Brad Parent is a senior at Green Bay Preble High School. Last spring, he finished third in the high jump at the WIAA Division 1 state track and field meet. In the fall, he trades in his track shoes for a volleyball.
On his decision to play volleyball:
First, I started playing it because I didn't want to get hurt in football. That's how I started, and then I really began to like it and have a great time doing it. It's a great sport. It's a lot of fun. I'm looking to do some winter leagues with some of the guys on the team. It's just a lot of fun.
On the team:
We're working together. We're getting better and better every week. We're a whole lot better than we were last year. Before last year, a lot of us had never done it before. Now this year, we have that experience under our belt. We think like volleyball players. We react like volleyball players. We're coming together and playing as a team a lot more, when last year, it wasn't always that way.
On the stigma of volleyball as a girls sport:
If you watch some of these guys hit at these tournaments, you wouldn't think it was a girls sport. Around here, a lot of people think of volleyball as a girls sport, and that is kind of the joke, but it gets pretty hardcore. There are some really great athletes playing this sport and it gets pretty intense, and it's fun when it gets that way.
On playing opponents further from Green Bay:
We're in the (Fox Valley Association) along with (Green Bay) West/Southwest. And Manitowoc is another team that is in the FRCC that's in that conference. But it's really not that big of a deal. It's just longer bus rides. Instead of going over to (Green Bay) East, we're going over to Appleton East and that sort of thing. But they come here just like we go down there, so it hasn't been too bad.
On balancing school with sports:
It can be challenging at times, but I've gotten used to it. I don't know if I have gotten good at it, but I figured out a way to do it. Every once in a while, you'll have to stay up late to finish something. But for the most part – you can't do too much on the weeknights – but I've been OK. … I've been used to doing three sports my entire high school career. Before volleyball, it was football, then basketball and then I go to track. It's like being a three-sport athlete, it's not easy, but you learn to juggle stuff and it's not too bad.
On hobbies:
My hobbies are like sports, basically. That's all I've got time for.
On other school activities:
National Honor Society, Link Crew (freshman orientation, helping them on the first day of school) and I'm going to be leading a Bible study at Preble this year, which I'm excited about. I was also the 'Badger Boy.' I didn't know what it was, either, until I went down there last year. They called me down, and then I actually found out it's kind of a cool government camp. You go and stay at Ripon College with about 900 other guys from schools who have been selected by their teachers to go to this. You actually create a state and run for offices. Like, I was the city attorney and I was in the Senate. You actually create the 51st state. By the end of the week, it's actually functioning like a state. There are laws and everything. It was a lot of fun.
Favorite food:
Peanut butter tortillas. It's flour tortillas, and you have to spread peanut butter — it has to be Jif reduced fat — and then sprinkle brown sugar on them, and roll them up. I live on them. I'll have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner some days. My grandma used to always make us butter and brown sugar sandwiches when we were little, and we somehow got them on tortillas and changed to peanut butter.
On gadgets:
I have a cellphone and an iPod and that's about it.
What's on your iPod?
I have pretty much everything. I like country, some alternative, a little rap. Only thing is heavy metal, I don't like.
Favorite television show:
"Numb3rs." I'm a math guy. That's probably my favorite subject.
On college plans:
I'm going to college, but that's about as much as I know. I have it narrowed down to a few schools, but I'm not sure. (I'm) probably (majoring) in either math or engineering.
Most embarrassing moment:
Last season in our regional, this guy from Kimberly, who is like the top-ranked middle hitter in state. The whole game he's hitting balls right down in front of me, so I finally move up and I'm like, 'I'm going to get this guy!' He hits one, gets me right in the middle of the chest and knocks me right over. I pull my shirt up and I had this big volleyball mark on my chest. That was good.
— Weston Hodkiewicz, whodkiew@greenbaypressgazette.com