The Salt Lake Community College Bruins men’s basketball team landed freshman forward De’Sean Parsons from Grant Union High School in Sacramento, Calif. this June.
Parsons was the MVP of his high school league as a senior and has set new goals for his first season with the Bruins.
“[My] main goal is just to, I would say, just to help my team out everywhere I can help, hopefully get all-American my freshman year, trying to work on that and a national championship,” says Parsons.
Parsons’ success in high school, as well as playing for the Oakland Soldiers AAU team made it so that he had several other options of schools to attend, including Arizona Western and the College of Southern Idaho. His decision to sign with SLCC was an easy one though.
“I came on a visit here, and since I liked it so much, I signed the same day,” says Parsons.
Parsons had also been talking to Southern Utah University, USC and Portland University, but his grades weren’t quite good enough for the university setting.
“It’s a learning experience,” says Parsons, “I just feel like this [SLCC] is a place where I can just come mature and just get better in the next two years.”
Along with Parsons’ goal of mental maturity, is his goal to strengthen his body as it matures. Listed at 6’6” upon signing with SLCC, Parsons is now 6’7” and he might still be growing.
“I’ve still got a lot more to work on. I’ve got to pick up a lot more weight, get stronger. Once I get stronger, that will elevate my game so much,” says Parsons, who currently weighs 180 pounds and has a goal weight of 200-210 pounds.
He’s still adapting to the pace of college basketball as well, which he says is much faster and stronger than high school.
Parsons feels like shooting the basketball is one of his weaknesses and so looks for opportunities to improve the skill.
“[I] got some extra shots up earlier this morning. I came around like seven, because we got a shooting machine now. I got up 1000 shots this morning before class, then I’ll get ready for practice and probably come back tonight and get some extra shots in,” says Parsons.
He feels his greatest strength is his energy.
“I tend not to get tired that fast, and I fly everywhere on defense and on offense, so that’s what everybody said they like about me is my motor is very high,” says Parsons.
Parsons lives with teammates Zerrion Payton, Lamar Walker and Jordan Wilson across the street from the Taylorsville Redwood Campus, giving them easy access to the gym. They are always working on getting better says Parsons.
Besides being a gym rat, Parsons spends a lot of his free time playing videos games like “NBA 2K14” or “Call of Duty: Black Ops” with his roommates, and after the basketball season, he hopes to take advantage of Utah’s famous snow and mountains.
“[In the] offseason I plan on going up there, snowboarding a little bit. That’s one of my bucket list to do, is snowboard.”
Parsons will pursue his General Education degree at SLCC and says his favorite subjects are math and weightlifting. After his sophomore year at SLCC, he wants to transfer and play basketball at a university, specifically USC or Baylor, and then he has professional basketball dreams.
“That’s what I plan on doing after my years in college, is hopefully play overseas or get to the NBA hopefully, that’s my dream right now,” says Parsons.
