Column: Catamount refused to sell himself short

By Marty Kirkland
martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com

July 16, 2008 10:49 pm

— This was different. This was new. After years of running and lifting weights alongside teammates who sweat and bled Catamount Red just like him, Dalton High offensive lineman Andrew Parmer found himself enduring the pain and giving the commitment to football all by himself this spring.
Following a workout plan given to him by Auburn University football coaches, Parmer did the work laid out for him — save a spell when a bout with pneumonia put him out of athletic commission for a while — in hopes that it had some meaning.
Parmer, you see, has long had a dream of suiting up and playing for the Auburn Tigers. Even as the Cats center — who started every game at that position the past two seasons for Dalton High — got some attention from small colleges as a senior, he stuck to his course of playing for Auburn.
Even if that meant he had to show up for a late summer tryout and just hope for the best.
“If somebody had offered me something from a big (NCAA Division I) school, of course I would have taken it,” Parmer said. “But since that wasn’t happening, I liked Auburn. And I’m a center and they’re one of the few DI colleges that allow for a smaller center because of the way their blocking schemes are.”
At 6 feet, 265 pounds, Parmer knew he wasn’t the physical specimen that high-level programs spend their time recruiting heavily. Zeroing in on one school at that level made the prospect of playing there on scholarship even slimmer.
But with a happy accident of Auburn’s switch in the offseason to a spread that will employ a more extensive passing game and zone blocking that will often put the center in help situations that a smaller player can handle, the situation got better for Parmer.
But it wasn’t until this week that he found out his lonely workouts had a guaranteed reward waiting on him.
On Monday, Andy Lutz, assistant to Tigers head coach Tommy Tuberville, called Parmer to let him know Auburn had invited him to walk on this year.
Parmer was going to do that already via the tryout phase, but as an invited — sometimes referred to as a “preferred” — walk-on player, the former Cat will have a guaranteed spot on the 105-man roster waiting on him when he reports at the end of this month. Although he won’t have help with his tuition or housing, he’ll suit up for home games and practice, train and eat with the Tigers.
Because now, he is one.
“I’d been talking to Auburn since around February or March,” Parmer said. “They invited me down for the A-Day Game and I toured the facilities and everything with other recruits and got to talk to all of the coaches. They told me as soon as I got home to send in my highlight film and they’d evaluate it.”
That was in March. As weeks, then months, passed, Parmer and Lutz stayed in contact. But Parmer couldn’t help wondering if he would head to Auburn still hoping or already knowing his status.
The relief this week’s news brought was extra special to the lifelong Auburn fan, who has grown up going to games on the Plains and has strong family ties to the school. His parents, Robert and Leigh, are AU alums; his brother Rob, whom he’ll live with this year, is a senior studying engineering.
“Honestly, it hasn’t really hit me yet and I’m still in shock from everything,” Parmer said. “From not being sure to all of a sudden being on the team, it’s just a real big change.”
But Parmer knows that can’t be taken as an invitation to relax. His individual workouts have already given him a taste of how tough college football can be, and he knows it will be up to him to plow forward to contribute to the team.
“I feel that I can be a leader in different ways down there,” said Parmer, who earned an award recognizing his skill in that area at this year’s Dalton football banquet. “I don’t know which ways yet, but I can push guys. If I’m on the scout team, I can make the starters better.”
Dalton athletic director Ronnie McClurg, who stepped down as football coach after last season, believes Parmer has the makeup to handle his task with drive.
“It’s a tough road to hoe,” McClurg said of life as a walk-on. “You’ve got to be a special person with a special attitude and dedication to make something happen when you’ve got an opportunity to let the coaches see you. And Andrew’s got a wonderful attitude.”
Parmer has long been a Tiger fan. Now he’s just a Tiger.

Marty Kirkland is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen.

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