Charlie Parks didn\u2019t play much football in 2024 due to a back injury.<\/p>\n
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies defensive end bounced back in a big way, though, and will now showcase his talents to CFL teams one last time before the CFL Draft.<\/p>\n
The Regina, Sask., product is one of the participants at this year\u2019s CFL Combine in Edmonton.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n
It allows a number of draft-eligible prospects a chance to compete in drills and interview with teams ahead of the CFL Draft to make their case as to why a team should select them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel real. This is something that I have thought about for a long time, playing football. Back when I was 11 years old, a couple of my teammates at the time on the Pee Wee Riders told me, \u2018Man, you\u2019re going to be playing in the CFL,\u2019 and I was like, there\u2019s no way,\u201d Parks said. \u201cTo be so close, it\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parks is excited for every drill and opportunity at the scouting showcase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I bring something in every drill. I\u2019m just excited to go put the genuine article on tape,\u201d Parks said.<\/p>\n
He has also leaned on the advice of his Huskie teammates who have went to the combine such as Saskatchewan Roughrider draft picks, Seth Hundeby and Daniel Wiebe.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust asking them and picking their brain for it is really helpful,\u201d Parks said.<\/p>\n
It was a long road to recovery for Parks, who suffered a back injury in their final home game of the 2023 season. He was sent on a blitz as an outside linebacker and got hurt on the play. He went ahead and played in the playoff game but he admits that didn\u2019t do him any favours.<\/p>\n
So he only played in a handful of games in 2024 before he had to be shut down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the toughest year of my life. We still crack jokes about it with the Huskie guys \u2013 I was walking doubled-over for 10 months because my back and all the nerves hurt so bad, I couldn\u2019t stand up straight,\u201d Parks said. \u201cMy mom can attest to it. When I woke up from getting surgery, I just popped up. It felt like I could do whatever I wanted again.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have to wait six weeks before I could start playing football again was tough. Glad I got through it and glad I got back here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He bounced back in a big way in 2025, recording six and a half sacks and was named the Canada West lineman of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt amazing. That was on my shortlist for goals at the start of the year,\u201d Parks said. \u201cTo be able to accomplish it and come back from missing a full season and to come back and get right back into the swing of things and do it better than I have before, it\u2019s one of those things where it feels like everything you did and everything you went through just paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the CFL Draft taking place on April 28, Parks admitted it\u2019s surreal how close the event is.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the hard work and hours put in are finally getting to be paid off. It\u2019s so rewarding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Parks didn\u2019t play much football in 2024 due to a back injury. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-562887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}