Melinda Almazan Parisi

Melinda Almazan Parisi was a shortstop early in life. How early? How about age 4. She was a Bobby Sox All-Star for the El Rio team, a star-in-the-making.
She went on to start for Salpointe’s 1993 state championship softball team, but by then she had discovered a new sport – volleyball. Talk about making the right move.
By her sophomore year at Salpointe, Melinda made such an impact on coach Mark Townsend’s Salpointe volleyball team that she averaged 22 assists per game as the Lancers’ setter, the quarterback of the club.
By 1994 she was the MVP of the All-City volleyball team, leading Salpointe to the state semifinals. After that, it only got better.
Playing at NCAA Division II Regis College in Denver, Almazan became the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 1997 and 1998, a D-II first-team All-American.
“She not only left her mark at Regis,’’ said former Regis athletic director Barbara Schroeder, “she left a legacy.’’
In the summer of 1999, Parisi was named the NCAA’s Division II Honda Award winner as the top athlete of the year – which covered 12 sports – in all of Division II athletics.
“She can run the offense, she understood what we were trying to do,’’ Regis coach Frank Gray said. “She was a tremendous performer before I started working with her. Her competitiveness and her athleticism were present from Day 1.’’
When Parisi was Tucson’s prep MVP in 1994, leading Salpointe to a 25-3 record, she once had an amazing 44 assists in one game. Her 26-inch vertical jump set her apart.
At Regis, she registered an RMAC record 5,297 career assists, becoming a four-time all-conference selection. And she accomplished all of this while maintaining a 3.9 GPA. She was named Regis’ female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Her 1997 Regis volleyball team went 32-4 and reached the NCAA tournament semifinals.
Since her Regis days, Parisi has been inducted into the Regis College Sports Hall of Fame (2008). In 2000, she was inducted into the Salpointe Catholic Hall of Fame.
The mother of two daughters, Parisi lives in Texas with her husband, Michael, who she met in Denver while playing volleyball at Regis.