COVER STORY : What Makes Sirr Parker Run? : The Locke High Senior Dodged Adversity to Become the Central City’s Most Coveted Football Player

Practice is over, the sun has set and most of the players have already gone home.

But Sirr Parker, the Locke High School football star, does more than run ordinary drills. And that may be one reason he is a running back with extraordinary skills.

He takes a football at the goal line and surveys his opposition: two players, acting as cornerbacks, stand a first down away at the 10-yard line. Two more crouch at the 20.

The object: Make it to the other end zone without being tagged by any of the four defenders.

Parker digs his right cleat into the lumpy turf, pivots quickly and heads left, already near full speed. Drawing the first two players to him, he quickly zigzags right and arches away from a hand-tag. The first two defenders are through. Parker breaks down the right sideline and reaches midfield before cutting back against the grain, sweeping past one would-be tackler. Three down, one to go. It’s now a footrace, an event that the 100-meter sprint specialist rarely loses.

No contest. . .touchdown.

“They hardly ever catch me,” Parker, 17, said with a smile.

Staying out of harm’s way is second nature to Parker. He is as good at dodging adversity as he is at slipping tackles. Good enough to shrug off an unstable home life and the dangers of growing up amid gangs and drugs in South-Central Los Angeles to become the Central City’s most highly prized football recruit.

Parker, despite his team’s miserable season (an 0-9 record with two forfeits), led the city in rushing with 1,129 yards and 19 touchdowns with 19, scoring 114 points. Parker scored twice o1847618409 No wonder a score of top Division I football colleges have their eyes on Parker and are ready to help him achieve the most cherished of rewards for a high school athlete: a scholarship.

But if Parker gains a full scholarship from one of his many suitors--which include football powers USC, Notre Dame, Arizona, the University of Nebraska and UCLA--he will have beaten considerable odds to do it.

It would seem there is plenty of scholarship money to go around for star athletes in any given year: In 1991, the last year for which figures are available, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. reported that 90,000 athletes were receiving about $468 million in full and partial scholarships from more than 500 Division I and II colleges and universities.

The numbers are striking, but the reality is that competition is fierce: It is estimated that the available scholarship money is enough for only about 10% of the athletes, male and family, w1752113264 Talent is a necessity to draw interest from coaches and recruiters, but grades are essential for actually landing financial support. Poor grades can sideline the best of athletes. Good grades can give a star such as Sirr Parker an open field.

The NCAA, at the urging of some college presidents, has toughened its academic standards for scholarship eligibility in recent years. A type of sliding scale is used--a student athlete who maintained a C average in high school, a 2.0 grade-point average, would have to score a 900 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test; the better the GPA, the lower the test score can be and vice versa.

“School is the No. 1 factor why kids don’t get scholarships,” said Richard Estrada, who works for Para-Dies Scouting Service, an Orange County-based service that contracts with colleges who want information on high school football players.

“The city of L.A. probably has the best athletes overall in Southern California, but a lot of times nobody’s pushing these kids to study and to go to school. So you get a kid with maybe a high-C average, but then you look at his SAT and, sorry, it’s 600.”

Parker won’t have that problem. He has a 3.78 GPA and is awaiting his reults on the SAT test. Parker has helped cut the odds further by being a member of his school’s student-improvement club, the Men of Locke Delegation, which awards students varying amounts of money for good grades.

Beyond academics, there are other stumbling blocks for the Central City athlete.

“Some kids see their parents once a week,” Estrada said. “There are gangs and drugs. Kids have to separate themselves from that element and it is really hard. It takes a lot of willpower to do that in the city.”

In fact, Parker will tell you the game has always been the easy part.

“Football is the least of my concerns,” Parker said. “I use it to keep everything else together. Once the ball is in the air, I put everything else on hold. It helps me keep other things in order, release my frustrations, get away from the spotlight.”

*

Still, the glare of attention is never far away from a blue-chip athlete. It follows Parker home to the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his mother in South-Central.

A minute into a recent phone conversation, Parker heard the familiar click of call waiting. Over the course of the hour-and-a-half conversation, he would hear it eight more times--from assistant coaches of universities that are pursuing him or from the news media who want to know if he has made up his mind where he will go.

“That’s the usual,” Parker said. “I get about 30 calls a week.”

The attention literally surrounds Parker at home. In his room, recruitment letters adorn all four walls and still more are stapled to the ceiling. Hundreds more are stored in his dresser drawers.

He never throws them away.

“I keep them for souvenirs,” Parker said. “When I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, all I see are letters everywhere.”

As Parker gazes at the letters, he sees a future filled with promise and possible stardom. But when he looks into the mirror, he is reminded of a difficult past, filled with ups and downs. From the time Parker was 1 until he was 11, he lived with his grandmother in South-Central, at 76th and Broadway. Gunshots and sirens were heard nightly.

Bad neighborhood, good times.

“It wasn’t the life to live but it was probably the happiest time of my life,” Parker said.

*

With Parker’s mother battling personal problems and his father gone since he was 3, his grandmother, Florence Mosley, shouldered the responsibility of raising him.

“My grandmother and cousins took the place of my father,” Parker said in a soft, even voice. “You never miss what you never had.”

Mosley took care of Parker and most of his cousins in an average-size home.

“She raised 10 children and nearly 22 grandchildren over the course of my stay,” Parker said. “I saw her go through a lot of things and make it.”

Parker remembers the lessons she taught him: “She would feed family members and people off the street if they were hungry. She fed people who stole from her before. She taught me to never hold grudges.”

Even though she didn’t have much, Mosley saw to it that Parker had everything he needed.

“We had food and clothes and we went to school,” Parker said. “That was never an issue.”

