Sideline Stories: Parise Rossignol

My name is Parise Rossignol. You can usually find me at the Memorial Gymnasium (University of Maine), and that’s also where you could find me for the past four out of five years. If you told me in March that this is where you’d still be able to find me, I would have been confused. As soon as our basketball season ended in March, I began searching for teaching jobs and hoping to get into coaching at the middle school or high school level in preparation for the life I had envisioned for myself since I was in high school. My original plan was to play basketball at the University of Maine, graduate with a degree in teaching, and right after I would get a teaching and coaching job at some school in Maine. But here I am, still spending most of my time at Memorial Gym.

The time that I am spending here looks different now, though. Hanging out in the locker room, lifting weights, getting shots up in the gym, going to practice, and getting treatment in the training room has been replaced with talks about practice plans, re-watching practices and games, putting them through workouts, making scouting reports, and making recruiting calls.

I have been coaching for about four months now, and I can’t count how many people have asked me if I miss playing and how I’m handling the transition. To say the transition from player to coach has been easy would not be completely accurate. There are days where I find it difficult to not be able to get a few reps in of whatever shooting drill we are having our players do, or to not be able to substitute myself in when they’re playing a game of five on five. Anyone who has ever played the game knows that once your time playing is over, you don’t just lose that love for playing the game. You don’t lose that desire to compete, or that childlike joy you experience when you’re playing well, or you’re on fire shooting the ball. When something you have loved doing your whole life comes to an end, it can be difficult.

While all that I’ve shared may make it seem like this transition from player to coach has been difficult, my experience at the University of Maine the past five years has helped me grow in ways that make this transition much easier and, overall, not that hard. My time at Maine has shown me that this game and this team is so much bigger than myself. If I only think about my desires or the things that I miss, then it would be tough to find joy in whatever it is I am doing.

I’ve never kept it a secret that my Christian faith is the most important part of my life. So, I would like to share a verse from the Bible that I’ve been reflecting on that I feel epitomizes what it means to be a part of a team and what my experience has been and continues to be as part of the UMaine Women’s Basketball program:

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” – Romans 8:4-8.

I’ve had many different roles as a member of this team. I’ve been the player that works hard in practice but doesn’t play in games, I’ve been the player that gets solid minutes coming off the bench, I’ve been the player that starts every game and rarely comes off the floor, and now I fill the role of the coach. In every single one of these roles, I know that I have been an integral part of the whole team. Every single person on our team, every player, every coach, and every trainer has various gifts and roles. Each is a necessary part of our whole, and there is joy in knowing that.

So while yes, there is a transition going from player to coach and, of course, there are days that I would love to be on the floor playing, there is so much reward in serving our players first and foremost and knowing that what I do matters. Every day I get the pleasure of coming to my job and working hard alongside incredible coaches for a program that brings a great amount of pride to my home state of Maine, my favorite place in the world. I get to work with young women who selflessly buy into the goals and values of our program and give everything they must to try and bring success and pride to the University of Maine, no matter what their specific roles may be. Basketball is the best game in the world, and it is a gift that I have the opportunity for the sport to still be a part of my everyday life.