[This article appeared in the 6/5/02 issue of Irish Today]

Irish Today has confirmed that Freddie Parrish has indeed been offered a scholarship to Notre Dame. He also told me that Notre Dame was "definitely in my top five."

It happened two weeks ago when Freddie took an unofficial visit to South Bend. The rainy weekend didn't dampen the trip and, after meeting with coaches and administrators, Freddie sat down with Tyrone Willingham.  Freddie Parrish was kind enough to share some of the conversation with me for Irish Today readers.  I asked him what his initial impressions of Coach Willingham were. He took a few seconds to find the words.

"He just puts you in awe," Parrish said. "He was everything that I expected and more."

I asked him to take me through the conversation he had with Willingham, when he was offered the scholarship.

Coach Willingham sat down with Freddie Parrish and told him what he was looking for: "I want someone who is man enough on the field to lay someone out and go all out every play. I also want someone who is man enough off the field to say 'please,' 'thank you,' 'yes sir' and 'no sir.' If that is not you then this is not the place for you to be. If it is, then Notre Dame has a scholarship for you."

Even though, as we reported earlier, Freddie will play free safety next season for Long Beach Poly, the coaches gave him every indication that they planned to use him at corner initially.

Rarely do you meet a young man as respectful, well spoken and articulate as Freddie Parrish. I believe he would be an excellent Notre Dame man.

The last question I asked him was, "Are you itching for summer break?"

Freddie replied, "No sir, I'm just itching for pads," referring to full contact drills. Now that's a football player.