Notre Dame Pair Settle on Colleges : Parker, Glaze Headed to Tennessee, CSUN

Tom Parker and Mike Glaze, major contributors on Notre Dame High’s powerful track and field team the past two seasons, Tuesday signed national letters of intent with Tennessee and Cal State Northridge, respectively.

Parker chose the Southeast Conference school over Kansas, UCLA, Texas, Nebraska, Northridge and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“I’m looking forward to going to Tennessee,” said Parker, whose personal best of 16-9 1/2 ranks second on this year’s state high school list. “They’ve been after me the whole year and they’ve been very straightforward with me. They haven’t been giving me any BS. I think I can trust them.”

Parker, second in the 1987 state championships, said Kansas had the best vaulting program in the country, but the isolation of the Lawrence campus was a drawback.

“I like having things around me,” Parker said. “And Kansas was very open. It was basically in the middle of nowhere. There were just miles and miles of fields. At Tennessee, there are mountains nearby where I can camp and hike.”

Tennessee’s concern for its athletes’ academic well-being also impressed Parker, a marginal student in high school.

“They’re pretty strict with their athletes regarding academics and that’s what I need,” he said. “During high school, I was worried too much about where the next party was and not enough about studying.”

Glaze also based his decision on academics in addition to athletics.

“They have a good journalism department and I like their coaching staff,” said Glaze, who was interested in Oregon but cringed at the thought of paying out-of-state tuition at the Eugene school.

“They couldn’t give me any money until my sophomore year,” said Glaze, who placed third in the 1987 state Division II cross-country championships. “So I would have been shelling out something like $4,000 my first year.”

Glaze, runner-up in the 1,600 meters at this year’s Southern Section 2-A Division championships, has personal bests of 4 minutes, 13.93 seconds in that event, 1:58.0 in the 800 and 9:14.88 in the 3,200.

Glaze was the third track athlete to sign with Northridge in the past two weeks. Tonya Conner of Barstow High and Dave Burton of Mt. Carmel High in San Diego signed last week.

Conner won the state title in the long jump (19-5 3/4) and placed sixth in the triple jump (38-6).

Burton scored 6,031 points in the first decathlon of his career several weeks ago and has personal bests of 14.50 in the 110-meter high hurdles and 6-6 in the high jump. He also has run a 48.8 400 split in the 1,600 relay.