Cash Parks appreciates his Cedar Rapids Xavier football team ... and life

CEDAR RAPIDS — It had been a good day.

Cash Parks was coming off a solid game the week before. He’d just been interviewed by a local television station for a story that would run later that night.

The Cedar Rapids Xavier quarterback never ended up seeing it.

On his way home following a Saints practice last September, Parks was involved in a vehicle accident. His car and a van smashed into each other on a country road near his family’s home in rural Linn County.

“I remember everything,” Parks said. “I was on my way home, had just gotten interviewed for the Athlete of the Week by KCRG. It was a Thursday night. I was driving on a gravel road behind another car. There was a lot of gravel dust coming up, and I couldn’t see anything. Got over a hill, the two cars, we couldn’t see each other. Hit head on.”

Parks suffered a bad concussion and facial injuries that included four front teeth being knocked out. Three of them were found on scene and eventually surgically re-inserted into his mouth.

He has an implant in the spot where the fourth one should be.

His mouth still isn’t completely healed, he said. But that’s trivial because he feels fortunate to be alive.

“It makes you realize it can go away at any moment,” Parks said. “It has made me appreciate everything so much more, made me realize that I’m not deserving of anything. It makes me appreciate life a whole lot more.”

And it makes you appreciate what he has accomplished this football season.

The junior certainly isn’t the only reason Xavier is 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in Class 4A going into Thursday night’s state playoff semifinal against fifth-ranked Newton at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. But he’s definitely one of them.

Parks leads 4A in passing yards and touchdowns, is second in offensive touchdowns and third in yards. His passing quarterback rating is an off-the-charts 261.0, by far tops in 4A and a close second in the 11-player game to Iowa City Regina’s Kyle Tracy (265.2).

“I’d say I grew a lot in the offseason,” Parks said. “I got in the weight room and what not, put a lot of effort into getting better at throwing, running, everything. I’d say a big part has been being able to run the football, which is something Coach (Duane) Schulte emphasizes: being a dual threat. Then throwing the ball, I worked a lot on that, and I think I’ve got better with that as well.”

Parks has completed 102 of 133 passes (76.7 percent) for 1,921 yards and 26 touchdowns. He has rushed for 354 yards and eight TDs, even caught a touchdown pass.

His one interception this season came in Xavier’s regular-season finale against Mason City.

“We ran kind of this misdirection play,” Parks said. “I was rolling out, it was a throw back to the running back. We thought that the linebackers were going to flow over (to him), and I tried to throw it back to Carter Hoffmann. If he didn’t slip, it probably would have been completed. But the linebacker, safety came down and picked it off. I knew it as soon as I threw it. I was like ‘Oh, no.’”

“I shouldn’t have called that play,” Schulte said.

Parks and Schulte are quick to give mega kudos to the offensive line, backs, receivers and tight ends for Xavier’s offensive prolificity this fall. And the scout team for giving good defensive looks in practice, of course.

This is a group effort, as always.

“Of course, offensively we’ve got the athletes and the depth to do it,” Parks said. “I’d say we’re a lot better this year, just because we’ve got so much more experience. Last year, we had, I don’t know, one starter coming back. This year, we’ve got 15 plus. So I’d say just the overall experience has been a huge part of it.”

But honestly so has the quarterback’s play.

“First of all, he’s a competitor and wants to win,” Schulte said. “But ironically in a way, he is very unselfish in the sense that he really doesn’t care if he throws. He just wants to do whatever gets us first downs and moves the ball down the field and gets touchdowns.

“In my mind, it’s kind of like the basketball player that lets the game come to him instead of trying to force things. I think that’s how Cash is kind of playing quarterback, too.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com