Advertisement
football Edit

Top California player hears from Big 12

Long Beach Poly is one the perennial high school football powers every year. Last year Freddie Parish helped his team to an almost perfect record, 13 wins with only loss. Their only loss was to another California power, De La Salle High School in Concord.
“We play them (De La Salle) again at Ca-Berkeley (Stadium) on October 12th and we expect to go 14 and 0 next year.”
Advertisement
Freddie Parish is 6-foot-2 and right at 200 pounds. He has run the 40-yard dash “right at 4.47 or 4.48” seconds. “I never maxed out on the squat,” Freddie said. “I did a 265 (pound) bench a year ago.”
Parish played both sides of the ball last year as a junior.
“I played mostly D-back, but I got to run some and score too.”
He was not sure what his statistics last season, as teams would throw to the other side.
“Yes, that is really irritating (throwing to the opposite side of him). If they had me at a certain side or corner, they would throw to the other side. And if I switched, they would throw to the other side.”
On offense he averaged “six or seven yards a carry” running the ball and he also played wide receiver too.
He should have no problem qualifying academically, as his GPA is right at 3.5 and he got a 930 score on his first attempt at the SAT.
Last year he feels that he did not get the overall recognition like he did as a sophomore.
“They talked about me a lot, but the Associated Press did not give me anything. I got the coach’s award (from his school).”
As a sophomore, he was named to the all-CIF team in California.
“Defensive back and a lot are looking at me for free safety,” Parish said about what position most schools are recruiting him to play in college. “Some are corner, but most are for free safety. Some want me to play running back and a little receiver too.”
Freddie Parish has offers from “Stanford, Oregon State, Notre Dame, Washington and Washington State.”
Oregon State: “I just like that their team is kind of young. You can tell that in the past years, that they have the potential to be a real good team.”
Stanford: “They have a young coaching staff and I really like their coaches a lot. Their new coach and coach Williams and their defensive coaches are real nice. They are real honest.” Are they your favorite? “I don’t have any favorites yet.”
Notre Dame: “I like coach Willingham. I liked him, since he was at Stanford. He is a real nice guy and coach Bare.”
Washington: “It is a good school. One thing about Washington is that they are consistently good. They are a good school also.”
Washington State: “They are good. I like them all and if they are not good right now, then they have the potential to be real good. I like the fact that they will give me the opportunity to go right in there and play right away.”
More offers appear to be on the way for him.
“I talked to the Arizona coach the other day and he told me that he had not offered as of yet, but he told me that an offer would be coming my way. A lot of schools, like UCLA, USC, Oregon, they all want me to go to their camps. They said that if I went to their camp, they would offer.”
If he were to make visits today, they would be to the five schools that have made an offer to him.
“If I made my five visits today, they would be to the five that have offered me. That is because they have offered.”
His list is flexible.
“I like Arizona and Cal is cool too.” He likes USC and UCLA too. “My dad went to UCLA. He played for them and I liked them when I was little. But since all of this recruiting process, I’m trying to keep all of my options open.”
“Stanford, LSU and Ohio State” are recruiting him the hardest right now with a lot of mail on a constant basis. “And UCLA.”
Freddie Parish is open-minded about the school that he would attend and the distance will not be a factor in the end.
“It really doesn’t matter to me (on the distance). I just want to find a school with a good education and the opportunity to play as soon as possible.”
His parents won’t stand in his way on his final decision.
“They just want me to make the decision for myself. They will support any decision that I make.”
The Big 12 schools that he has heard from have been “Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Colorado.”
It was shown not too long ago that he had an offer from Oregon, but “actually it is Oregon State (that has offered).”
What are your strong points on defense? “It is mostly just the fact that I like to hit and I think on my feet. I will try to explain it to people and they wonder how I think of all that at one time. I think rather quickly.”
When will you decide? “I plan on making all of my visits.”
Advertisement