For Wayne Parks, last week began similar to that of every other student-athlete in America. Monday started off with team meetings and weight training in the early morning. Next came a full day of classes, which include some from his major, arson investigation, as well as English and math courses.

His next stop was the University of New Haven football field where Parks practiced with his team, and chatted with head coach Peter Rossomando about the team’s upcoming game against Southern Connecticut State.

There’s only one thing that makes that scene unusual: Parks is nine years older than his head coach.

The 44-year-old Parks is suiting up for the Division II Chargers, making him one of the oldest players ever to play in an NCAA football game. It’s all part of a whirlwind experience that has taken Parks back to school more than 25 years after his high school graduation.

Parks, who is listed as a defensive lineman, has not played in New Haven’s first five games. He’s still awaiting that opportunity. But to this point, it’s been worth it.

‘I’m sure he hears that he can’t do it every day,’ Rossomando said. ‘But if you want Wayne to do something at a high level, he’ll do it. He’s one of those guys that swims upstream.’

Parks picked up his new journey right where his old one left off: as an ambitious go-getter, unafraid to give anything a shot.

He did not attend college after graduating in 1983 from Andrew Warde (Conn.) High School, deciding instead to pursue a career in construction. He was married and had kids by age 22. He began firefighting in 1991 as a full-time job, but recently, the lagging economy had cut off his side work in construction.

So when he realized he needed to finally attend college to get an arson investigation degree to further a firefighting career, he decided to make the most of his experience.

Rossomando remembers seeing Parks in the hallway, looking nervous while pacing, when he finally heard the knock on his open door. It was a situation he had seen countless times before.

‘I thought it was a dad coming to give me film for his kid,’ Rossomando said. ‘He said, ‘I hope you’re not going to laugh at me, but I really want to play football here.”

Taken aback, Rossomando said the first thing that came to his mind.

‘You,’ he said, ‘want to play football here?’

But Rossomando, chosen to lead the rebirth of a program that was cut in 2003 and reinstated this fall, agreed to let Parks try out for the team – as long as he could keep up.

Parks soon displayed he wasn’t a 44-year-old going through a mid-life crisis. He wasn’t treated like one either, going through strength training, summer camp and two-a-days.

Rossomando told him if he skipped a single workout he was as good as gone, just like the rest of the team. One missed two-a-day, one missed practice or one missed meeting, and Parks was finished.

‘At first it was a little strange for (my teammates) to see me,’ Parks said. ‘But I showed the players and coaches I can move. They saw that I wasn’t crippled and not out there with a walker.’

Parks found the two-a-days easy enough since he had to stay in good shape as a firefighter. What he was really worried about, though, was putting on pads and hitting for the first time since December 1982.

In fact, he found that the game of football is a lot like riding a bike.

‘Whether you take a year off, or a quarter century off,’ Parks said, ‘it’s amazing how fast things come back to you.’

Parks hasn’t missed a beat in any of the aspects of football, including being part of the team. He routinely acts as a brother, father and friend to his teammates of similar ages as two of his children.

The defensive lineman gives them advice on everything from schemes to schoolwork, all of it coming from a man well endowed in the meaning of a college education.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s also not ‘one of the guys.’

‘They see him as a teammate,’ Rossomando said. ‘They make fun of him like crazy, but he’s got a great personality, so he can take it. He’s just one of the guys.’

That doesn’t mean everything is normal. Because when you live a life that requires you to work the night shifts at the firehouse after a long day of finite math and practice, and still maintain a 4.0 GPA – that’s anything but the standard.

Parks has two children in college – at Fairfield University and George Washington University – that are sharing their father’s experience. Naturally, his wife says she has three kids in college.

But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

‘Even driving in at 5:30 in the morning for meetings and lifts,’ Parks said, ‘I smile because I’m enjoying this experience so much.

‘When you enjoy work this much, it’s not work.’

A Blount return

Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount’s season and NCAA career was presumed dead after his post-game mlée with Boise State’s Bryon Hout on Sept. 3.

Not so fast.

Oregon coach Chip Kelly said this week that Blount could return sometime this season if he met certain conditions, only about a month after announcing that Blount would be suspended by the team for the remainder of the season.

‘It’s not a football decision,’ Kelly told The Associated Press. ‘It’s a human being decision. And he’s got a lot of things to do.’

Since being suspended, Blount has stayed on scholarship, and continued to practice with his team. He also published an editorial apologizing for his actions in Thursday’s edition of Oregon’s student newspaper, The Daily Emerald.

Game to Watch: No. 1 Florida at No. 4 Louisiana State

Arguably the most anticipated matchup of the year, this game will probably derail the BCS Championship hopes of the losing team.

All week, Florida’s eyes – as well as LSU’s – will be on the progress of quarterback Tim Tebow, who is trying to return from a concussion suffered two weeks ago against Kentucky. If he can’t go, the starting nod would go to backup John Brantley.

LSU is coming home off its most impressive victory of the season, a road win at No. 18 Georgia.

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on October 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm