CT baseball athlete of the year: Robert Parman, Madison Edgewood
Robert Parman played with Madison Edgewood's junior varsity team for most of the 2007 season, a move that Crusaders coach Rich Newton second-guessed at times this year.
"Probably a coaching mistake on my part," Newton said with a laugh.
During a brief stint with the varsity team late in the 2007 season, Parman, a sophomore at the time, displayed plenty of potential during practice.
Still, nobody could have predicted the type of season he would have with the Crusaders a year later. Not even Parman, who admits he "would have laughed" back in March if you had told him the eye-popping numbers he was going to produce as a junior.
Newton placed Parman, who played shortstop and pitcher for Edgewood, in the cleanup spot -- and the left-handed slugger spent the spring cleaning up on opposing pitchers.
Each statistic is more ridiculous than the next. He hit .500 with 30 runs scored and 47 RBIs in 24 games. More than half of his base hits went for extra bases -- he finished with 16 doubles, three triples and three home runs. He had an .888 slugging percentage and a .621 on-base percentage. And he struck out only five times.
Parman was named first team All-State by the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association and was second in voting for the District 5 player of the year.
"I expected to do well, but not as well as I did, to tell you the truth," said Parman, who was 4-1 with a 3.27 ERA on the mound. "I just kept it going day in and day out. I don't even really know. Things just went my way."
That wasn't always the case. What makes Parman's season even more remarkable was that he got off to a slow start -- at least relatively speaking.
"At the beginning of the year, I was kind of getting robbed of my hits," he said. "I was hitting the ball hard. I realized that if I keep hitting the ball hard, they'll find a hole."
Parman was best in the clutch. He batted .667 in the postseason with a homer and eight RBIs. "That was three games in a row where he said, 'Hey, I'll put you on my back offensively,' " said Newton, who called Parman one of the best hitters he has had during his six seasons at Edgewood.
Parman's only regret from his junior season is how it ended. After winning its first 23 games and being ranked No. 1 in the state for much of the year, Edgewood dropped an 8-6 decision to Prairie du Chien in a sectional final.
"The season ended kind of shockingly," Parman said, "but I'm really proud of what we accomplished."
ALL-TIME WINNERS
2008 -- Robert Parman, SS/P,
Madison Edgewood
2007 -- Kurtis Muller, C, Sun Prairie
2006 -- Ross Hellenbrand, P, Middleton
2005 -- Kevyn Feiner, SS/P, Sun Prairie
2004 -- Dusty Brabender, P, Oregon
2003 -- Ryan Zink, P, Madison La Follette
Robert Parman
