Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 18, 1994                   TAG: 9401180127
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM'S PARKER, MARTINSVILLE'S FRITH PICK VIRGINIA TECH

Parker, who rushed for nearly 4,000 yards at Salem High School, picked the Hokies over Wake Forest. Frith, who had 100 tackles for Martinsville High School as a senior, chose Tech over North Carolina State and the Deacons.

Both players were rated among the top 25 college prospects in the state by the Roanoke Times & World-News and were the first players off that list to commit to Tech. The Hokies have 10 commitments.

Parker, who overcame reconstructive knee surgery to play the last five games of the season, was to have visited Notre Dame this weekend, but the trip never materialized.

"The guy who was recruiting me was [offensive coordinator] Skip Holtz and, ever since he left, I haven't gotten any phone calls," Parker said. "They were not at the top of my list anyway."

Holtz was named head coach at Connecticut, but it is unusual for a school not to turn over a departing coach's prospects to another assistant.

Unlike Parker, who originally liked Penn State and gradually came to favor Tech, Frith has been going to games at Lane Stadium since he was 4 or 5 years old.

"I've always pulled for Tech," said Frith, whose two older sisters are Tech alumni and whose father, Sherrill, is a season-ticket holder.

Also unlike Parker, Frith, a 6-foot-2, 220-pounder, was at full strength to start the year but missed the end of the season with a dislocated kneecap. Martinsville was 9-0 in games he started and 0-2 when Frith was out of the lineup.

Frith, starting center fielder for the Bulldogs' baseball team, expects to be close to 100 percent in the spring.

Frith, a first-team All-Group AA football selection, has been timed in 4.6 seconds for 40 yards and has a best of 375 pounds in the bench press.

Parker (5-10, 190) said he won't know until the track season if he has lost any of his 4.5-second speed, but he thinks he has returned to 90 percent effectiveness after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament while playing softball in gym class.

"When it first happened [in late May], I felt it was probably over," said Parker, referring to the extensive recruiting interest he had received as a junior. "I wondered if one school would be interested in me."

Tech stayed with Parker, who was a first-team All-Group AA running back as a junior, when he rushed for 1,215 yards and 23 touchdowns during the regular season. His rehabilitation prevented him from making any all-star teams this year.