This Father’s Day, The Daily Item chose to highlight dads in local communities who have stood out as exceptional fathers. The Peabody Dad featured in The Daily Item story is Lenny Parsons. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!
Lenny Parsons still hears “Hey Coach!” from kids he trained twenty years ago in the North Shore community. Most were boys, now in their thirties, that his son, Matt, grew up with in Everett. And many of them still remember dinners at the Parsons households and games on North Shore fields.
“One small bit of kindness that you show as an adult to a child has a ripple effect that spreads years and years,” Parsons said.
Parsons, now Head Varsity Girls Softball Coach at Malden Catholic High School, has coached football and softball in the area for 35 years. He has three children whom he raised to play sports, just like he did when he was growing up.
Matt was born when Parsons was a senior at Everett High School in 1992.
“I coached him in everything all the way up to college,” Parsons said.
Matt was named ESPN player of the year for the state of Massachusetts, and earned a full grant to play football for Princeton for four years.
Parsons’ two younger daughters, Isabella and Abigail, both play high-level softball. Isabella is a 14-year-old stand-out pitcher, and Abigail is a “Lil’ Ripper” in Salisbury’s Rip City USA team.
“My wife said that everything I did for Matt, I’d have to do for them,” Parsons said. “So I started coaching girls’ teams. Softball seemed to stick with my girls.”
Now, seeing them play on the same fields, under the same lights, and on the same grass as he used to is riveting to him. Growing up, Parsons had an older sister, a father who was away, and a working mother. He didn’t have the family surroundings he swore to give his kids.
Today, he coordinates daily with his wife, Rachelle Costello, for drop-offs and pick-ups, and is thrilled to do it.
“Everything I do with them is for them,” he said.
Now, he says, every day with his kids is a favorite memory of his.
