He checked out the sights and sounds of Germany and Austria for 10 days during a Canada Games basketball tune-up tour.
He was a proud member of the Newfoundland and Labrador male basketball team at the 2017 Canada Summer Games.
He won a provincial 2A high school boys basketball crown and a Grade 10 basketball championship as a go-to guy for the Templeton Academy Tigers.
The final chapter of his high school basketball career ended with a loss in the semifinal of the provincial 3A male basketball tournament a couple of weeks ago.
Parker Combdon will graduate from Templeton Academy in a couple of months and he leaves knowing he had a blast playing basketball for his school and his province on a number of occasions.
“It was a good run,” the soft-spoken McIver’s native said Wednesday.
Combdon was a dominant force on the hardwood at the high school level, but he knows things get tougher when the conversation changes to playing varsity basketball.
Basketball has been a big part of his life and he hopes that doesn’t change any time soon.
The six-foot-six forward will attend Memorial University of Newfoundland in September in pursuit of a business degree over the next four years. After he gets that degree out of the way he plans to head across the Gulf to pursue physiotherapy at Dalhousie University.
While his focus will be on being solid on the academic side of things when he faces the adjustment of leaving the comforts of home, he’s taking his basketball shoes with him because he plans on staying engaged in the game.
Combdon hasn’t talked to anybody with the Memorial Sea-Hawks about the chances of playing varsity ball in the fall, but he plans to be at the tryouts when the coaching staff announces the dates for training camp.
“I’m definitely excited about moving up to the next level, and it’s obviously higher competition, so it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” he said.
Combdon has a handful of months to work on his game before tryouts. He doesn’t have the luxury of spending his summer soaking up the sun at the beach or hanging out with his buddies if he wants to be at the top of his game when it counts.
He’s prepared to put in the work that will help him get where he needs to be.
“I plan on being in the gym whenever I can get in there to shoot around the ball, because that’s what I need to do,” he said.
