Tomball Memorial head football coach Sam Parker has been named the next head coach at Canyon Lake High School, Comal ISD announced on Thursday.

Parker steps in at Canyon Lake to replace Charles Drum, who announced his retirement after leading the Hawks for 12 seasons.

The 43-year-old Parker holds a 93-63 record in 14 seasons as head coach. He became the head coach at Spring High School at 29, and after four seasons and just eleven total wins, the Lions turned the corner in 2014 posting a 10-4 record and an apperance in the regional final. The Lions followed that up with an 11-2 mark in 2015 and a 9-3 mark in his final season.

In 2017, Parker took over at fast growing Tomball Memorial, which was Class 5A at the time. The Wildcats experienced plenty of success on his watch. After moving to Class 6A in 2018, TMHS made the playoffs in five of the last six seasons and have posted three seasons of 10 or more wins, including a 10-2 mark in 2023. 

The Cleburne native comes from a football family as his father Dennis Parker was a long-time head coach in Texas and won a state title in 1990 as the head coach at Marshall. The elder Parker also spent time as the head coach at North Texas, where Sam played collegiately. After his playing days ended Parker spent time as an assistant coach at Klein and Ennis, before becoming the offensive coordinator at Tyler John Tyler in 2008. 

Canyon Lake currently participates in Class 4A-Division I. Despite the fast growth in Comal ISD, CLHS appears locked into Class 4A for the time being as they are geographically isolated from much of the rest of the district being on the far north end of the district and being on the other side of Canyon Lake. That smaller school side was attractive for Coach Parker in making the move.

“It made a lot of sense for my family to make this move," he said. "My daughter is in eighth grade and the smaller school seemed more appealing to us. Plus much of my family is now in the San Antonio area so that’s attractive as well. Tomball Memorial and Tomball ISD have been great to us, we have had an amazing experience here."