Parker Elliott '22 Recruiting Profile

My name is Parker Elliott, I’m a junior at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota. I picked up wrestling in the 6th grade after a year of many changes in my life. It was a year that would change my life drastically. At this point in my life before wrestling my family recently separated and I was very unhealthy and lacked motivation for anything outside of comfort. I got talked into joining wrestling which was completely out of my comfort zone. Over that year I fell in love with the sport and what it had to offer. I became driven by the feeling of being uncomfortable, pushing my body to the limits. I learned lessons from the sport that I applied in my daily life about accountability, perseverance, and discipline. Over that year I lost 25 pounds and within the next year got asked to wrestle for the highschool in 7th grade which was a big jump for me. By then I got a glimpse of what it took to be a highschool wrestler and I was all in.

Academically, I took the motivation to excel and learn more in wrestling to my schooling. I started making school a priority around the same time. Over this middle school time period I became interested in how things worked and really liked the idea of engineering since I went to a STEM middle school. Around sophomore year of highschool I got really into weightlifting religiously and learning about the human body. After seeing the results of exercise on my body and well-being over the years, I feel that what I want to do in this world is help others going through their own adversities. These factors of my life have brought me to wanting to help others overcome their own struggles using what I know and what I have yet to learn about the human body. Specifically I would like to eventually help people in need of prosthetics to live a healthy and sustainable life.

I am looking to start my college career with a good pre-med program to allow me to achieve my goals of helping others. I would like to have the opportunity to wrestle all four years of college to continue to develop as a wrestler. I’m looking for a program that will be able to support me athletically and academically.