Sealy High School senior athlete Draper Parker made his commitment to play football for Missouri Southern State University Saturday afternoon.

Parker collected 1,025 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns to help the Tigers win an undefeated district championship and go three rounds deep in the playoffs. He was named first-team all-district, second-team all-state on the Padilla Poll list and honorable mention all-state on the Texas Sports Writers Association’s list. In basketball, he was an all-district honorable mention and in track, he was a regional qualifier.

He said in a May 10 interview that he felt right at home during his visit to the campus in Joplin.

“Honestly I just felt like it was best for my family financially and they also made me feel at home. I felt like it was the best opportunity to play there,” Parker said. “The way they treated me over there, it felt like they had known me for years when I went up there.”

Parker and his mother, D’Andrea Polk, were able to enjoy access to players and the new coaching staff that just took over before their shortened spring season during their late-April visit.

“We had dinner with the players, went back to the facilities and asked them questions and then when that was done we got to chill with them and I stayed overnight with them,” Parker said. “And the city was really nice, I had never been to Missouri.”

Their travels took them on an hour-and-a-half plane ride to Tulsa, Okla. and another two-hour drive to Joplin but Parker thinks being that far away from home shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

“That was the only thing kind of holding me back from my decision,” Parker said of choosing an out-of-state school. “I knew that was going to be hard for me but my mom was all for it, she said, ‘I’ll come visit every two weeks until you get used to it.’”

Head football coach and athletic director Shane Mobley said he was proud of the three-year varsity football player and was happy to see him follow in a trend set by Tyrek McNeese from the Class of 2018 who went to Arizona State University to run track.

“That’s a great thing Tyrek might not understand is just him taking that leap of faith and going beyond Texas to another program kind of helped Draper understand you don’t need to be here, you can go explore,” Mobley said. “You can FaceTime your mom every day, you can talk to your little brother every day, they can eat breakfast with you.”

Mobley, who took over head coaching duties before Parker’s freshman year, has been able to see the evolution of Parker from a freshman quarterback to an all-state wide receiver.

“The thing about Draper is that he’s a great kid. He’s a coach’s dream to coach, he works hard, he’s quiet and gets his work done but the key to everything for Draper is just going and not worrying about anything. He’s going out there to get his education and play,” Mobley said. “He’s started since he was a sophomore, he’s played in some big Texas high school football games. When he goes out there, he needs to know he’s back at the bottom and he needs to fight his way back to the top.”

Receivers coach Dane Bennett has been able to work closely with Parker for all four years and agreed that all of his talents, not just his football skills, will carry him through competing at the next level.

“He’s going to have a lot of success in Joplin, there’s a bright future ahead not just because of how good he’s in at football,” Bennett said. “For me, getting to coach him all four years and all three on varsity, he was in my specific group, so just to see how far he’s come and all the growth he’s had, all the big football games he’s been a part of and to see him grow into the leader he was this year, there are not enough words that I can come up with that can talk about my love and respect for Draper.”

Parker said he was pleased with the way his senior season came to an end and looked forward to the summer grind before he officially joins the Lions.

“It was fun, if I could go back, I would do it all over again. But, everything has to come to an end and I’m glad it came to an end like this,” Parker said. “Now, I just have to buckle in and get prepared to try and win that starting spot.”

The Missouri Southern State Lions compete in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) in NCAA’s Division II. The conference did not play a fall season and MSSU played only one spring game against Southern Nazarene, which it won by a 21-20 score. They are coached by Atiba Bradley, who was introduced as the program’s 14th head coach in early February. He became the first graduate of Missouri Southern to lead the Lions’ football program, according to the sports information department.