Parker Brodina will be joining an old friend next year.
Last week, the Devils Lake senior announced his commitment to continue playing basketball at the University of Mary. It’ll be a reunion for him and Wylee Delorme, who won state tournament MVP for Devils Lake at the end of the 2023-24 season.
“I’m excited,” Brodina said. “It’s been a dream of mine to play at the next level. And to be playing with Wylee, it’ll be awesome. A great experience.”
The achievement is just as gratifying for his dad and coach, Dustin Brodina, who led Parker and Delorme to a state championship 99 years in the making last winter.
“I’m pretty excited for him,” Dustin said. “It’s good to see all the hard work pay off. And that, I think, was one of his goals, was to play at the next level. And this is a great opportunity for him to play at the next level.”
The Mary basketball team, known as the Marauders, is a Division II program in Bismarck. The Marauders’ head coach, Jack Nelson, first reached out to Parker during last season.
Delorme was already a Mary commit at the time.
“Wylee was always talking about it,” Parker said. “He was like, ‘You gotta come here! You gotta come here!’”
An assistant coach on the Marauders then asked Parker to come on a visit. Parker had about four or five visits during the recruiting process, he said, along with numerous phone calls. He received offers from schools like Concordia College and Valley City State University.
After his trip to Mary, it ultimately felt like the right fit.
“They were really nice,” Parker said. “And on the visit, Wylee was with us the whole time. He showed me around, and it was a great place. And I love the guys.”
Basketball has been the focus for a while now, for Parker, who’s also a talented athlete on the baseball diamond and played football up through his freshman year of high school. He played all three sports from a young age, just like his older brother, Beau, who ended up going the baseball route.
“Growing up, you don’t know which sport is going to be their favorite one that they kind of clench on to,” Dustin said.
Parker’s dad felt that he probably had the talent to pursue baseball or football at the college level, if he had chosen to. But Parker suffered a concussion playing football as a freshman, and the risk of getting hit again wasn’t worth it. So football was out of the picture by his sophomore year.
“When he quit football after his freshman year and then really started playing basketball, dedicating more time to basketball, that was when I knew he could probably play at the next level,” Dustin said.
Long before Dustin took over as head coach of the Firebirds, he helped set up travel teams for Parker and Beau around their first and second grade years. The process of developing into a quality basketball player started there, with little three-on-three competitions. Adding to that was the consistent workouts and off-court training in the following years.
“He’s been a huge factor in this,” Parker said of his dad. “I mean, the amount of times we’ve woken up at 6 a.m. to go shoot around or work out, it’s a crazy number. So he’s been there with me the whole entire time.”
Delorme was a part of those early teams as well. The trust and friendship he and Parker have built with each other was a rare commodity that eventually influenced Parker’s collegiate decision.
“It was a huge factor because we’ve been best friends our whole lives,” Parker said.
And so, with the work ethic instilled in him early on, he now possesses the commitment required to become a college-level player. He took off as the Firebirds’ second-most productive scorer on the championship team with 14.1 points per game — behind only Delorme — and has only continued to work and get better.
“The biggest thing, I think, is making sure that he’s accountable for not only himself, but for his teammates,” Dustin said. “That we’re always making every workout. We’re not skipping workouts. Open gyms. And on the floor as well, too. Making sure that they’re accountable. So that whole journey from all the way down from third grade, all the way to here, it’s been pretty exciting.”
After becoming state champions in basketball, the Brodinas dove into roughly four straight months of baseball earlier this year. Parker and Beau were both key players on the spring team, which had a winning season in the EDC while competing against the top teams in North Dakota. When the school year ended, they continued playing on the American Legion team, of which Dustin was also an assistant coach. The Devils Lake Storm, as they were known, made it all the way to the state tournament in Bismarck.
