PENDLETON — During team bonding moments, the conversations between teammates and coaches can often turn irreverent. One of the leaders of a bizarre conversation at the close of a Pendleton Heights girls’ cross country practice was senior Syd Parker, as the team shared a few moments of laughter.
“We have the weirdest conversations,” Parker laughed. “Coach (Melissa Hagerman) accidentally stabbed herself in the hand last night. So, we were talking about what way we would not want to die, and she said ‘stabbing.’”
Funny moments aside, Parker is serious about her running. And, following the example of previous senior leaders, she is serious about leading the way.
Last year’s group of seniors — Faith Baer, Emma Hall, Erin Manchess, and Alli McCarty — provided the blueprint for how to be a senior leader, one Parker plans to follow.
“The seniors before me made everyone feel included,” Parker said. “I just remember how that made me feel as a younger runner, so I want to do the same for the young people now.”
Partially due to the usual stockpile of running talent, Parker has had to wait her turn. In 2016, she ran varsity for the first time, placing ninth at sectional, 10th at regional, and 71st at semistate, helping the Arabians to another trip to the state meet.
But Parker was unable to run cross country as a freshman, following a concussion she suffered while running as a middle-schooler.
“It was a running concussion; no one else I know has done that,” she said. “I should have taken more time off than I did. I started having other issues because of that.”
As a result of the concussion, Parker suffered from seizures for nearly a year. Despite several attempts to treat the condition, it turned out she just needed time to rest and heal.
“I had to take many months off of running, and it just kind of worked itself out,” she said. “We tried a lot of things before that, but just time off did the trick.”
Parker was able to find a silver lining to missing that first year of cross country.
“Sitting out actually gave me a chance to get to know coach (Hagerman) a lot better, which is awesome,” she said. “Looking back, I wouldn’t change it. But it was a bummer to not run.”
She was able to run track in the spring of her freshman year and has been running ever since. It is also something she plans to continue doing after high school.
“I don’t know where I’m going, but as of right now I think I want to run in college,” she said. “That may change; a lot can change in a year.”
