Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Last Wednesday night – as he was crouched in front of the scorer’s table, waiting to go back into Wright State’s exhibition game against Notre Dame College at the Nutter Center – he said the guy keeping the official score book teasingly told him:
“Hey, you’re gonna have to talk to Coach. An old man can’t play this many minutes.”
And a week earlier, when the Raiders faced Ohio University in a preseason scrimmage, he said one of the refs ribbed him, saying: “What are you, a ninth-year senior now?”
Parker Ernsthausen grinned and shook his head as he recounted the exchanges: “Yeah, I’m hearing all the jokes now.”
Although still 22, Ernsthausen is the oldest player on the Wright State team that opens its season Wednesday night against Western Carolina at the Nutter Center. A fifth-year redshirt senior, he’s already played in 98 games for the Raiders.
He graduated with a double major – finance and accounting – last December and this spring will get his master’s degree in accountancy, as well. After that he has a job waiting for him as an auditor for Deloitte in Phoenix, Arizona. He’ll begin in October.
“They say you grow up in college,” the 6-foot-11 Ernsthausen said with a smile. “Well, I think I kind of grew up on steroids in college.”
He was talking figuratively – not literally – but there is no denying his transformation has been Incredible Hulk-like when it comes to eclipsing preconceived notion, if not adding thick layers of muscle.
When Ernsthausen came to Wright State out of Toledo St. John’s High in the fall of 2014, he weighed just 195 pounds and was lightly recruited. Needing to build up his body and his game, he promptly was red-shirted for a season.
The following year then-coach Billy Donlon and his staff weren’t sure Ernsthausen would develop like they had hoped. He said he was told he might play “zero minutes” that season and that they were looking to recruit a European big man (they brought in 6-8 Daniel Mortensson from Denmark) to help fit their needs.
Ernsthausen said he faced a similar challenge a year later when Scott Nagy took over for Donlon before the 2016-17 season and he was told he might not “fit” the program.
Each time he was rattled but did not retreat. He huddled with his parents – David is a veterinarian in Bowling Green and wife Linda now helps run the practice – who said he could either transfer or meet the challenge head on.
He chose the latter. Throughout the summer of 2017 he spent extra time in the gym and the weight room and also began a new nutritional program his mother came up with. He ended up 230 pounds.
He started all 35 games last season as the Raiders won the Horizon League title, advanced to the NCAA Tournament and finished 25-10.
But as this season begins, he’ll likely be coming off the bench again – as he did Wednesday – for a Raiders team picked in the preseason to win the Horizon League.
Although he admits he wants to start – “I’m a competitive guy and like all the 13 guys in our locker room, you’d like to hear your name called,” – Ernsthausen said he’s a team player first and will do what he’s asked.
He knows that he’ll likely be the first player off the bench, his minutes won’t change and that he now has a firm believer in Nagy.
Last year Nagy said he apologized to Ernsthausen about his initial assessment: “I was wrong about him.”
And the other day Nagy called him the Raiders’ best team defender and one of the smartest guys he’s ever coached.
Against Notre Dame Ernsthausen played 20 minutes and ended up with seven points, six rebounds, a team-leading four steals and four assists.
