As a Union High School student-athlete, Parker Christian knew about the Rego Athletic Scholarship Fund. Union, after all, was the last stop in Rego’s impactful career as an assistant coach in Clark County.
So Christian was considering applying for the scholarship.
“Hey, I’m a student-athlete who has a good story. I might put in for it,” he told himself.
Again, just considering it.
Then he was convinced by his older sister, Chelsea, who knew Coach Rego.
“You remind me so much of him,” she told her brother.
That did it. Parker Christian was on board.
“I talked a little bit about having experience with losing someone to cancer,” Christian said. “I lost my grandma. She showed up to my games even going through chemo.”
He understood what the Rego family was going through, losing someone “to an awful disease.”
Rego worked until he couldn’t, as well, coaching into the 2018 football season. He died in October of that year. An assistant football and track and field coach at Evergreen and then Union, Rego also volunteered his time to help any athlete, from any school, to improve their skills.
The Rego family wants to keep his legacy alive through a scholarship.
Parker Christian is one of dozens of students to receive funds from the organization this school year. The scholarship is open to student athletes from Evergreen and Battle Ground Public Schools. To date, the organization has awarded 233 scholarships.
Christian missed a lot of his junior baseball season after being diagnosed with a blood clot. He endured several surgeries before hitting a home run soon after returning to the field for the Titans.
“Just being a hard worker, gritty, and grinding. That’s who I am. That’s what I wrote about,” he said.
A 4.0 student, Christian plans to play college baseball roughly 2,700 miles from Vancouver at Anderson University in South Carolina.
“I wanted to go somewhere where the weather is nice 365 days out of the year,” Christian said.
He also loved the idea of a small, private Christian school.
He visited the campus and did a baseball camp there. The coaches were impressed. Christian said yes to an invitation to play there.
He hopes to have as memorable of a time there as he did at Union High School.
“When I showed up, I was so scared to be part of something bigger than myself,” Christian said. “I was so excited to play for such a cool school that I grew up watching. Just to be able to represent Union High School on my chest was a huge honor for me. I took it to heart and fully embraced it.
“Everyone there is great,” he said.
