Even with all of the all-star awards he accumulated as a three-sport standout at Draper High School, Mike Parks was a bit taken back when informed that he had been elected to the Mohonasen-Draper Athletic Hall of Fame.
He didn’t know if he had accomplished enough, he said last week, noting some of the playing and coaching greats from the Rotterdam area that had been enshrined before he got the call.
“It feels like, you know, do I belong in this group?” said Parks, a 1980 Draper graduate. “What did I do?”
Actually, he’s still doing it, and doing it quite well, just like he has for over three decades as one of Section II’s most tenured boys’ basketball coaches.
He’s been in charge of the Guilderland varsity since 2014 after serving as Ron Osinski’s assistant and JV coach before that for 14 years, and has also directed the Scotia-Glenville JV team and the Schalmont freshman and JV teams.
“He was a three-sport athlete, and that’s not common, and then he goes into coaching where he’s been very successful,” said Josh Whipple, who, along with Kevin Cummings and Fran Pugliese, are the lead Mohonasen-Draper Athletic Hall of Fame coordinators. “He knows basketball. He’s a basketball guru. He’s up there with Dave Doemel and Ron Osinski, guys who have hundreds of wins.”
Parks will be inducted at Wednesday’s M-D Hall of Fame banquet at the Water’s Edge Lighthouse with Kelly Moran, David Hartman, Tom Nastars, Angie Lasher (Famiano) and Mohonasen’s 1969 boys’ soccer team.
“When I called him and told him he had made the hall of fame, he said, ‘No way.’ He said, ‘I look up to all those guys,’” Whipple said of Parks. “He’s a very humble person. To him, it’s an incredible honor.”
Parks has accumulated over 300 victories, and while he’s an expert with the Xs and the Os, he’s also been an influential coach who is known to push teamwork, sportsmanship and accountability.
“He doesn’t have a horse in the race,” said Whipple, a 1994 Mohonasen graduate and 2018 M-D Hall of Fame inductee who, like Parks, excelled in basketball, football and baseball. “He does this to be a positive role model and teach basketball.”
Parks played basketball for 2013 M-D Hall of Fame inductee Dave Guest, and played baseball and football for 2011 M-D hall inductee Doug Erickson.
“I owe the world to Dave Guest. He’s the reason I wanted to get into coaching,” said Parks, who earned first team Tri-Valley League honors as a senior captain for the Vikings hoops squad. “Ninety nine percent of what I do I learned from Dave Guest. The same comments. Same quotes. The same language I use with my kids is what he used when I was a kid.”
.Parks also lauded Osinski for his support, with the two working together at Schalmont before their collaboration at Guilderland.
“I owe Ron a ton,” Parks said.
Guilderland went 19-4 and reached the Section II Class AA title game in Parks’ first season in charge in 2015 and lost to Shenendehowa 47-42, but it was a 68-62 overtime win against Green Tech before that that the Scotia-Glenville business department chairman cherishes.
“That’s probably my biggest win. The most exciting and memorable,” Parks said of his team’s semifinal win against a 20-0 Green Tech outfit that had claimed the 2014 state title. “We blew a late lead and they tied it, and we go overtime. [Andrew] Sischo got that huge rebound and [Andrew] Platek hit that big three.”
Parks, who played basketball for four years at Plattsburgh State, led Guilderland to another Section II final four appearance in 2016.
Moran was a standout diver at Mohonasen and later at Division I University at Buffalo, where she graduated from in 2018 with a pair of All-American awards as well as several academic honors, and an undefeated MAC senior-season (3m) on her resume. She competed at sectionals five times while at Mohonasen, placed fourth twice and made the state team both times including her senior year in 2014 when she earned the NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award. Moran also competed with USA Diving during her high school years, and at age 17 began a successful coaching career at Albany Country Club.
Hartman played basketball and baseball at Mohonasen, and as a senior in the spring of 1982 helped the Mighty Warriors win Suburban Council and Section II Class A and A-B championships. He played baseball at Schenectady County Community College and in 1983 and 1984 was named his team’s MVP. Hartman had tryouts with the USA Olympic Team and also with several Major League teams. In 1980 he pitched Rotterdam to the Babe Ruth World Series title, and in 1977 he was a key contributor on the Carman Little League World Series team that placed fourth.
Nastars was among the greatest football players to suit up for Draper, with the 1962 graduate and four-year starting tackle earning All-Western Conference plaudits, first team All-County honors from the Schenectady Gazette and the Schenectady Grid Club co-Player of the Year award. He played three seasons of basketball at the school and as a junior and senior was the Vikings’ second leading scorer and top rebounder. Nastars served in Vietnam as a US Marine sergeant and attended SUNY Cobleskill and Ohio State.
Lasher participated in basketball, track and cheerleading at Draper, yet the 1978 graduate found fame in artistic roller skating, and since the mid-80s has coached the sport and served on boards at local, national and international levels. She was a two-time winner with partner David Gola at the World Roller Skating Championships, a Pan American titleist, and a gold medalist at the USA National Championships several times in individual and team events.The HVCC and Brockport graduate, along with Gola, were previously inducted into the Amature USA and Amateur New England halls of fame.
The 1969 Mohonasen soccer team was supposed to rebuild after most of the ‘68 edition had graduated, but won instead with a cast that uncluded 2009 M-D Hall of Fame members Pat Popolizio and Brett Armstrong. Mohon went 18-1 and captured the Section II Class A championship under another 2009 M-D Hall of Fame inductee, coach Lyle Bowers.
Categories: -Sports-, Email Newsletter, High School Sports, Rotterdam, Sports
