Jackson Free Press

Parker Andrews is an intriguing enigma. At first glance, he is a typical 11-year-old fifth-grade student whose recent acquisition of Healy skate shoes has transformed him into a full-fledged speeding bullet. But beyond first impressions, Andrews is unlike many his age.

Passersby can see him jumping the rocks or playing checkers with homeless men at Smith Park downtown.

On Sunday evenings, catch him sitting on the steps outside Hal and Mal's, listening to his favorite band, Modest Mouse, on his iPod, as he awaits The Journey's worship service, which his father Stacy Andrews leads.

Or maybe you've seen him on YouTube practicing his butterfly twist in preparation for a TaeKwonDo competition.

Andrews has practiced TaeKwonDo at Jason Griffin's International TaeKwonDo Academy since age 6, and today he is one of the youngest third-degree black belts in the state. He competes in International TaeKwonDo Alliance competitions and has been ranked among the nation's top 10 competitors.

The karate kid says that his favorite competitions are extreme martial arts, known as XMA and hamundo.

"(XMA) is a lot of tumbling, cartwheels, advanced kicks, crazy flips … it's really fun. Hamundo is more like wrestling and throwing people over your back. And that just breaks your bones really bad," Andrews says.

When Andrews isn't practicing TaeKwonDo, he enjoys drawing and painting. He has sold some of his works at Fondren ARTmix, and plans to display examples of his newest passion, portraits, in the future. Andrews says he discovered that he was good at portraits when teachers tasked his class at First Presbyterian School to draw each other as part of an exercise.

But Andrews says his future goals do not include artistry.

"I want to open a TaeKwonDo school when I get older, or be a stuntman for a movie," Andrews says, adding that he would use fewer wires than other stuntmen. His favorite stuntman, he says, is Jackie Chan because he does his own stunts.

Until Andrews makes it big in the world of Hollywood stunting, he plans to remain a hometown boy. He wants to attend college close to home, perhaps Millsaps, he says.

Andrews loves Jackson and its buildings, and offers that he prefers that older buildings in Jackson be renovated, rather than constructing new ones.

"When you take something old and make it new, it just seems better than just building something new immediately," he says, comparing the process to restoring antique cars.