Fairy tale couple makes good team

She needed a new pair of cleats for her rookie season of soccer at the University of Texas.

He worked at a sporting goods store that his family owned and operated.

She told him the size she needed.

And he proceeded to win her heart – after finding her the perfect pair of cleats, of course.

The main characters of this Cinderella story are none other than Georgia College & State University’s women’s soccer coach Robert Parr and his wife, Michelle, goalie for the Lady Bobcats.

And the fairy tale doesn’t end there.

While Michelle played for the Longhorns, Robert served as the head coach for the men’s soccer team at UT.

Although their paths sometimes crossed, it wasn’t until Michelle accepted an assistant coaching position in the Olympic Development Program with Robert as the head coach that their friendship was able to slowly evolve into marriage.

After putting in numerous years in Texas coaching players of all ages and ability levels, the Parrs have currently decided to live happily ever after in Milledgeville, bestowing their knowledge upon a young group of women eager to excel in collegiate soccer.

It’s true that a coach doesn’t normally face the challenge of having to coach his or her spouse at a practice or during a game, but that doesn’t stop Coach Parr from offering advice to Michelle on the rare occasions that he deems necessary.

“It’s my responsibility to train the goalkeepers while [Robert] deals with the field players,” said Michelle. “But he yells at me, too.”

“And she yells back,” Coach Parr added quickly.

In addition to voluntarily helping the goalies, Michelle also participates in every drill and runs alongside her teammates.

Like any goalie, Michelle can also be heard during the game barking out commands to the field players since she has good perspective on the entire field.

Her teammates seem to appreciate her advice and learn from her experience.

“From Michelle, I have learned that if we are not going to come together and work as a team, we are never going to win,” said Jess McGinnis.

The Parrs have been coaching together much longer that they have been married, but like any good coaching staff, they do disagree on some aspects of the game but spend a lot of time coming to an agreement on how things should be done.

According to Coach Parr, the coaches are constantly challenging their assumptions on a game-by-game basis in order to figure out strategies, line-ups and pre-game training techniques.

With an overall young group of girls from numerous different schools comprising this year’s team in its inaugural season, the coaches are focusing on getting the players comfortable with their teammates.

With a short preseason, reaching that goal has been slightly difficult

“In the long run, it is a benefit to have young players, but we are going to take our lumps in the meantime making mistakes that are only overcome with experience,” commented Michelle.

The Lady Bobcats are getting lots of experience on the field this year especially with a varsity and junior varsity schedule.

“We know how we want to play, and that is why we keep practicing and playing lots of games,” said Coach Parr. “In soccer, you rarely get a second chance, so we’re learning to make quicker decisions without hesitance.”

The Lady Bobcats are currently 4-3 and drawing a rather large crowd for each game, a trend that Coach Parr hopes will continue throughout the school year for all of the sports.

“Soccer is the fall sport that can draw some students into supporting the athletics here rather than waiting until basketball season or deciding to support schools like UGA” said Coach Parr.

It’s becoming an increasingly exciting time over at the Lady Bobcat’s new soccer field with the first conference game being held Saturday against Lander.

The Lady Bobcats will continue conference play on Sunday at the University of North Florida.

After the busy weekend, it will be back to a tough workout schedule for the Lady Bobcats to prepare them for the remainder of their Peach Belt Conference opponents.

Tough schedule. Tough coaches. Tough team.

The Parrs are excited to be coaching in Milledgeville, and Coach Parr even said that GC&SU was his top choice when deciding where he wanted to continue his successful career.

As the only coach that the Lady Bobcats has ever known, Coach Parr, along with his wife, is focused on and committed to starting a winning tradition within the Lady Bobcat’s soccer program.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 24 2004. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry