Parker High boys basketball coach Larissa Hansen strategizes with her team during a timeout in a game against ALA – West Foothills. (Photo by Tucker Sennett/Cronkite News)
Abraham Andrade (13) shares a high-five with Parker boys basketball coach Larissa Hansen before a game against ALA – West Foothills. (Photo by Tucker Sennett/Cronkite News)
Parker High School boys basketball coach Larissa Hansen rallies her team before a matchup during the 2024-25 season. (Photo by Tucker Sennett/Cronkite News)
PARKER – In August, the boys basketball team in this small town along the Colorado River in western Arizona found itself without its leader.
After dedicating 30 years of his life to teaching and coaching over two stints at Parker High School and at several schools in the Pacific Northwest, Broncs coach Rolland Hansen died at the age of 63 following a lengthy battle with cancer.
When he passed, his wife Larissa, who also teaches at Parker and has coached the school’s varsity girls and the boys freshman teams, met with her husband’s players. Her relationship with the athletes goes beyond the court: She had known many of them since they were in grade school.
Maverick Allen, now a senior at Parker, is one of those players and he was adamant about who he wanted to take over for Rolland.
“I talked to the boys, and I said, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do now,’” Larissa Hansen said. “And Maverick said, ‘Well, you’re going to be the coach.’”
She explained that she didn’t even know if coaching the team was an option for her. Allen’s response was unexpected and touched the grieving Larissa.
“He said, ‘Then I won’t play,’” Larissa recalled.
The late Rolland Hansen, former Parker High boys basketball coach, is remembered alongside current assistant coach Kevin Kuehl. (Photo by Tucker Sennett/Cronkite News)
Months later, Larissa and the Broncs were 22-5, had finished second in the 3A West Division and had a spot in the state playoffs. Unfortunately, the team’s dreams of a deep state tournament run were cut short when the Broncs fell 86-51 to Pusch Ridge at home in a Class 3A State Tournament game.
While success is not unheard of at Parker, everything about the 2024-25 season was different in the wake of Rolland’s passing.
Parker High has an enrollment of just 503 students and competes in the 3A West Division, which includes nine schools with boys basketball teams. Parker’s shortest road trip for a division game is to River Valley High School, 73 miles away in Mohave Valley. The team travels for games as far away as Chino Valley near Prescott, an exhausting 340-mile round trip.
The town rests in the Northwest corner of the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Despite a population of only about 3,400 people, it’s the largest town in La Paz County and includes a strong connection to Native American culture and history.
To understand the importance of the season the Broncs experienced, one must first understand the town itself. And to understand the town, one must know about the Hansens.
“Rolland loved Parker from the very beginning and never truly wanted to leave in 2007,” Larissa said of the couple’s first stop at the school from 2004-07.
Between 2007 and their return in 2015, the Hansens moved around the Pacific Northwest and even spent time in North Dakota, where Rolland worked in oil fields. When Parker needed a coach and teacher again, Rolland couldn’t resist the temptation to return.
“Basically, I was stolen, and needless to say, here we are,” Larissa said, chuckling.
The Hansens returned to Parker, where the gentle flow of the Colorado River can be heard from California Avenue, the main drag through this oasis in the middle of the Arizona desert.
For a hoops-loving couple, it became a place to leave a legacy.
“Basketball was life for Rolland,” said Kevin Kuehl, Parker’s junior varsity coach and a family friend. “There’s a lot that can be taught through basketball – character building, overcoming challenges and the successes that come with the sport.
“Not only did he care about that, but he cared about the human being.”
A photograph of the late Rolland Hansen serves as a reminder of his lasting impact on Parker High’s basketball program. (Photo by Tucker Sennett/Cronkite News)
Kuehl and Rolland met at a teaching clinic in Washington more than 20 years ago and immediately became friends. The Hansens even convinced Kuehl to move to Parker to teach at the high school. Kuehl lived with them for a time before his own family arrived.
Larissa’s relationship with one of the team’s current players is another example of her and her late husband’s impact on the Parker community.
Junior Abraham Andrade moved to the U.S. from Mexico just before high school. The Hansens found him early on, and Larissa spotted his basketball potential. She and Rolland invited him to the gym over the summer and he shined on the court. She took him under her wing from there.
Now, Larissa helps Andrade get to and from school, helps him with schoolwork and even helps keep him fed some days.
“Mrs. Hansen, she’s like my second mom,” Andrade said. “She’s really like an angel for me right now because she cares about me, and that’s everything I ask.”
Andrade described Rolland as a surrogate father. Despite having their own kids, the couple considered their players part of their family, including Andrade and Allen.
That hasn’t changed for Larissa.
Her bond with Andrade is evident. After a dominant win over American Leadership Academy – West Foothills, Andrade didn’t high-five his coach. Instead, he embraced her in a hug, his smile lighting up the gym. Hansen wrapped her arms around her sweat-soaked player as if he were one of her own kids.
While her relationship with Andrade goes beyond the court, the whole team feels her love in different ways.
What they may not realize is how much the love they return has helped her.
“I think the salve that is healing slowly is being with the kids,” Larissa said. “They knew Rolland, the staff knew him. And they share stories I don’t know about, and the impact he had on them.
“That helps heal my heart.”
Coach Larissa Hansen leads the Parker Broncs in a pregame huddle as they prepare to take on their opponent, ALA – West Foothills. (Photo by Tucker Sennett/Cronkite News)
While Rolland worked at Parker High School, Larissa moved between the high school and lower levels at Parker through the years. Because of her time in both places, she has known many of her current players since they were children.
“She used to teach back in elementary, so I used to see her around,” senior Adrian Valdez said. “She really stands out compared to all the other teachers … she’s really good to be around.”
Larissa’s relationships with the players when they were younger were aided by Rolland’s efforts in the community.
“Rolland had a very big impact here at Parker,” Allen said. “He was very involved with a lot of different kids, and what he did here at the gym was very helpful to a lot of people.”
Rolland dreamed of a community center in Parker, where kids and families could come together to play games and learn about the joy of sports. That center never materialized, so he turned the Parker High gymnasium into his own version of one.
To honor Rolland and his impact, a banner under the scoreboard there reads, “In Loving Memory, Rolland Hansen.” While the tribute may be small, his legacy looms large over the sparkling hardwood and the program itself.
On the court, Larissa adapted her husband’s longtime usage of the 2-3 zone defense, made famous by Syracuse University, and put her own twist on it. The Broncs run a ferocious zone press, with aggressive trapping before dropping into a defense that resembles the ones run by her late husband.
And the way the team plays reflects its coach.
Parker plays with swagger, with a chip on its shoulder and with fearlessness not often seen in youth sports. Hansen inherited a difficult task, but she has walked the path fearlessly and given a level of care no one could have expected from a woman who lost her husband just months ago.
“She made it very easy to rally around her,” Allen said. “She’s a very great leader.”
