Hayward WI - 2019 graduate from the Winter School District, Mason Parker, is at the center of attention for the Local Athlete Spotlight. Mason is currently a redshirt Junior at Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota. Mount Marty is a private institution that participates in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Mount Marty University has just over 1,000 enrolled students which offers 8 Men’s sports, 8 Women’s sports, and 4 co-ed sports There are currently 250 NAIA schools across the United States offering collegiate sports with athletes competing for National Championships. The Mount Marty Lancers are currently sitting at a record of 3-7, as they go into Concordia University (Neb) on Nov 11 to play their final game of the season. Mason, a 300 lbs Offensive Lineman for the Mount Marty Lancers, and has quite the unconventional journey to arrive where he is today. Where It All Started Parker, a 2019 graduate from the Winter School District, played football since 6th grade, and at that time, they played in pads and helmets. This is when Mason fell in love with the game. He comments, “As a bigger guy, this allowed me to be physical” referring to his size and strength and how it benefited him in the game of football. Today, the Winter WarCats Middle School program participates in flag football. By the end of his Sophomore season with Winter, he realized that he wanted to go to the next level and play for a major Division 1 college program, specifically the Wisconsin Badgers. He took a trip down to watch a Badgers game, and immediately fell in love with the college atmosphere and the notion of playing at the next level. When asked what were some of the next steps he took to help him prepare to make it to the next level, Mason cites, “I started hitting the weightroom more, I knew I needed to get bigger, faster and stronger to play in college. I attended the UMD Big Man Camp and UW-La Crosse football camps while in high school, and that gave me a good idea of what to expect.” According to statistics from the National Federation of State High School Associations, less than 7% of high school football players play at the next level. That comes out to roughly 1 in 15 football players that move to the next level in some capacity, whether it is NJCAA, NCCAA, NAIA, or NCAA. The Journey Begins Mason started his journey at UW-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin, an NCAA Division 3 program that participates in one of the toughest conferences in the country, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). Prior to committing to UW-Stout, Mason had offers to take official visits on campus and held out with hopes of getting offers from Division 1 and Division 2 programs. The offers never came. Mason accepted an invitation to an Elite Camp where he was later offered to walk-on to the UW-Stout Football team. It was during UW-Stout Fall Camp that Mason quickly realized that there are a lot of guys at the same exact level, and even more guys that were bigger, faster and stronger entering the program. His freshmen year, Mason elected to grayshirt. Grayshirts are recruits that are offered a delayed opportunity to participate on the team, pending development standards. This can be skill-based development, academic development or strength and physical development. During his 3 semesters at UW-Stout, Mason was a grayshirt that participated on the practice squad and had a requirement to participate in ETS, a sports performance system designed to help improve the ability to enhance one’s physical preparedness and overall performance. Bump In The Road In 2020, Covid struck the world of college sports, sending a lot of student-athletes home where they found jobs, continued their training and development. For Mason, he spent time at home with family, working and training as much as he can to be at that level of preparedness a college-level program would like to see. In the fall of 2021, Mason transferred to Mesabi Range Community College where he spent one semester on the football team. Mason finished his first full collegiate season with an All-Conference Honorable Mention achievement. Moving On to Greener Pastures Mason still sought greener pastures and took to twitter where he started his own recruitment campaign. He sent out thousands of messages to college football coaches where he shared his Hudl film, and highlights, information about his height and weight, and grade point average (gpa). Out of the thousands of outreach attempts, Mason had an inbox full of messages from coaches all over the country. There were three offers that were the result of his outreach. Dakota State University, an NAIA program in Madison, South Dakota which offered him a partial scholarship worth $1,000 per semester to help offset the costs of attending their university. The second offer came from Marshall University, a Division 1 program in Huntington, West Virginia which offered him a preferred walk-on status (PWO). The most attractive offer came from Mount Marty University with an offer of a full-tuition scholarship worth just north of $20,000 per year to join the Mount Marty Lancers. In 2022, during Mason’s Sophomore year, he started 8 games for the Lancers and played in meaningful downs in the other 3 games. Entering his Junior season as a Lancer, Mason has played in the first 3 games of the season and has been plagued with some nagging knee injuries which limit his playing time and sidelined him the remaining of this year.
The journey to becoming a scholarship is not an easy one for any athlete, but Mason has found his place with Mount Marty, and notes that there are some distinct differences between being a high school athlete and college athlete. In the Junior College ranks, the coaches tend to coach part-time, they have full-time jobs, much like what you would find in the prep football ranks. The NAIA level comes with full-time coaches, whereas their job is to exclusively build a winning program. Mason states, “The coaches in college are more intense and everything is more in-depth.” Off the field, Mason had it home roughly three times in the last two years. Mason’s mother, Deana, has to drive roughly 10 hours to visit and watch her son play college football. The closest game is still a 6 hour drive for mom, which occurs just one time every other year, as the venue changes each year for conference opponents. Getting to Know Mason Parker On the academic side of things, Mason is pursuing a career as a Radiologic Technologist (R.T.). In addition to holding a 3.5 GPA, being a student-athlete, participating in football practices, weight room sessions, film sessions, team functions, and applying to Radiologic Technology programs, he sometimes feels like he’s working four different jobs. When asked about the importance of academics and college sports, Mason cites, “I wish I would have taken academics more seriously as a high school student-athlete. I think I graduated with a 3.1 GPA.” After graduation and after the last down has been played, Mason plans to become a Radiologic Technologist and travel to more Western parts of the country in regions like Oregon, Montana or Wyoming. When asked about any plans to become a coach or continue on with the sport, he states, “I don’t have any plans to coach, but I do love the strength and conditioning side of things.” While we may not see Mason on the sidelines upon post-graduation, we can join him in his collegiate journey as a local athlete. Some final thoughts from Mason included advice to younger athletes that aspire to play at the next level. Mason says, “Prepare. Make sure this is something that you truly love. It’s more of a business at the college level. You have to prepare academically, mentally, and physically at a high level. Just keep working. It was a major ego check for me to play at the college level. I had to continue to work to stay a step ahead because at the college level there is no lack of competition.” You can continue watching Mason’s journey by visiting Mount Marty Lancers Football, and following any one of their social media channels.
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