Alumna Makes an Indelible Mark on Girls Sports

Photo courtesy of Emma Willard School Photo credit: Michael Branscom

When Liz Parry ’79 learned that the lower athletic field at Emma Willard School was going to be named in her honor, her initial reaction was ‘Wait, what are you doing?’”

“It kind of scared me!” she said.

Despite her humility, the accolade is well deserved: Parry is in her 39th year at the all-girls school in Troy, New York, where she serves as athletic director, head varsity field hockey and lacrosse coach, and health instructor and swimming and lifeguard instructor. Parry came to Emma Willard as a one-year physical education maternity leave replacement. She was hired fresh out of Ithaca College with a degree in physical education. “Emma Willard gave me a chance,” she says. Since that time, she’s brought her lifelong love for field hockey and lacrosse to scores of students.

She was introduced to field hockey in sixth grade at Rumson Country Day School in New Jersey, where she also played basketball and softball, and ran track. She came to The Masters School as a sophomore in the fall of 1976 and was a three-season athlete, playing field hockey, basketball and lacrosse.

Parry has fond memories of participating in athletics as a Dobbs girl. She laughs thinking about the field hockey and lacrosse outfits — their white polos and purple kilts were accentuated with purple and white stirrup socks. “We played field hockey on the field outside the dining hall and lacrosse

I loved playing the game and competing, but it was also about the relationships I had with my teammates. ”

on the field between the school road and Estherwood,” she recalls. “There were no boundaries in lacrosse at the time, and we played to ‘natural boundaries,’ which included a tree at one end of our field.” At 5 feet tall, Parry may not look the part of a typical basketball player, but she and her teammate Mary-Clare Banay Pugh ’79 were nicknamed Double Trouble. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Parry was a member of DAA (Dobbs Athletic Association) and its president senior year.

More than anything, Parry enjoyed sports because of the friendships. “I loved playing the game and competing,” she says, “but it was also about the relationships I had with my teammates. We knew how to work hard but also how to have fun.”

She considers Debbie Pool, her field hockey and lacrosse coach at Masters, a mentor. “She was a big inspiration,” Parry says. “She encouraged me to go to field hockey and lacrosse camp in the summer.” When Parry was looking at colleges, Pool suggested she consider her alma mater, Ithaca College, where she had played field hockey and lacrosse.

At Ithaca, Parry continued playing field hockey and lacrosse, and in 1982, the field hockey team won the school’s first women’s national championship. Ithaca College inducted her field hockey team into the college’s Hall of Fame in 2015.

Being an advocate of the sport of lacrosse is an important mission for Parry. In the early ’90s, Parry was one of the founding members of the first girls interscholastic league in the area, Capital District Women’s Lacrosse League. She was the New York state section 2 girls lacrosse co-coordinator from 1997 through 2004, then took the reins as coordinator until 2016. She also served as the assistant state coordinator from 2006 through 2016. Since 2016, she has been the New York State Public High Schools Athletic Association girls lacrosse state coordinator. In this role, “I meet a lot of different people who are passionate and dedicated to the sport of lacrosse,” she says. In 2018, in recognition of her outstanding dedication and devoted service to the sport, Parry was inducted into the Adirondack Chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

As a coach to high school girls at Emma Willard, Parry brings an unparalleled, lifelong love for and deep knowledge of her sports. She admits that “It’s fun to see where students go with their sport. Some go on to have a college career or play club sports, and others don’t, but they’re doing other special things.” Her tenure at the school is so significant that she’s taught the children of her former students.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of her work and the one that brings her the greatest satisfaction is helping girls who can’t picture themselves participating in athletics gain the confidence to do so. For every student who says, “I can’t do this,” Parry says, “Just try.”

She gives the example of a student who comes to her believing she can’t run a mile. Parry will tell the student to run the straight parts of the track and walk the curves. “Eventually, we’re going to build up to a mile run, and then I hear that student is going off to college to run track,” she says. “I’m proud that I’m a good motivator and can encourage them to try it — to do it with their might — and keep going. With a little encouragement, you see that confidence build.”

With untold future generations of girls playing sports on the athletic field that bears her name, there is no doubt that Parry will continue to inspire young women for many years to come.

ABOVE: Parry, dressed up for the DAA German, celebrated the annual tradition with former Head of School Hugh Silk.

LEFT: As a coach, Parry has an unmatched gift for motivating student athletes and helping them build confidence.

Photo (left) courtesy of Emma Willard School