If Parker Farris is a person who sees a glass as being half empty, he must be wondering what a guy has to do to be named first-team all-Pacific West Conference. ADVERTISING If Parker Farris is a person who sees
If Parker Farris is a person who sees a glass as being half empty, he must be wondering what a guy has to do to be named first-team all-Pacific West Conference.
If Parker Farris is a person who sees a glass as being half empty, he must be wondering what a guy has to do to be named first-team all-Pacific West Conference.
Averaging 23.3 points a game this season – a University of Hawaii at Hilo record and the second-best in conference – and posting three of the top 10 scoring performances this season weren’t enough for Farris to garner the honor.
However, if the senior guard is the type who sees a glass as being half full, then he can relish the fact that he made all-PacWest second-team, as voted on by the coaches.
Vulcans sophomore Kim Schmelz made women’s honorable mention.
Farris, of McKinleyville, Calif., established UH-Hilo school records for single-season free throw percentage (.873) and career free throw accuracy (.872). In his final college game on Saturday, he poured in 47 points at Dominican, another school record. He tallied 39 points just a few nights before that at Holy Names, and scored 30 or more points in five different games this year.
“It was a privilege to coach Parker for two years,” coach G.E. Coleman said in a release. “He has put together one of the best two-year runs in UH-Hilo basketball history. His work ethic and dedication to the game to improve on a daily basis is something I hope the younger players in our program can look up to and follow. He is one of, if not the best shooters I’ve ever coached and he took his game to another level this year offensively.”
Farris finished the regular season ranked eighth in NCAA Division II scoring average.
He spent the first year of college career at Humboldt State and his second at Santa Rosa Junior College. He is on track to graduate this spring from UH-Hilo with an economics degree and hopes to play basketball overseas, according to the release.
Schmelz, led the Vulcans in scoring for the second consecutive season, averaging 14.6 points. She shot 44 percent from three-point range (32-for-72) and 78 percent from the free throw line. She had season highs of 29 points at Academy of Art and 28 points at BYU-Hawaii.
A native of Sacramento, Calif., Schmelz is the first UH-Hilo women’s basketball player to earn a PacWest honor since Waiakea graduate Kamie Imai was a second-team selection in 2013-14.
California Baptist’s Michael Smith was named the PacWest Player of the Year for the second season in a row, and is the only shooter in front of Farris in points scored (24.7). Connor Looney from PWC champion Hawaii Pacific was named the Defender of the Year, Austin Pope (Chaminade) was the Newcomer of the Year and Point Loma’s Serling Somers was the Freshman of the Year. HPU’s Darren Vorderbruegge was the PWC Coach of the Year.
On the women’s side, Cassidy Mihalko of conference champion California Baptist was named the Player of the Year; Sandra Ikeora of Dominican was Defender of the Year; Notre Dame de Namur’s Marissa Caballero was Newcomer of the Year; Destiny Castro (Chaminade) was the Freshman of the Year and Jarrod Olson of Cal Baptist was named the Coach of the Year.
