Greg Parsons

Greg Parsons began coaching the Lions women in 2002, and the Leonas reacted to his intense demeanor almost immediately. The women have gone to the D-2 Nationals three times since, and brought home a National Championship once.

A consultant with McKinsey, Parsons, who’s 33, goes to extraordinary lengths to make practice and matches, often hopping a plane from a client’s base in Atlanta or Boston, taking a cab straight to East River Park, then getting back on a plane to be at work the next morning.

A prop and hooker whose coaching experience includes Princeton women, the Marines and the Northeast women’s B’s, Parsons is known for his fiery, expletive-laden pep talks. Assistant coach Mike Barry said Parsons was so persuasive that he could walk into a mosque wearing a yarmulke and feel right at home. Barry then amended the statement: “He could convince YOU to go into a mosque wearing a yarmulke, and make you think that it was your idea in the first place.” Coach Parsons tipped a few pints, or at least Jack and cokes, and shared a few insights.

A PINT WITH: Tell me about your playing career.
GREG PARSONS: I was lucky enough to play in high school. I played two years in prep school in New Hampshire – I was looking for something to do in the spring because I couldn’t do baseball. Then I showed up at Princeton, and in college, if you knew what a rugby ball was, you were in. I played all four years in college, then three years in the Marines.

APW: How would you describe yourself as a player?
GP: Energetic and passionate. Tactically sufficient, but I got by on energy and attitude more than fundamental skills.

APW: I heard you played on a ship in the Marines?
GP: I’d started a team, then we deployed overseas. We had some practices on the ship, and played 1-2 games at port of call. It was like the AT&T commercial where they’re playing basketball and the guy shoots the ball over. We almost had a guy go over. Twice, practice had to stop because we threw the ball over, and you had to wait for Mom to mail you another ball.

APW: Any urge to get out there and play?
GP: Yes. It’s been tough in that I don’t have time to do both. When I moved to the City, I really wanted to play and I really wanted to coach, but it was just easier to convince people at work. ‘Hey, I gotta leave work to go play rugby’ didn’t fly, whereas ‘I gotta leave to go coach’ – community service, volunteer – worked better. Every season, at least once or twice you get the ‘is this the end of the rope?’ feeling, should I get out there for my last season? But I’ve realized I’m a much better coach than player. Inside, I’d love to do it all though.

APW: How did you end up with the Lions?
GP: I moved back to New York, and I knew Larson and Rachel and Easterwood (from Princeton rugby), and ended up moving in with them. They were all playing and said, we’d love you to come out a few days a week. I was coaching Princeton women at the time because I didn’t have a job. Fabian was around at the time, and then he moved on and I slid on in.

APW: The success the women have had in such a short time – how do you explain it?
GP: A whole lot of hard work on the women’s part, and obviously a good bit of luck. Continuity with people – while there’s always turnover, we’ve been fortunate to have a good core – and the coaching staff. It’s been me and Mary throughout, and Mike Barry for two years. The same group of players: Karen, Erin, Trina, Susan. 80% of rugby is a game plan – regardless of what the game plan is, as long as everyone’s on it, you’ll win. It doesn’t really matter if the plan is that good. I’m much better at the attitude and energy. I’m by no means a rugby genius – I leave that to Mike.

APW: Who’s a young player that you see projecting to a leadership role?
GP: Meg Collins is definitely going to be a cornerstone of the team. Susan has grown…if there was a ranking system, she’d be All American. Anna Brown, on Day One, you might not pick her out of a crowd and say, you’ll be the future of this team. The women do an unbelievable job of fostering a tight team spirit/community/end-to-end experience, social to competitive. You watch people buy into the system and whether they’re physically dominant on the field, they end up being a part of it.

All the rookies are fantastic in terms of perpetuating the club. The core group kind of shifts every year, and every year you say, my God, what if we lose her…like when Larson and Rachel stopped playing. These were the founders of the club, but we didn’t miss a beat. Then Houser left. We’ve done a good job of building up folks, and we’ve hit that level now where we’re relatively self-sustaining. We’ve had a fantastic rookie class: Jess Henck, Paige, Meg Collins, Meg O’Connell.

APW: What was your reaction when you heard Houser was coming back?
GP: I was super-excited. Here’s somebody who grew the Lions out of her own effort. I didn’t know how she’d react when she came back and the club was three steps further [than when she left]. She defines why the Lions exist.

APW: How much longer will you coach for?
GP: The million dollar question! For as long as people will have me. At some point, from a team perspective, people need change. So every season I throw it back to at them and say, there’s a certain point where I’m not teaching people what they need to know, and at that point they should come to me and tell me that we should try something different. But until we hit that, I love it. So hopefully it won’t be any time soon.

