Elk Point Kid Impressing with Northeast Alberta Track & Field Team

Parker Allen has been with the Northeast Alberta Track & Field Team (NEAT) for two years now. Allen decided to push is throwing talents last year, and began practicing with the NEAT club out of St. Paul. Allen has seen great success and a few minor bumps in the road in his time competing.

Humble beginnings

Parker was 15 when he joined the NEAT club. Allen is heavily involved in a lot of school sports, and track is just something he has done since grade seven.  Parker competes in four main events: Javelin, Discus, Shot-put and Hammer Throw.

He was scouted by NEAT at his grade 9 districts track meet. He threw well, and the coach from NEAT approached Parker’s mother Robbie. The coach offered Parker a chance to practice with the NEAT club, which Allen graciously accepted.

“I started going to the meets on the club circuit. They started really good, and then got better. I was selected to the zone team for track for the (Alberta) Summer Games. I did alright, and got selected for Team Alberta.” Parker Allen recounts.

Up and down second year

Allen took a strong first year and started building on it right away. After some solid competitions felt the season was going to have a very positive result. Parker suffered a back injury during a meet in Calgary in the middle of the season. He had just managed to throw a 45m javelin. The injury nagged him most of the season, mostly only affecting his javelin throws. He still managed to show off some solid effort at the Sherwood Park Track Classic. He won a gold in discus, silver in shot put, and bronze in hammer. The Track Classic (July 22-23) doubled as Allen’s Provincial meet.

“The thing about jav(elin) is that it’s a chain reaction. Everything starts at the same time. It’s a million different chain reactions in within a quarter of a second. That’s how I injured it. One of those reactions was too early, and I bent my back to early. My back hasn’t been the same since, but hopefully it has time to heal.” Allen says.

School sports start again

Parker competes in high school golf. Allen is already out on the links getting geared up for the school golf calendar. He will enter his third season with NEAT next year.