Trinity College field hockey is 9-2 on the season and once again a contender for the postseason. The Bantams played to the NCAA DIII Final Four last year and have their sights set on the tournament again.
This year, though, not just for their own competitive goals, but for their coach, who will retire at the end of the season.
“You never think about it,” said Anne Parmenter, Trinity field hockey’s head coach. “All of a sudden you blink and where did the time go?”
Parmenter has coached college field hockey in Connecticut for 35 years - first at Connecticut College and now, for the past 22 seasons, at Trinity. Each year highlighted not by games, but by the players.
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“Players who really have gone above and beyond and just played their hearts out because they love the blue and gold of trinity and they bleed this team,” Parmenter said.
At 63 years old, retirement hardly means slowing down. It does mean more time for her other love: rock climbing. Parmenter summited Mount Everest in 2006.
Of course, then there’s the metaphoric mountains. Last season, while guiding her team to the DIII Final Four, she also helped them navigate a battle for their Title IX rights. Female athletes raised their concerns to the school administration over the disparity in facilities for men's and women's sports.
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“They just learned that even though it was 50 years of Title IX and 50 years of women at Trinity that women in general still have a long way to go and women still have to battle for every little thing,” Parmenter said. “In this day and age, it shouldn't be. That is the frustration."
Frustration, Parmenter said, that did factor into her retirement.
“It made the decision to actually do that a little bit easier,” Parmenter said.
Though hardly without thought of her team and all the mountains left to climb.
“I am 100% behind them and supporting them in the efforts that they've done to bring this to the forefront,” Parmenter said.
There is one thing Parmenter is glad hasn’t changed: the love for her team that can make 35 years pass in the blink of an eye.
“Just being excited every Saturday morning and having goosebumps like I did when I was 13 when I used to play,” Parmenter said. “I've never lost that.”