APW: How difficult is it for you to get to training and matches?
GP: I’m a consultant, so usually I spend Monday through Thursday out of town. Through a little bit of luck, a little bit of hard work, and a little bit of smooth talking, I’ve actually been able to carve out rugby season for four years. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I can more or less commit to being in New York. But it means flying to Atlanta on Monday, back to New York on Tuesday, back to Atlanta on Wednesday, back to New York on Thursday, back to Atlanta on Friday. I’m lucky in that my job is flexible.

APW: What motivates you to do it?
GP: One, it’s fun to grow something. There were plenty of nights where there were like nine of us, and you’re scrounging for players on the weekend. You turn around now and there’s 45 people at practice, and it’s unbelievable. There’s definitely a sense of keeping this thing going and continuing to build it. We have four coaches and 40 people, and the goal is to have 10 coaches and 100 people, and kick the shit out of New York some day.

Two, the club has become my social group. You care about everyone on the team, and rugby aside, I just like to hang out with them.

And it’s always great to coach great players, but also players who’ve never seen a rugby ball, never been athletic, never been allowed to be aggressive. You watch them work through a few seasons, and you turn around and they’re on the A side, knocking people down, beating the crap out of rucks. You’re like, alright, I got to be an integral part of this.

APW: With all the dating and marriage between the Lions men and women, is that ever a distraction for you, or is it just part of the social network of the Lions?
GP: I think it’s just part of the social network. The women have been very good about having a balance. The point is to have fun and be social and give everyone a sense of community, and at the same time play good rugby. So far we’ve been able to navigate that path pretty well, in terms of getting more and more competitive every season, and still, it’s not rugby or die. The social aspect always comes first.

I’ve been lucky that every captain I’ve ever had has been strong enough or in touch with the team enough that if [dating] ever was a distraction, I’m not involved. It’s a great thing about the club. I’m sure there’s some drama that I miss, but every club I’ve coached, that’s been an issue. This is the first team where, even though it happens, it’s usually a positive.

APW: What other coaches, either in rugby or other sports, have you learned the most from?
GP: I learn from Mike and Mary all the time. We’ve been lucky in that we’re completely different people, but our styles jibe together. Tactically, they’re far superior than I am. They’ve both played at a higher level than me, and the nuances they see in a game…I was an assistant coach to my college coach, Alex Curtis, so from a macro level, in terms of how I think about and approach the game, he’d probably be my biggest mentor. I’ve taken a little bit from every coach I’ve had -- I liked what this person did, I hated what this person did -- and try to meld my own system out of that.

APW: Your players say your cursing is legendary. Where does that come from?
GP: It’s definitely not conscious. I have a pretty poor mouth. I don’t know if it’s a mixture of high school sports/college sports/Marine Corps…I’d like to blame it on my high school roommates – everyone cursed all the time. I use a lot of four letter words as grammar. But I’ll never curse in front of my mother, and I’ll never curse at work.

I used to be a nutcase on the sideline. I tried to be more composed, think about your pregame speeches, halftime speeches, think about what you’ll say instead of having it fly off the cuff. One season, I said I wasn’t going to curse. One game, I think it was Susan and Larson who walked up to me and said, ‘What the hell is wrong? Are you pissed at us? What’s going on?’

When I get excited, I wouldn’t say I’m eloquent, but I usually get people pretty fired up.

Quick Facts:

• Birthplace? Albany, NY
• Occupation? Consultant
• Favorite Drink? Jack Daniel’s
• Favorite Lions memory? The NRU tournament every year that we have made it has provided the best memories. The two games/memories that stick out the most are:
  (1) Spring 2002 - beating Burlington in the semi-finals coming in as huge underdogs. It is still the grittiest, most physical performance I have ever seen the Lions give.
  (2) Spring 2004 - beating Albany, coming from behind to put in the go-ahead try in the final seconds of the game. Down by 4 in the final minutes of the game, we managed to channel our intensity, stay composed and put everything we had worked on all season together in a flawless 9-phase string of play resulting in a last minute try and the win to send us to Nationals.
• Most Valuable Player? Lara Larson and Erin Martschenko. Hands down the two most complete rugby players I have had the pleasure of working with. As players, and as captains, they have constantly amazed me and their teammates with their rugby performance and knowledge. They both add to their mix of skills an unwavering intensity and desire to win.
• Rambo vs. Rocky? Great question....torn.... I think I am going to have to go with Rocky....I love the "getting knocked down, getting back up again and continuing to fight" theme that runs throughout each of the episodes. Also -- a much better mix of bad guys.....come on, Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, Dolph Lundgren, Tommy "Machine Gun" Maddox....these are some classic antagonists.