WARRICK DUNN FINALIST: Josh Parker - Catholic RB

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - One of our top prep performers in 2019 and a finalist for Sportsline Player of the Year is 5-foot-10, 185-pound running back Josh Parker, who wore the Catholic High uniform just like Warrick Dunn.

One look at the game face of Josh Parker tells you everything you need to know.

“That’s killer instinct right there,” said Parker.

“Looking me dead in the eye and saying ... you know, 'We’re ready!” explained head coach Gabe Fertita.

“I’m so focused on the game and my job,” added Parker.

His job was carrying the football, which he did 272 times during his career. Parker fumbled exactly once.

“It’s all about the preparation we put in during the week. So when you get to the game, it should be like poetry,” Parker noted.

There were poetic moments and Madden video game moments and arcade game moments, like Pinball, all rolled into one guy.

“You shouldn’t be brought down by the first tackler or defender. That’s how I was brought up. When I was in BREC, I would shake a lot, juke a lot, go side-to-side. So, one of my coaches came up with the name ‘Joy Stick,’ because when you hit [or] stick somebody, the controller starts shaking,” Parker explained.

“Joy Stick” sometimes even resembled Super Mario.

“And all of a sudden, you see ‘bing,’ like a guy’s just running and hits the springboard and there he went. How much he can make people miss in a really really small window and he’s able to put a move on a guy that’s really subtle and you might be watching the game live and wonder, ‘How did that guy miss?’ There’s one of those subtle moves where he makes a linebacker miss and then, right after that subtle move, here comes a safety coming to tackle him low and he just ‘boop’ jumped over the top of the guy,” Fertita described.

Parker finished with 1,454 yards and 14 touchdowns for the Division I runners-up and he did it on a bad knee.

Parker’s all-time favorite?

“Barry Sanders,” he answered.

But No. 6 has made a name for himself.

Copyright 2019 WAFB. All rights reserved.