The Washington Spirit hired Mark Parsons as its coach Monday, marking the return of one of women’s soccer’s biggest coaching names to the United States.
Mark Parsons returns as Washington Spirit head coach
“This is an easy introduction,” Spirit President Mark Krikorian said in a news conference Monday. “[Spirit owner Michele Kang] has said from the beginning that she wanted to create the best women’s soccer club and environment and that starts by going out and trying to secure the best. We feel that we’ve done that in bringing Mark Parsons to Washington.”
An England native, Parsons was most recently the coach of the Netherlands women’s national team from September 2021 to August 2022. Parsons, 36, departed by mutual consent after the Dutch were defeated in the quarterfinals of the Women’s European Championship.
Parsons will be the club’s third full-time coach in the last three years. The length and financial terms of Parsons’s contract were not immediately available.
“It’s the club and the organization that gave me my first chance in coaching professionally at a very, very young age,” Parsons said Monday. “And I think back to those days and I wish I was a little bit better than I was when I started. But that’s part of the process and I’m grateful to be back in an area where the Spirit Squadron and the fans and the support is incredible.”
The Spirit’s list of candidates included “five different people at different times,” Krikorian said. Parsons and Washington first made contact in August.
Krikorian said the Spirit did not have a hiring committee and that the process was instead handled by a couple of people in the organization. When asked, he did not specify if women or people of color were among the candidates in the search. In October, D.C. United was fined $25,000 for violating MLS’s diversity hiring policy before appointing Wayne Rooney as its coach.
The Spirit is coming off a 3-9-10 season in which it finished 11th in the 12-team league. Kris Ward, who was in charge as interim coach when the club won the NWSL title in 2021, was dismissed midway through the season amid middling results and a deteriorating relationship with players.
After Ward’s firing in August, Washington named Albertin Montoya as interim coach. The Spirit went 2-3 under Montoya; at the end of the season, he returned to Northern California, where he operates a youth club.
The Spirit has made several offseason personnel moves. Kelley O’Hara, the U.S. national team defender who spent the past two seasons in Washington, became a free agent and signed a multiyear deal with NJ/NY Gotham FC last week. Goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart, defender Amber Brooks and midfielder Tori Huster also entered free agency.
The club exercised contract options for defender Sam Staab, midfielders Jordan Baggett, Dorian Bailey, Bayley Feist and Anna Heilferty and forwards Maddie Elwell and Tara McKeown. It extended offers to defenders Camryn Biegalski and Julia Roddar and midfielder Marissa Sheva.
Washington also added Morinao Imaizumi, a former assistant on Krikorian’s staff at Florida State and a recent assistant with the Chicago Red Stars, to its technical staff this month. Dawn Scott, who helped the U.S. team win two World Cups overseeing sports science and physical performance, was appointed as the club’s first director of performance, medical and innovation Nov. 1.
“What I’ve heard from everyone is that this is a group of players that are very hungry, that really wants to learn, that of course want to be challenged,” Parsons said. “For me, that’s the starting point. This team has a lot of talent, a great success in 2021. We know that there’s going to be a big challenge ahead.”
The Spirit does not have a first-round pick in the NWSL draft, set to take place Jan. 12. The league season will begin March 25.
Source: WP
