Congrats to Collins-Parker on her NCAA award
By Cindy Luis
Former Hawaii volleyball All-American Deitre Collins-Parker, the current volleyball coach at Cornell, received the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award Thursday at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration in Washington, D.C.The award, given in conjunction with the NCAA Convention, honors former student-athletes who successfully completed collegiate careers in various sports and have excelled in their chosen professions on their 25th anniversary of completing their athletics eligibility. Collins-Parker, who also played one season of basketball, joined Mark Fusco (Harvard, ice hockey), Earl Graves, Jr. (Yale, basketball), Darrell Green (Texas A&M-Kingsville, football and indoor/outdoor track and field), Kathy McMinn (Georgia, gymnastics) and Steve Young (Brigham Young, football) as the 2009 recipients. A two-time national collegiate player of the year, Collins-Parker led Hawaii to the first-ever back-to-back NCAA volleyball national championships in 1982 and 1983. During her final three seasons, the Rainbow Wahine were 110-5 record.Collins-Parker also received the Broderick Cup Award, signifying the nation’s top female collegiate athlete, the first volleyball player to ever receive that distinction. An Olympian in 1988 and an alternate for the 1992 Olympic team, she played in over 130 international matches and earned bronze medals at the 1986 Goodwill Games and 1987 Pan-Am Games. She played professionally in the Italian League (1988-89) and the French League (1989-91), capturing the French League Championship twice and the European Cup of Champions in 1990.Collins-Parker is the current record-holder in solo blocks in the NCAA tournament. The two-time NCAA all-tournament team pick also was named to the Big West All-Decade Team and the NCAA 25th Anniversary Team In her five years at Cornell, the Big Red has won three Ivy League titles and two NCAA tournament berths.Last December, Collins-Parker was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame.
