Huskies’ Parker has stuff of champions

From bantam to midget to junior, his hockey career a succession of trophies
By Darren Zaryof The StarPhoenix
Everywhere Brett Parker goes, he wins. Every league he has played in, Parker has won a championship banner.

As the WHL’s Vancouver Giants found out last season, you can always find room for a Brett Parker on your roster. He joined them for their playoff run all the way to the 2006 Memorial Cup national championship tournament.

Parker, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound grinding forward from Melville, is the prototypical Hustlin’ Huskie. He is a throwback to the lunch bucket style favoured by coach Dave King, who led the University of Saskatchewan Huskies to the national championship in Moncton, N.B., in 1983. Parker is a proven winner. “He’s a character guy who’s had an awful lot of winning in his background,” Huskies coach Dave Adolph says of Parker, who was especially effective in the final two games of the Canada West conference final against the Alberta Golden Bears last weekend in Edmonton.

“Not only that, he’s a great student. Unfortunately, he broke his kneecap and missed almost a month during the first half of the season. He’s just getting back to where he was in November.

“He has served a purpose for us. He grinds it out on a line and he’s a great penalty-killer — he and (Jason) Wagar have found a spot on the team because of that.”

Parker won the WHL title a year ago with the Giants. He won the 2002 national midget championship with a Tisdale Trojans team that featured current Huskies Myles Zimmer and Cole Simpson. In bantams, Parker won a provincial championship in Melville with Huskies teammate Brett Novak.

“I’ve won at least a league championship since firstyear bantam,” Parker says. “My second-year bantam, we won provincials and we went to Western Canadians and got third place. In midget AAA, we won the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League championship and then won the national championship in Bathurst, New Brunswick.

“In the WHL, we went to Moncton for the Memorial Cup with the Vancouver Giants.” A good-luck charm or what? “Ever since we were younger, I had a good group of guys,” Parker says. “They’ve moved to theAHL (American Hockey League) and semi-pro leagues. They’ve always wanted to win and become champions.

“Once a championship is in your blood, you never like to lose. Like my dad (Leo Parker) said when he coached us (in bantam): ‘All you’ve got to do is win your last game of the year to win a championship.’ ”

Hockey is in Parker’s blood. His great grandpa, Leo Parker, was involved with some great Humboldt Indians teams and had a rink named after him in Humboldt.

“My dad took me there to see it before it got knocked down,” Parker says.

“I’m actually a third-generation Huskie, too. My uncle, Murray Parker, was first generation and then there was another Parker.

“We’ve got a great group of guys here,” he says of the Dogs.

“It’s time for the Huskies to get a championship under their belts. They’re all due. They’ve been here for a while and put in their time. Now they want to win a championship and make it all worth it.”

dzary@sp.canwest.com