Parkerson finishes high school career in style

Allie Parkerson’s senior season had just about everything.

Single-season and career records.

A state championship.

And a smile that just won’t go away about everything Parkerson and her teammates accomplished.

The FPD senior has been named The Telegraph’s All-Middle Georgia Softball Player of the Year after rolling up big numbers and leading the Vikings to the GHSA Class 1A private school title.

“I still can’t get over it, honestly,” Parkerson said, flashing that big smile. “Winning a state championship is just something that you always want to do, and then the fact that we did it is just something that I still can’t get over. And it was just amazing that we had the opportunity to do it.”

Parkerson, who will play at West Georgia next season, played a big part in that.

She set a goal before the season to break the FPD single-season and career home run record, and she easily did so. Parkerson finished her final FPD season with a .562 batting average with 16 home runs and 48 RBI.

She ended her career with 26 home runs and a .398 career batting average.

“I was so surprised,” said Parkerson, who was the GHSA Region 7-1A Player of the Year. “I didn’t even expect to do half as well I did. I still can’t get over that I had that good of a season.”

One person, however, wasn’t surprised in what Parkerson accomplished: first-year FPD head coach Kristy Alvarez.

“She is a talented athlete, but she also works really hard,” Alvarez said. “She’s a strong leader on the team. The girls look up to her, and they listen to her. She does a lot of devotionals and talks and things like that with the team, and she just leads not only with her words but her example. She’s really somebody that the other girls can trust.”

That trust was huge to the team’s success this season. FPD finished 31-6 and beat Wesleyan 5-3 in the championship game.

“We were just all really close to each other, and whenever you have a good team, that’s the main thing that you have to have is just good bonding,” Parkerson said. “And that’s something that we did really well this year.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2016 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Parkerson finishes high school career in style."