Congratulations To Wayne "Bootsy" Parks

[ANALYST]

I want to congratulate Bootsy Parks on his being selected Honorable Mention AP All-State. Parks led the Hillcrest Vikings to a 17win 12loss season, highlighted by a 2nd place regular season finish in 16AA and 3rd place 16AA tourney. Parks and the Vikings closed out their season with a 78 to 71 loss to Raleigh Egypt, a game that Parks scored 25pts., in the Region 8AA tourney.

 

Other highlights of Bootsy's season are as follows: All District 16AA, All Region 8AA. Final season stats: 17pts. 6.1 assists 4.5 rebs. & 2steals per game. Game Highlights: 27pts on Fairley in overtime loss, 34 pts on Sheffield, a game where he hit 8 of 11 three pointers, 26pts on Carver, 20pts on BTW all wins. Bootsy had 8 games where he scored 20 or more points, 6 of which were wins.

 

Bootsy has a 3.8 grade point average, has passed the ACT and is in the running for Salutatorian at Hillcrest. He is a member of the National Honor Society and is being offered scholarships from several schools in academics as well as atheletics.

 

Bootsy, to me, is a "Shane Battier replica" with a better jump shot and better ball handling skills. When he gets to be Shane's age he'll have a chance to be better. Just my opinion, once again congrats!!!!!

[Opperman]

Except that Battier was a 6-8 McDonald's All-American, and Parks is honorable mention all-state. I doubt he'll ever be as good as Battier.

[TheEgoHasLanded]

Kid sounds like a class act. Good luck to him in the future.

[ANALYST]

Like I said Opperman, JUST MY OPINION, Battier wasn't born 6'8". Who knows what the future holds, Scotty Pippen was only 6'2" when he went to school at Central Arkansas to be a trainer. Bootsy has a chance to grow, he wears a size 14 shoe and is only 17, won't turn 18 until September. I know you have a right to your opinion, but I have a right to mine also, we'll see what happens.

 

Have a BLESSED DAY!

[ANALYST]

Opperman, I forgot to rebutt you on another point you made in your comments. You probably doubted that Bootsy would make Honorable Mention All-State, LOL. Keep on doubting and maybe he'll be better than Shane one day.

[ANALYST]

Thanks Ego, as you know I've been talking about Bootsy before the season even started. It's no doubt that he could've played for White Station, Ridgeway, East, Hamilton, Fairly, BTW and on and on. He was even approached by a couple of those schools coming out of middle school. As we all know hind sight is 20 20, but Bootsy would have been just another good player at those schools. Playing at Hillcrest gave him a chance to be a leader.

 

The route that he chose proved that he could be a leader on a team that didn't have as much talent, I do believe that he'll be successful at what ever he decides to take on in life.

[Guest vet]

You must be his dad. Where's he going to college.

[ANALYST]

You are correct, I'm Bootsy's father and coach, I've been a assistant at Hillcrest since 1994 when Bootsy was 9yrs.of age and team waterboy.

 

There are several DI schools and a couple of DII mixed in that are recruiting Bootsy but at this time I can't divulge their names. There have been coaching changes at a couple of the schools where he has taken official visits and Bootsy is still very much open to the recruiting process. Bootsy has three more official visits to take.

 

As a matter of fact I spoke to a school on today, that played in this years NCAA tourney, they said that they have been tracking Wayne all season and became even more interested when they found out that he was already registered with the NCAA clearing house and found out that he has a 3.50 average in 13 core subjects even though he has not finished his senior yr of high school. As a matter of fact they might be coming to Memphis in the next week or so to maybe visit with him.

 

Bootsy will make the final decision on where he wants to go to school, it will be his decision only, with input from me and his mom. When he decides to sign, Coach T will be one of the first to know.

 

I listed some of the schools that were in on him early on in this web site. At this time I don't think it would be fair to Bootsy give out more info, because he is still very much open. E-mail me at wpackercat@aol.com if you want to talk.