Great article about Tylers friend and team mate Hank Parra

Patriots’ Parra lets his play do the talking
By Joshua Armstrong

Published Thursday, February 5, 2009


Photo by Sam Harrel
North Pole left wing Hank Parra doesn’t say much.

Then again, he doesn’t have to.

The sophomore is the kind of player Patriots hockey coach Jason Storey calls a “throwback” — he hits and works hard while scarcely saying a word.

“I don’t think he’s intimidating. His play is, and that speaks for him,” Storey said. “He’s a little bit old school. I like that.”

The coach wasn’t always impressed by Parra’s lack of gab. At first, it caused him a bit of concern.

Parra and his longtime friend, center Jared Linnell, spoke so rarely during their freshman season that Storey called their parents to make sure they were having fun.

“They hadn’t said 12 words all season,” Storey said, laughing.

One year later, the 15-year-old Parra is enjoying quiet success on the ice for the 15-5 Patriots, who open the Mid Alaska Conference Tournament against West Valley on Friday at the Polar Ice Center.

“He goes to the net hard, and he backchecks well,” Storey said. “He goes to all the ugly places in the hockey rink, and he does it with no problems.”

Those “ugly” places are the corners and in front of the opposing net — where taking a hard hit is almost mandatory.

That’s when being 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds comes in handy.

“He’s a monster,” Storey said. “... He’s got a man’s body at 15 years old — and boy, is he strong.”

Parra’s size and work ethic make him a crucial part of a line that’s produced more than 40 percent of North Pole’s offense.

With junior right wing DJ Carnley and Linnell, Parra’s line has accumulated 60 goals and 82 assists for 142 points this season.

As the team’s top two point-scorers, Linnell has found the inside of the net 16 times and assisted 37 scores while Carnley has 22 goals and 29 helpers.

But Parra’s focus isn’t on numbers. In fact, he said his best performance this season was in a 5-4 loss to Dimond on Jan. 23 in which he had a goal and an assist.

That attitude hasn’t prevented Parra from making an impact on the score sheet. He has 38 goals off 22 points and 16 assists this season.

He enters this weekend’s MAC tournament coming off back-to-back two-goal efforts in shutout wins over Juneau-Douglas on Friday and Saturday.

Multiple-goal nights are not uncommon for Parra, who has two hat tricks and six two-goal games this season.

He had his best statistical performance with three goals and three assists in a 15-3 win at conference rival Houston on Jan. 8.

Parra, though, would rather be entrenched in a low-scoring affair.

“I prefer the intense games where you hit a lot,” he sad. “The high-scoring games, they’re a lot of fun, but they’re not intense.”

Linnell, who has played alongside Parra since the Squirt level, said their familiarity is an advantage.

He’s confident that Parra will make a play on any puck he dumps into the corner and will deflect in any puck he sends in front of the net.

Because Linnell and Parra have been teammates for so long, Jared’s father, North Pole assistant coach Derek Linnell, has watched the left wing refine his skills.

In the past few years, the elder Linnell said, Parra’s bloomed from a “crash-bang third-liner” to someone who can effectively complement skill players.

Though there may be more finesse to his game, Parra’s scoring style remains blunt.

“He gets in front of the net, and no one can knock him down,” Derek Linnell said.

Parra, who also plays on North Pole’s baseball team, said he doesn’t know if he’ll return to the Patriots next year or play on a club team.

But no matter the team, he will be on the ice. Hockey has almost always been a part of his life.

“I’ve been playing hockey since I could walk,” he said.

That’s an exaggeration, but not by much.

His father taught him how to skate on Lake Harding at the age of 3, and he joined his first organized team — the Squirt-level Ice Puppies — at 5.

If a career in hockey is possible, he wants to pursue it.

Parra has a roughly outlined plan — he’d like to play for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs before heading to college to pursue a degree in sports therapy. Like any young man’s plans, though, they are subject to change.

A career in public speaking, however, is unlikely.