The biggest message is figuring out your purpose and what you want to become and living up to your potential. – Parker Dawe
PROVO — If nothing else, Parker Dawe was persistent.
After a lackluster academic career at Pleasant Grove High, Dawe served an LDS Church mission in Boston, then attended Snow Junior College and Utah Valley University.
Dawe worked hard to improve his grades and he had his sights set on playing football at BYU. But first, he had to be accepted by BYU. The school wasn’t interested in him as a football player or as a student.
“I basically begged the BYU dean of admissions,” Dawe recalled. “Every few weeks I would send him my grades at UVU and say, ‘You’ve got to let me in.’ He didn’t know who I was and I wasn’t a football guy. I told him he wouldn’t regret it.”
Eventually, Dawe was accepted to BYU and he ended up walking on to the Cougar football team as an offensive lineman. Later, he became a starter and earned a scholarship prior to his senior year.
This week, Dawe is graduating with a degree in physical education — with a minor in health education and coaching — having posted a 3.5 grade-point average.
“I totally 180-ed from my high school experience,” he said. “Graduating with a degree from BYU is crazy. I’m one of the first ones in my family to go to a four-year program, not to mention a prestigious school like BYU. In high school, I didn’t have great grades or a great ACT score. I was able to get into this university on my own — I didn’t have football to help me because I walked on. It’s been a long, ambitious, exhausting journey. Graduating with a degree from BYU represents all the work that went into it, all the sacrifices that my wife and my family have made. It’s crazy that five years and tens of thousands of hours of hard work have gone by. I’m excited to be done.”
Dawe is one of the dozens of BYU athletes who is graduating this week, but his story is more improbable than most.
While at BYU, as a non-scholarship athlete, Dawe worked graveyard shifts, studied for his classes and went to football practice while trying to support his wife, Emily, and their 2 ½-year-old son, Boston.
“Football’s hard. But football’s easy compared to other stuff. Practice is the fun part. It’s the hours and hours of studying that makes it challenging,” Dawe said. “I remember going to practice and not sleeping, not seeing my wife and my son. But that’s what I chose and I don’t regret any of it. It’s been an amazing experience.”
Dawe credits his mission for helping him gain a new perspective on what he could achieve.
“In high school, I didn’t know what kind of person I wanted to be. Serving a mission changed my life because you’re teaching people about a higher purpose,” he said. “Coming home, because I understood my purpose, I wanted to live up to my potential. I wasn’t blessed with great physical or mental abilities. But understanding that purpose and potential helped me push myself and I was able to accomplish great things.”
Aside from graduation, this weekend is a big one for Dawe, as he is looking to sign a deal with an NFL team after the draft.
“I’m hoping there’s a team out there that will see my work ethic, see the grit that I have and give me a chance,” Dawe said.
Dawe is grateful to his wife, who is expecting their second child in June, for supporting him over the years.
“She’s amazing. Everyone hears about my story but my wife’s been right next to me,” he said. “She’s been making sacrifices, taking care of my son and working to keep us alive financially. Without her, none of this would be possible. My graduating is a huge compliment to her to how supportive she’s been.”
Now that he’s reached his dreams of playing football at BYU and graduating from the school, Dawe wants to inspire other to reach their dreams.
“The biggest message is figuring out your purpose and what you want to become and living up to your potential,” he said. “Hopefully my story can touch people’s lives and can motivate them. I’m the definition of what’s possible. Through a lot of hard work, it’s changed my life around spiritually, academically and physically. That came from a lot of support from other people and how much I wanted it. If there are people out there that think they can’t do it, they can. I’m a huge testament of that. If I could do it, anyone can.”
BYU athletes graduating in April 2017
BASEBALL: Keaton Cenatiempo, Tanner Chauncey, Brady Corless, Bronson Larsen, Hayden Nielsen
MEN'S BASKETBALL: Jamal Aytes, Kyle Davis*
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Brooke Clawson, Kristine Nielson, Michelle Orton
FOOTBALL: Jordan Black, Manaia Brown Michael Davis, Parker Dawe, Garrett Juergens,* Mitchell Juergens,* Nick Kurtz, Graham Rowley, Bryan Sampson, Eric Takenaka, Travis Tuiloma, Jamaal Williams
MEN'S GOLF: Zachary Pritchard
WOMEN'S GOLF: Lauren Atkinson,* Brooklyn Hocker*
GYMNASTICS: Eliane Kulczyk, Taylor Harward*
SOCCER: Rachel Boaz, Miranda Topham,* Michele Vasconcelos*
SOFTBALL: Marissa Bravo, Coco Bond, McKenzie St. Clair
MEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING: Stephen Richards,* Chad Sorensen,* Jake Taylor. Rainer Ng,* Seth Russell*
WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING: Kerra Bispo, Allie Fellows,* Emily Harris,* Erica Lienhard, Johanna Skaggs*
MEN'S TENNIS: Jeremy Bourgeois, Andrey Goryachkov, Jacob Sullivan
WOMEN'S TENNIS: Demi Perkinson, Nicolette Poulsen, Savannah Ware
MEN'S TRACK & FIELD: ean Adams, Zachary Blackham,* Mitchell Briggs, Aaron Fletcher, Andrew Hogan, Chase Horrocks, Nicolas Montanez, Steve Morrin, Korey Smith, Zachary Stetler, Drew Tingey,* Jackson Walker
WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD: Shea Collinsworth, Natalie Connolly,* Meaghan Dawe, Chloe Hadley, Jessica Hilton,* Nicole Naatjes,* Sadie Nielsen, Angela Shields,* Maleah Vaughn*
MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Tim Dobbert, Joseph Grosh, Jake Langlois, Kiril Meretev, Matt Underwood
WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Camille Hutchins,* Hannah Robison, Makenna Santiago, Camry Willardson
* BYU Scholar-Athlete (3.5 or higher cumulative GPA)