Commitment Report: Paine Parks, Grand Forks Red River to UND

<strong>GRAND FORKS--</strong> One of the biggest stockrisers since we launched our Prep Redzone Dakotas site last October, has been Grand Fork’s Red River’s do-it-all prospect [player_tooltip player_id="56493" first="Paine" last="Parks"]. Parks recently committed to his hometown school, the University of North Dakota but had a lot of other interest and somehow was lightly recruited by the lower divisions, before accepting a preferred walk-on to North Dakota, as he only had one Northern Sun offer on the table, which when you watch his tape is quite surprising. We did a Q/A with Paine to break down his commitment right up the road to the Fighting Hawks <strong>Q: What impacted your decision to sign with UND?</strong> <strong>Parks: </strong>The culture and atmosphere that the coaches are building and creating in the program. It’s a winning culture. I have known most of the coaches my entire life so I already have good relationships with most of them. <strong>Q: Were there any other college football programs in the running, or were you sold on UND for a while? </strong> <strong>Parks: </strong>Not really, I would say I knew UND was the right place for me as a player and student. <strong>Q: What will be the biggest football adjustment you are going to need to make to adjust to the college game?</strong> <strong>Parks:</strong> I’m definitely going to have to play the game a lot faster at the next level. I also want to work on certain specific position mechanics to get my game where I want it to be. I feel like the coaches can help me with all of these things. <strong>Q: Is there any alumni or friends of your high school that impacted your decision? If you could name names, that would be great.</strong> <strong>Parks: </strong> Peyton lotysz and Conner Arel were former teammates at Red River and they told me some great things about the program and the whole process that made the decision easier. <strong>Q: Has there been any conversation on what position you will be playing at the next level?</strong> <strong>Parks: </strong>I’ll be playing Outside Linebacker. <strong>Q: </strong> What are you thinking as far as majoring at UND? <strong>Parks: </strong>I’m not quite sure what I’ll be majoring in yet. <strong>Eval: </strong>The great thing the Fighting Hawks are going to love about [player_tooltip player_id="56493" first="Paine" last="Parks"] is he already is well put-together as far as his frame at 6’3 220 pounds. Of course, they will need to work with him to get him to be an even stronger outside linebacker, but this young man is off to a good start in that landscape of size. Parks gets off his blocks coming off the edge quite easily and has a strong motor to get from point A to point B. With the amount of tape, I have watched on Paine you see a player that has a team-first attitude. I have made statements in the past about how I love the adrenaline he blocks with when he lines up at wide receiver and its highlight film material to anyone that wants to watch it. Parks also gets a great pad level on his tackles as he meets the defender with a low stance. One thing that I have seen him work on in this 2021 season is his pass coverage. He has some raw skills that will be developed with time but there is a lot to like that this young man has added a skill set that he will use a ton at the next level. <iframe src="//www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/12203977/5f8160493df4d80bacd50362" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Best of luck to [player_tooltip player_id="56493" first="Paine" last="Parks"] as he commits to the University of North Dakota! Go Fighting Hawks!