O'Connor HC David Malesky on UT commit Logan Parr

BOYD: X’s and O’s Q&A

NAHLIN: There will be recruiting fireworks in July

Helotes O’Connor head coach David Malesky has seen plenty of good football.

He’s coached for more than a quarter-century and is preparing for his tenth season as head coach of the Panthers.

O’Connor is no stranger recently to success in the playoffs and sending Division I talent all over the country from just outside of San Antonio. A big reason why 2019 could be a year to achieve both for O’Connor is Texas offensive line commit Logan Parr.

Inside Texas spoke with Malesky about Parr and his team after the Panthers’ Monday practice.

Inside Texas: O’Connor lost current TCU OL Brannon Brown from last year’s team, who played at LG while Logan Parr played at LT. With Brown’s departure, what is the best place to put Logan for O’Connor?

David Malesky: “That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now. The great thing about Logan is Logan has got a lot of experience both inside and out. He’s done both, and we’re just going to have to see where our young pieces fit. It’s going to be easy to put him in where, as you said, it’s best for us. I think he’s going to be an interior guy also. He’s played a lot of that, and is a big, strong, powerful kid. It’s nice having a cat like that inside. Ultimately at the end of the day, we’re going to do what’s best for us and what gives us the best chance to move the football.”

IT: Logan is currently nursing an ankle injury he suffered in spring practices, but before that, what position was he playing?

DM: “That was our first day. We hadn’t even gotten through with 30 minutes of practice when he got rolled up on. He was playing guard at that time.”

IT: Off the field, what does Logan bring to the team?

DM: “First of all, the obvious thing he brings is he’s a three-year starter. That’s high school. That means he started as a freshman, and he started every game at the varsity level since he’s been here. He’s got experience against some incredible football teams over the years. He’s played in a lot of really, really big games. Just that right there brings a ton of stuff, especially to the o-line. O-linemen, they’re a different breed. They’re in a world of their own and they feed off of each other. He’s going to help these young guys, just through his presence and experiences he’s had, and how he dealt with being a young, inexperienced player.

More than that though, Logan is an incredible kid. He’s a kid you’d want your son to grow up to be like. I’ve got two daughters, and I’d want Logan to be my son with the kind of kid he is. Nice young man, very polite and respectful. He plays really, really hard, so don’t get in his way. Don’t let him fall on top of you. In the locker room, he’s got a leadership that guys listen to. He doesn’t have to be loud and boisterous and like that because the kids know who he is. They respect him, and that’s probably something I think goes under-said a lot. Kids respect him. They respect him because of who he is, not what he’s done.

That right there helps us as a coaching staff in that there’s a lot of things we don’t have to deal with. We’re also fortunate that our nose, our big No. 70 (2020 Pryson Greer) out there, those guys both have been on varsity since they were freshmen. They have a presence in the locker room where they both take care of things and you don’t have to worry about them.”

IT: For those not familiar with O’Connor, what type of offense do you run?

DM: “We’re multiple. Since I’ve been the head coach, and I’m starting my 10th year, we’ve had the same offensive coordinator and we’ve actually been coaching here at O’Connor for 18 years together. You go back and look at the last nine years, you add it all up and we’re about a 60/40 run-to-pass deal. It just depends on what kids we have.

We feel like offensively that we’ve got a chance of being pretty athletic up front this year, which leads to believe we’re going to run maybe some more gap, more full zone type stuff. We’re always going to run power. We’re always going to run zone. We’re always going to run outside zone. We’re going to throw the football. Throwing the football for us is really important, and we try to do a lot of that. I don’t think you can necessarily put a label on us. It’s also going to depend upon who’s the quarterback. Our quarterback is a kid that started for 11 games last year. We had a three-year starter the previous years where we went to the state quarterfinals and lost a close one to Lake Travis two years ago in the Alamodome.

We’re not going to limit ourselves with a label and say we have to do this. If we’re not any good at it, we ain’t going to do it. We’re going to come up with something else, and our coaching staff has always done a great job of finding what can we do? Thank the Lord for spring football. Without it, I don’t know what we’d do.”