry on that last name, the tradition,” Parr Jr. said. “That’s what we live for.”

But the weight on his shoulders from his last name isn't a burden - it’s a chip that constantly pushes him to prove himself. Last fall, he officially took his family’s torch, leading La Vega to a state championship berth in his first season as the starting quarterback. Parr, a sophomore, took over halfway through a Week 3 game against West Orange-Stark and never looked back, leading the Pirates on an 11-2 run while throwing for over 2,100 yards and scoring 26 total touchdowns.

Parr, at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, didn’t play or act like an underclassman. He gravitated to the quarterback position because he loves having the ball in his hands every play, much like his father and uncle did when La Vega’s offense was more run-heavy.

“He’s got a gunslinger mentality,” Hyde said. “He’s like, ‘OK, I made a mistake. Let’s play the next play.’”

While he always had that confidence, he channeled it over 14 games as a varsity quarterback, growing up a little more every week.

“I realized you couldn’t throw fade balls the whole game and win like that,” Parr Jr. said.

By the state championship game, he had found the perfect blend between gunslinger and game manager. Parr moved well in the pocket and sprayed the ball around the field against a loaded Carthage defense, with several near-highlights broken up at the last second.

“Parr’s final (stat) line won’t reflect just how many times he flashed in the 4A D2 state title loss to Carthage,” 247Sports national scouting analyst Gabe Brooks wrote. “Big frame, big arm. Made some wildly talented throws under relentless pressure against an elite Carthage defense.”

Both his father and uncle were in the stands at AT&T Stadium, rooting hard for Parr Jr. to win the state championship that they had come so close to winning in 2008. Parr Jr. says his dad gives him a 30-minute lesson after every game, talking so much that he can’t even get a word in. The father never wanted his son to live up to his name; he wanted him to surpass it.

“I want him to be better than me and my brother were, being able to accomplish things we didn’t accomplish,” Parr Sr. said. 

Parr has two more chances to win that state title ring. La Vega enters 2025 as the No. 3-ranked team in Class 4A DII. He has his top receiver back in Oklahoma State commit Jabarie Thornton, who caught 76 passes for 1,367 yards and 15 touchdowns last year.

“He’s one of the kids you’ve got to have on your team,” Hyde said of Parr.

And that’s not just because of his last name.