Parrish a Heavy Hitter After Putting on Pounds

Tony Parrish was a skinny, 160-pound safety as a junior on the Marina High football team in 1991. He was better known for winning the state high school triple jump championship the following spring.

By his senior season, Parrish had gained about 15 pounds and played well in the secondary, but college recruiters still weren’t breaking down any doors to sign him.

Dave Thompson, his former coach in Huntington Beach, says Fresno State and Nevada Las Vegas showed interest, but that was about it. “I couldn’t get any of the big schools to recruit him,” Thompson said. “He was only 16 years old when he started his senior year, and I knew that he was going to fill out more and get better. And I already knew he could really hit.”

Finally, Thompson persuaded Washington’s coaches to take a closer look.

“I was frustrated because I felt sure he could play at one of the Pac-10 schools, and when Washington was down here for the Rose Bowl that year, I decided to take some film over to their recruiting coordinator at practice,” Thompson said. “He liked what he saw, and after a visit up there, they offered him a scholarship.”

It turned out to be a wise decision.

Parrish, 5 feet 11 and a solid 205 pounds now, is one of the leaders on a Washington team that is regarded as a strong contender for the Pacific 10 title this fall. With 14 regulars back from a team that was 9-3, Washington also is regarded as a potential national championship contender.

“I’m happy it turned out the way it did, because Washington was where I really wanted to go because they were really on top then,” Parrish said. “It has worked out well.”

Well enough that Parrish will be starting his third season as a regular in the secondary when Washington opens its season Saturday at Brigham Young.

Parrish was a redshirt his first year at Washington in 1993, but played in every quarter of all 11 games in 1994. The next season, as a sophomore, he started seven games at roverback, and had a season-high 10 tackles against Notre Dame.

Parrish was expected to be the starter at roverback again his junior season, but All-American free safety Lawyer Milloy jumped to the NFL after his junior year, and Parrish took over there. That also left Parrish as the only returning regular in the defensive backfield, and there were concerns about whether it would measure up.

“All that worrying about the young guys in the secondary didn’t come from me,” Parrish said. “As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter how old you are if you can play.”

The secondary turned out to be solid last season, and was one of the reasons Washington was so successful. The Huskies, with a 7-1 conference record, were second to Arizona State in the Pac-10, losing their only conference game to the Sun Devils, 45-42.

“It was our first conference game of the season, and it was one of those games where both teams made too many mistakes,” Parrish said. “But they still came out three points ahead of us.”

Parrish was third on the team in tackles with 71, and earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors. Over the last six games of the season, he recovered three fumbles and forced two others, and was chosen as the team’s most improved player by his coaches.

Parrish says the shift from free safety to rover was an easy transition. “I started out at safety, but went to rover in the spring of my freshman year,” Parrish said. “I like both positions, but I think free safety suits me best. At safety, the game is all in front of me, and I like that. You have a lot more freedom to react.”

The free safety is the quarterback of the Husky defense. He is responsible for calling alignment changes on the field, based on the way the offense lines up.

Parrish, who was voted a captain by his teammates, excels at doing that, according to secondary coach Ron Milus.

“He’s like having a coach on the field,” Milus said. “In fact, the other players call him ‘Coach’ a lot. He really studies the game, and the other players respect that. We had a young secondary a year ago, and he really helped to bring them around. The other guys were all coming off redshirt years, and he was the catalyst.”

Milus says Parrish is also one of the team’s surest tacklers.

“He’s really strong now, a 435-pound bench-press guy,” Milus said. “And he also has good speed to go with it. He’s in the 4.5 [seconds] range for the 40.”

Parrish hopes his senior season will be special with a Rose Bowl trip.

“That’s one of our big goals,” Parrish said. “The guys in my class don’t want to leave without playing in a Rose Bowl.”