MONMOUTH, Ore. – Since graduating last year, Derek Parnell has continued to pursue his dream of playing professional football. He had the chance to play in a few Spring Leagues over the past two years and waits for another opportunity with another team. In the meantime, graduating was a big asset as Parnell has been able to cultivate several strong opportunities in his field.
"I began pro training right after the 2019-20 season. But sadly, COVID happened and pro days were canceled and the Canadian Football League (CFL) season was canceled as well," Parnell said. "The only league that was able to play was the National Football League (NFL) and I had minimal attention from NFL teams."
At this point, Parnell looked to put his business degree to use and work on a career path in that direction. Just when he thought his path to football was closed for the coming year, a spring season came around which opened another door.
"I thought football looked to be over for me, so I began working on putting my business degree to use. Then an opportunity arose to play football in front of the NFL/CFL scouts with The Spring League," Parnell said. "The Spring League was conducting a showcase event in San Antonio to play in their upcoming 2020 league. I did well at the showcase and ended up playing for the Aviators of The Spring League."
Once again, another obstacle on the way to reaching his dream was waiting. After proving he could play in the league, the season was cut short just two games in due to COVID. Parnell tried to land a spot with the CFL, but wasn't signed.
"Getting the taste of being so close to playing professional football fueled me more and I continued to push," Parnell said. "I most recently played in the 2021 Spring League season where I saw action in six nationally televised games. I thought I performed well, I was targeted 11 times, had five pass breakups and only allowed one catch for five years in over 100 coverage snaps. So, I am once again waiting for a team to pull the trigger and give me an opportunity. I am hopeful so we will see what the future holds."
Having to adjust to the past year-plus has been challenging across the board. Not only was it a challenge to just operate daily life, looking to pursue a career fresh out of school was even more of an obstacle to overcome.
"The pandemic greatly affected my professional football career. Not being able to have a pro day, the CFL 2020 season being canceled, it was rough," Parnell said. "But in the business field, I was able to get two high quality jobs in logistics and digital marketing, so outside of football, things have gone well."
Parnell has stayed in touch with lots of his coaches and teammates from WOU since graduating and has been able to make a few trips back to Monmouth.
"I have been keeping in touch with people at WOU. Coach Arne Ferguson of course and a lot of my teammates," Parnell said. "I've even made some trips back down to Monmouth to hang with friends. Sadly, I didn't get to watch any football games last year because of COVID, but I've been keeping up with recent WOU events this year."
Parnell put a strong career together on the field for the Wolves. During his senior season in helping WOU to a historic first share of the GNAC title, he earned First Team All-GNAC honors. He was among the national leaders throughout the season in passes defended finishing second in the GNAC and 10th nationally. Overall for the season he had 15 passes broken up, 35 tackles, 30 solo, two interceptions while starting 10 games at defensive back. He also spent time returning punts during the season. He had at least four tackles in a game on six different occasions, going for a high of nine against Azusa Pacific in which he had eight solo stops. He also recorded a six tackle game against Texas A&M Commerce. Parnell collected a pair of interceptions against Angelo State and Simon Fraser and broke up a pass in nine games, swatting away four versus Texas A&M-Commerce and had at least two or more in four games.