If that wasn’t already enough, Parker still had a commitment to his AAU basketball team, the 17U ECI Prospects. The team was led by Lucas Moormann, who won Mr. Basketball and played for North Dakota State University in his time as a player. It forced Parker to miss the occasional baseball game, but he had a good excuse: He was playing high-level basketball tournaments in places like Minneapolis, Sioux Falls and Chicago.
“It was crazy, but we were able to balance it out,” Parker said. “I want to thank my mom; she drove me everywhere. And it was busy, but it was fun, too, at the same time.”
Parker also had a teammate by his side during the AAU season in fellow Firebird Joel Nelson. Nelson, who’s in the same grade as Parker, is the younger brother of Alabama star Grant Nelson and was another key part of the Devils Lake championship team. He’ll be perhaps even more crucial this upcoming year, with Delorme having graduated.
Parker and Nelson, already lifelong friends, got to continue developing their bond on and off the court during the summer. Nelson, an exceptionally talented athlete in his own right, stands at 6-foot-5 and averaged 9.4 points per game last season. This year, the two of them will be senior leaders on the Firebirds.
“I love playing with Joel just because he works so hard and he never quits,” Parker said. “So it’s fun to play with him. And sometimes you never know what he’s gonna do because he’s just that good.”
At the end of the summer, Parker reaped the rewards of his efforts. First, he was named to Prep Hoops’ All-Dakotas Team. Then he was honored on the All-America Sixth Team. There were only two basketball players in the entire state of North Dakota ranked higher on these lists than Brodina.
“I made huge strides because I decided to play with ECI and Coach Moormann,” Parker said. “He did a great job of giving me exposure and stuff. I played great during the summer, and it showed.”
Parker’s hard work has now materialized in a collegiate commitment. He’ll get to play in the state capital with his longtime friend and teammate, all while living out his dream of competing at the next level.
“I just hope to work hard and work my way up,” he said. “I know I’m not gonna be guaranteed playing time right away. So I might have to work my hardest, and then also do good in school there, too.”
While he’ll be three hours away from his hometown of Devils Lake, he’ll still be close to some family. Parker’s mom, Christa, is originally from Bismarck, and she still has family who live in the area. His aunt Taya and uncle Tim, along with his grandma and grandpa, all currently live in Bismarck. Taya and Tim even let Delorme live with them for his freshman year, in their big house that features an arcade, a mini movie theater and a hot tub.
“I think when they heard that he was gonna be there, they were pretty excited,” Dustin said. “And that’ll be good for Parker, too. If there’s some times he wants to go hang out with family there, he’ll have the opportunity to do that.”
But before he gets there, he’ll have one last ride with Devils Lake. With football season already winding down and Halloween approaching, the basketball season is coming up quickly. Following a championship season, the expectations have never been higher.
If the Firebirds want to defend their title, though, they’ll have to do it without Delorme.
“He’s a Mr. Basketball candidate. So there’s some big shoes to fill right there,” Dustin said. “He’s an offensive threat at all levels, at any time. So we’re gonna need some of that. We’re gonna need [Parker] to step up. The leadership part will be there — being a leader on the floor, being a floor general. But when we need a big bucket, we’re gonna have to lean on some shoulders. Because Wylee hit some big shots down the stretch at times last year, and that was big for us. So that’s a big role that we’ll have to fill right there.”
And then, regardless of what the rest of this year has in store, the Brodinas will send their second-oldest child off to Bismarck to pursue his college basketball dreams.
“I hope it’s just a good experience for him. To embrace the experience,” Dustin said. “I don’t second-guess that he’s gonna work hard and give effort. But to enjoy the experience and maybe, if he can, see some time on the floor, that’d be great. But to be pushed, get coached really well, and to embrace it. Because that’ll probably be his last step, the last years of basketball right there.”
And all at once, the Brodinas will have four kids playing sports: Beau on the Lake Region State College baseball team, Parker at Mary, and then Tylie and Ben both at the high school level.
“We’re enjoying it at the time, because I know in four years or five years, it’ll slow down real fast,” Dustin said. “It’s fun. We enjoy it.”