Meanwhile, Parker’s cousins and roommates, Eric Wilson and Akili Mosley, saw to it that Parker’s football skills would not be wasted on the playground.

“We all used to play football in the street, and one day we snuck Sirr up to Jefferson High and signed him up to play Little League,” Wilson said. “He was too good not to play somewhere.”

Parker didn’t disappoint his cousins, winning rookie of the year at the age of 8 as a member of the Tiny Mites of the King Football Conference--a Pop Warner-like organization. Parker established his star status early: In three years in the King Conference, he was twice named most valuable player, player of the year and defensive and offensive back of the year.

Parker felt like he was the fastest person in the world. All that he could see in front of him was daylight. Only death could catch him from behind.

“It bothered me a lot when my grandmother died,” Parker said of Florence Mosley’s death in 1988. “I still miss her.”

*

Parker lived with his aunt, Freda Williams, in Rialto for the next two years, before finally moving back to South-Central with his mother in an apartment owned by his grandfather.

Parker admits that he and his mother do not share a close relationship. He says she is rarely at the apartment. He believes, however, that she is past the problems that caused her to send him to live with his grandmother. Noticeably uncomfortable, Parker sheds the subject, much like a futile arm-tackle.

“I’m usually at my coach’s house or my girlfriend’s house,” Parker said. “Sometimes, I don’t know where my mom is, but it doesn’t bother me. I just do what I have to do.”

Louis Mosley, Parker’s grandfather, comes by from time to time to check on his grandson.

“I go to see how Sirr is doing,” Louis Mosley said. “I just tell him to concentrate on the future and not worry about the past or present.”

During Parker’s past and present, the one positive has always been football.

In 1992, he made the Locke varsity football team as a sophomore, picking up where he left off in youth football. From the start, Parker drew attention for his dazzling natural ability.

“I have (scouted) him since he was a sophomore,” Estrada said. “I was telling people that Parker was going to be a Division I player when I first saw him.”

Locke coach E.C. Robinson tells why.

“He ranks at the top of the backs in the city because he can run, catch and pass,” said Robinson, who is in his 14th year at Locke. “Sirr can run inside, make a read and then bounce outside with the speed to turn the corner. I have seen great backs in the city, but he is the best I have seen in eight or nine years.”

The city has produced its share of great backs, including Manual Arts graduate Steve Broussard of the Cincinnati Bengals, Crenshaw’s Wendell Tyler, formerly of the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, and Roosevelt’s Mike Garrett, formerly of the San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs and the current athletic director at USC.

*

The 5-10, 180-pound Parker also impressed onlookers at the Scouting Evaluation Assn. Combine at Warren High School in Downey last spring. A combine is a tryout for football players during which they are measured and tested for speed, agility and overall ability in a series of running and pass-catching drills. Recruiters and scouting services can evaluate several athletes at the same time.

The combine’s director, Dick Lascola, was particularly impressed with Parker.

“Our motto is ‘We Test the Best’ and Sirr Parker certainly belongs here,” Lascola said. “Parker is a good football player. He can break tackles and once he gets into the open, he is tough to catch. Speed is his obvious strong suit. I don’t know that he has any weak attributes.”

His size might have been a drawback at one point, but Parker has added 20 pounds to his chiseled frame since his sophomore year. The added muscle has brought him better balance and helped eliminate what used to be a weakness in his running style.

“Parker used to go down easily when he was hit but he has since gotten a lot stronger,” Estrada said. “He runs inside a lot better than he used to. When you add power to his quick decision-making abilities and great acceleration, you have a great running back.”

And he has the superstar attitude: “I like for the game to be in my hands,” Parker said. “I like having the ball and feeling the pressure. I have a say-so whether or not we win or lose.”

He’s a leader, too, Robinson said.

“Sirr is a remarkable person. He is well-respected by his teammates and well-liked by his schoolmates.”

Wherever he goes, Parker’s choice in college will not be solely based upon athletics, although he does adhere to advice commonly given to prospective scholarship athletes: He wants to go somewhere where he will be spotlighted in the team’s offensive game plan.

Unlike many high school seniors who want to remain close to home their first year in college, distance and emotional ties will not factor into Parker’s decision.

“It doesn’t matter where in the United States I play,” Parker said. “I’m taking (my trophies, awards and letters) with me, so home will be wherever I go.”

Parker is allowed a limited number of on-campus visits under NCAA guidelines. Home could be one of the schools--Washington, Arizona or Notre Dame--he has planned to see.

Washington may be the early front-runner thanks to star tailback Napoleon Kaufman, whom Parker reveres. Kaufman’s slashing running style and balance of speed and power is reminiscent of Parker’s.

At heart, though, Parker’s decision will be pragmatic. He sees his future more in terms of a next logical step than a once-in-a-lifetime dream. “The first thing I look at is the graduation percentage of the football players. I’m using football to get an education. If I don’t get a pro contract, I’ll still have school,” he said.

And what would Parker want to do more than play football?

“I want to be a child psychologist because with all of the problems I went through as a child, I think I could relate to other children’s problems,” Parker said.

But Parker doesn’t want a plush office overlooking Wilshire Boulevard. Something at Broadway and Manchester is fine with him.

“The kids in South-Central have the most problems, so that’s where I should be,” Parker said. “A lot of people make it and act like they were never there. I have to remember where I came from.”

Times Staff Writer Gordon Dillow contributed to this story.

On the Cover

Sirr Parker with the hundreds of recruiting letters he stores in his room.

Along with his talent for running with the football, Parker maintains a 3.78 grade-point average at Locke High School.

With the NCAA, at the urging of some college presidents, toughening its academic standards in recent years, good grades are essential for landing financial support.

Poor grades can sideline the best of athletes. Good grades can give a star such as Parker an open field.