Since February 2002, Virginia fans have waited to see linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Kai Parham line up side-by-side in the Cavalier defensive backfield. They finally got their wish last Saturday, as Parham made his first collegiate start, filling in for injured veteran Rich Bedesem. The start provided a sizeable challenge for the monster linebacker from Virginia Beach and marked the culmination of an extraordinary spiritual journey.
Parham joined the Cavaliers during the fall of 2002 as one of the crown jewels of Virginia's heralded recruiting class. But like Brooks, Parham had to wait an extra year to make an impact as a Cavalier. Academics did not sideline Parham, as they did his counterpart from Woodbridge. Instead, he suffered from a lingering back injury. A devout Christian, Parham turned to his spiritual side to work through his struggles.
"There was nothing I could really do," Parham said. "It was tough because I was really just waiting on God to do what he wanted to do."
Parham got the response he had been waiting for when a friend's mother told him God was going to heal his back.
"When you lay down, don't move before he heals you before you go to sleep," she instructed. "And when you wake up the next morning your back will be fine."
And it worked.
"My back has been better ever since," Parham said.
Parham began to practice with the team late last season and dressed for the last three games. He also hit the weight room for the first time since his back injury. For Parham, an avid lifter since high school, the return to the weight room helped him feel like himself again.
Parham began the 2003 season as a backup to Bedesem in the field and to Brooks and Blackstock in the limelight. He improved in each of his first four games and posted one of the few strong performances by a Cavalier against South Carolina, recording eight tackles, five of them unassisted.
"He had a very acceptable game," Virginia coach Al Groh said after his Cavaliers fell 31-7 to the Gamecocks. "He was a player who really moved along
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