Star of USA Today's No. 1 high school team takes first classes at Temple

By Mike Gibson
One of the coolest things about new Temple football recruit Deonte Parker is that he once played for a team called the Lakeland (Fla.) Dreadnaughts.
Dreadnaughts, of British warship fame in World War I.
Another cool thing is that he once was a star at Lakeland when it was ranked No. 1 in the USA Today's Super 25 high school teams. Here is an account of a win over Cape Corral (Fla.) that year.
That's not the coolest thing about the 5-foot-11, 175-pound defensive back, though.
The coolest thing is that he was sitting behind a desk in classroom at Temple University on Tuesday, enrolled as a Temple student.

The only known
photo of Deonte Parker

That means he gets to kick butt not only in the classroom but on the practice field in a few weeks when spring practice begins at the Edberg-Olson Football Complex.
According to various reports yesterday and today on OwlsDaily.com, Parker is one of three new Temple players enrolled in the school and eligible for spring practice.
The other two are defensive end Alex Jackson (also from Florida) and defensive back Maurice Jones, last a cornerback at Hargrave Military Academy. Those are just the confirmed guys. We're scouring the Temple class list for names of other probable Temple verbals already enrolled. Once we confirm some other names are enrolled and taking classes, we'll include them here.
So far, only three guys in the current JUCO group.
They'll join at least 22 high school guys when the official class is announced early in Feb.
All big-time guys.
All could have gone anywhere.
All chose Temple.