East Webster’s kicker Burleson joins Delta State
MABEN – It’s become an ironic feeling in college sports when games are so often won and loss off the foot of a special teams players yet kickers and punters rarely earn scholarships for their abilities.
East Webster High School football coach Ron Price knows how important they are to his team.
For the last three years since he’s been coaching the Wolverines, Parker Burleson has been handling kickoffs, punts and kicks for his team and has changed the field and the game for his team.
On Wednesday, Price finally saw this era of Wolverine football come to an end as he watched his special teamer sign a National Letter of Intent to play at Delta State University. The last few years seeing Burleson get the job done was something that Price can’t soon forget.
“It was special,” Price said. “To make a team have to go 80 yards every series changes things. To know that you can line up and be successful on extra points and field goal attempts, it changes your mindset as a coach knowing that those points are going to be a given. I’m super proud of him and the example that he set for our young guys.”
Burleson had picked up interest from around the country over the last couple of years and had plenty of walkon opportunities. He had settled in on playing two years of junior college football as the entire state was clamoring for his signature.
He committed to Jones College back during the summer but had second thoughts in the fall and began to take in some more visits. Burleson went to East Mississippi Community College, Northwest Mississippi Community College and Western Kentucky along with Jones for his visits, but Delta State stood out the most recently.
Late in the process, the Statesmen presented him with an offer that he couldn’t turn down.
“It was tough because I hate to tell people ‘no,’” Burleson said. “JUCO coaches were all so good to me which made it all so tough. I went on a couple of game day visits to Delta State and it felt like home. They gave me a great offer and it was the place I wanted to be and I needed to be.”
Price himself is a Delta State alum and has fond memories of the school during his time there. The Statesmen have a long history of success and Todd Cooley has continued it over his seven years as coach there.
Next to a Division I scholarship, Price believes there might not be a better opportunity for Burleson to have success individually and with his team, but he also believes the student-athlete experience is going to be one to remember.
“Over the next four years at some point, he’ll have a chance to compete for a national title,” Price said. “At any level, when you have that kind of opportunity, it’s special. I just hope he will enjoy the next four years and he’ll continue to break records. It would be awesome to see him kick the game-winning field goal to give them a national championship.”
Burleson got to this point through much hard work but also by being extremely versatile. Playing in a lower classification forced him to be able to do many different things in the kicking game as he punted, kicked and handled kickoffs for the Wolverines and he did it well.
As a senior, Burleson kicked 43 of his 70 kickoffs into the end zone. He punted 40 times for a 37-yard average with a long of 56 and saw 19 downed inside the 20. Burleson also hit 48 of his 54 extra points and four of seven field goals.
Delta State believes that Burleson can take over the kickoff duties next season as a freshman as well as compete for the starting placekicking job while the punter returning is established. No matter what happens, the success that follows won’t surprise his coach.
“Nobody worked harder than Parker,” Price said. “He put in the time and effort on his own a lot and to see that hard work and effort be rewarded will hopefully give our young guys a great example. Hard work truly does pay off.”