Germantown High’s Will Parks will play in state all-star football game

William Parks, Germantown High School’s lauded football player, will play in Pittsburgh after all. But don’t get your hopes up, Pitt Panthers supporters. It’s only for a day.

Just weeks removed from riling up some local fans when he chose to play for – and study at – the University of Arizona over the Pitt Panthers, Parks was selected to play in the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association’s East West All-Star Game.

The May 6 game is a showcase for notable high-school football players from across the state not selected to play in the “Big 33” Pennsylvania vs. Ohio game. It will be played at Gateway High School’s 5,000-seat Antimarino Stadium in the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville.

Parks learned of the honor from the coach who led his team in December’s Chesapeake Bowl, a game that pitted all-star players from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware against peers from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

He said Thursday that the fact that the game will be played near Pittsburgh, and that it’s not the widely known Big 33, serves as extra motivation.

“I want this. Every day, I’ve got something to prove,” he said. “It’s double motivation, humbling, but that drive adds something on the motivation charts.”