STEENS — The maturation is complete.
Greg Watkins smiles when he thinks back to 2016 and remembers the potential he saw in sophomore Nate Parker. That promise surfaced on the biggest stage when Parker won the 300-meter hurdles (43.47 seconds) and was third in the 400 (53.68) to help the Columbus Christian Academy boys track and field team win its first Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AA State title.
Watkins said Parker had grown mentally and physically all season, so he knew Parker’s “competitive nature” could help him improve.
Parker has done just that in the last two years. On Saturday, he capped his prep career in style by winning the 300 hurdles (42.13) and the 400 (52.84) in the Class A portion of the MAIS Overall Championships at Jackson Academy.
“I knew the 300 hurdles were going to be tough because it was pouring down rain and they had to delay the meet about an hour and a half,” Parker said. “The Tunica guy (Leland Cariker) was pretty good. He beat me earlier in the year, but I knew what I had to do.”
Parker said the rain played a role in him losing his footing on the second to last hurdle. He said he thought somebody was going to pass him as he regained his balance, but he was relieved when he didn’t see anyone approaching on either side.
Parker also was part of the 4×400 relay team with Chris Webber, Matthew Phillips, and Lawson Studdard that finished fourth (3:53.77).
Parker was behind teammate Glenn Misiak for the first 300 yards of the 400 before he said he saw Misiak aggravate an injury he suffered in soccer season. The injury forced Misiak to drop back to fifth with a time of 55.09.
“I knew it was going to be guts because the 400 is one of the toughest races,” Parker said. “I knew if I was going to win I was going to have to gut it out, and that’s what I did.”
Parker said he talked with Misiak before the race and thought Misiak was going to stay with him the entire race. Instead, Misiak went out a little faster and was in front of him by one or two arms lengths until about 100 meters left.
Watkins said he saw the signs of Parker’s maturation in the district and at the North State track and field meets in 2016. He said the confidence Parker gained winning the 300 hurdles at North State and at the state meet fuel his determination to get better.
“That confidence from that track season carried over in every sport he played after that,” Watkins said.
Watkins said the confidence blossomed this season, especially after Parker lost to Cariker in the 300 hurdles in the second meet of the season. He recalls seeing a look of anger on Parker’s face and that Parker didn’t want the red ribbon for finishing second. Watkins encouraged Parker to take the ribbon and to put it somewhere he would see it every day to remind him he didn’t want to feel that way again.
At the Class A North State meet on April 28 at Lee Academy in Clarksdale, Parker won the 300 hurdles with a time of 41.05. Cariker finished second in 42.96.
“I told him, ‘You must have kept that ribbon,’ ” Watkins said. “(Parker) said, ‘Yeah, I had it by my mirror and I looked at it before I left.’ ”
Parker didn’t have as fast a time at the state meet in large part because he clipped at least two hurdles, including one late in the race that nearly sent him to the track. In fact, Watkins thought Parker was going to go down, only to see him use his athleticism to keep his footing and to finish the race.
“Anybody else probably would have hit the ground,” Watkins said. “If he hadn’t hit the hurdles, especially that last hurdle, he would have been in the 40s, if not in the 39-second range. It is just that determination and that athleticism and the heart and desire he has had that pushes him through stuff like that.”
Watkins said he is going to miss that mind-set and work ethic from Parker and classmates like Webber, who won the 3,200, the 1,600, and the 800, and Misiak, who was injured nearly all of the track and field season. Watkins believes CCA would have won another state title if Misiak had been healthy.
“Those three have been program builders,” Watkins said. “Without them and their encouragement to the others and their desire to win, it doesn’t put us in the position we have been in the last three years.”
Parker said the finality of the last meet hit him prior to the 300 hurdles and then again before the 4×400 relay. He said he made a point to “leave it all out there” to make his finale high school track and field meet one to remember.
Parker hopes the meet won’t be his last one. He said he plans to attend Mississippi College in Clinton and to compete on the school’s track and field team. Webber also will run cross country and compete in track and field at Mississippi College.
“Me, Chris, and Glenn were good leaders,” said Parker, who is thinking about studying business in college. “I think we did our best. I feel really bad for Glenn being hurt this year, his senior year, but he still did all we could ask for, and Chris did great.”
As for the prospects of competing in track and field in college, Parker said he always has wanted to continue his athletic career at the next level. As a sophomore, Parker might not have believed that would happen. After completing his senior year with two individual wins, Parker is ready to blossom again in college.
“I knew I was a good athlete, but I didn’t think I was that good,” Parker said. “My 10th-grade year during track is really when I gained a lot of confidence and realized I was good enough.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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