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Sue Parisi shows the boys of Willow Glen High's varsity soccer team how to get their kicks
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Head Games
Willow Glen High's Sue Parisi is the only woman in the district to coach a high school boys' varsity sports team
By Suzanne Barnecut
'I'm going to cry!" a teenage boy yells to Sue Parisi, Willow Glen High's Varsity Boys Soccer coach, as he streaks out of the gym and into a locker room, boasting a slightly injured leg. Well acquainted with the sharp wits and melodramatics of youth, Parisi shouts after him, "You'll live!" and flashes me a knowing smile.
Soccer practice doesn't officially begin until Nov. 15, yet on a blazing hot summer day five boys have shown up to work out. During the summer Parisi offers practice time three days a week to any athletes who want to come. The day of my visit, a girl exits the gym and says to Parisi, "Thanks for letting me play with you guys!" Parisi just nods, because playing with the guys is really no big deal--that's what she's been doing for years. This fall will begin Parisi's second year coaching at Willow Glen High, which, as far as she knows, makes her the only female in the district to coach a high school varsity boys' sports team.
"It's definitely a male's world," she reflects, "but I like the boys, they're a good group." Parisi spent the last six years coaching for the Police Athletic League and the Central Valley soccer teams, but when she gave them up to focus on Willow Glen's varsity boys, she still had to prove herself.
"Men get this macho attitude when they see a female player. We're easy prey, but I've stood my ground. You have to play harder when you're a woman," she explains. "The boys didn't take me seriously at first, but after we began conditioning and training and I got the ball in the goal a few times. ..."
Senior Rudy Ochoa, the team captain, adds, "It was different at first. I thought I had to take charge at first because sometimes the guys wouldn't go with what she said. Now it's better. She puts a lot more attention into the team than other coaches. She buys us pizza and drinks and makes us feel good."
Parisi credits last year as a learning experience. "I'm not afraid to get help. My belief is that you can never know everything and can always use input. There are lots of different styles of playing," she says.
One way she expanded her experience last year was to hire three professional Argentine soccer players to give two week-long clinics in the fall and winter. "They didn't speak English," Parisi recalls, "but it still worked because we all knew soccer."
One thing she learned from the experience was to vary several different drills during a practice, rather than focusing on only one skill, in order to keep the boys' attention.
Another way she gains her team's respect is to practice and run alongside them the entire way.
"Some of them have a hard time keeping up with me ... except for these boys here," she jokes to the handful of boys who have gathered around her. Then, more seriously, she adds, "I believe you can't ask them to do something you won't do yourself."
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Shin Fine: Soccer coach Sue Parisi proves women can be just as macho as men can on the soccer field.
It's this kind of strength and drive that Parisi has exhibited for years. She began playing soccer when she was 19 at her sister-in-law's suggestion. She tried out for a team, made it and has played year-round ever since. For more than 20 years she's gotten up by 8 a.m. every Saturday morning to play soccer as the only female on a team of male friends from her high school. She's played rain or shine, with broken bones, and even while pregnant.
"I love soccer just for the simple fact that there's no certain body type or size and there's so many different positions that if you're not good at one, you're good at another," she says. At 5-foot-2, she most often takes the goalie position.
One thing that has been difficult over the years was coaching her son's soccer team. "It's hard to coach a child. He had a hard time separating when I was mad at him for not making his bed and me being his coach." The solution? Handing him off to the assistant coach.
Her son has since given up soccer, but now that she is at Willow Glen High, they can cheer at each other's sporting events.
Between her son, now a sophomore, and her daughter, a senior, who also attends the school, Parisi goes to football and water polo games and swimming and wrestling meets, and she runs marathons herself. She's on campus nearly every day for soccer or Booster Club activities or to attend to her duties as vice president of the Parents Club.
"I'm active in everything," she says. "It's the only way to know what your kids are doing and who their friends are." As if she weren't busy enough, she casually mentions that she also has a "real" job as an operating-room assistant at Valley Medical Center on the night shift.
When questioned about when she has time to sleep, she asserts, "I find the more I have to do, the more organized I am."
There's no doubt that Sue Parisi is very focused on the year ahead. "I hope to work as a team, win our games and go to CCS this year. We did well last year--I think it's realistic."
Team captain Ochoa heartily agrees, chiming in, "We can take it!"
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
