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At 4-feet-5, 80 pounds, Genoa’s Serena Parlette may very well be the smallest “player” in local athletics, but she’s not letting that stop her from doing big things.
Parlette, a team manager, may be the youngest girl ever to win a varsity letter. The basketball team awarded it to her last year.
“Last year, during my first year as manager, with Simone (Eli), Courtney (Mowery) and the rest of the ladies, I did receive my very first varsity letter along with a little pin that says ‘manager’ on it, and I thought that was pretty cool,” offers the 13-year-old Parlette.
Her affiliation with the team began when girls hoops coach Tom Kontak approached the then-seventh grader, whom at the time he had in class at John C. Robert’s Middle School, to join the basketball team as manager despite the fact she suffers from a condition known as Achondroplasia, or dwarfism.
“Coach came up to me at the end of the year and told me all about the job, and said if I was interested, he’d tell me everything I’d need to know,” Parlette said. “I thought it all sounded fun and kind of cool, so I decided to do it.” “Coach Kontak has always been really nice to me and has always treated me like I was a member of the Genoa family, and so has Coach Rawski, which totally helped me feel comfortable with the job from the beginning,” adds Parlette, who has since earned two varsity letters, maintained a 4.0 grade point average and is a first-chair clarinetist with the middle school band.
“Coach really knows what he is doing with the girls, and he’s taught me a lot about basketball, and that it isn’t just about winning, but also about important things like team bonding, and family – and I think that’s my favorite part about being manager,”
“I like the girls the best, and just feeling their excitement before a big game – like the Lake games the past two years – and the playoffs, and how intense they all are, and how badly they want to win,” she reflects. “But I also feel their heartbreak when we lose.
“Coach likes us to do things as a family, and that’s why it’s important for me to do a good job for him, for Coach Rawski and the girls,” Parlette said. “I think getting them their water quickly is important, because sometimes they only get 30-second timeouts, and they have to get back out there. Then, during full timeouts, I check for cuts and injuries and things like that, and get them whatever they need. And I have to be really fast when I do it, so they’re ready to play again once the timeout is over.”
“SP” has been known to fulfill an entire equipment bag full of important roles for the Lady Comets, including that of team chef, resident rebounder, pseudo-laundress, little sister with an always strong, willing shoulder to be cried upon, and most certainly, their biggest fan.
For instance, on game days, her pre-game afternoon always starts early, as not only does she often break bread with Genoa’s Lady Ballers during the traditional team feed when the girls get together to fuel up for battle but sometimes she even provides the grub (the famous “Parlette Sloppy Joes” are a team favorite).
Then she immediately works off some of those calories by collecting the chaotically bouncing basketballs and feeding the Lady Comets passes while they warm up during shoot-around.
And she fills the player’s water bottles with fresh water and plenty of ice and she always checks not once, but twice to see if anybody needs anything at all as the minutes tick down to game time.
She continues to walk this extra mile after the game action is over, gathering the warm-ups, folding them and making certain that they make their way back to their rightful owners.
As of next fall, Parlette will pull double-duty as a part-time manager for the back-to-back-to-back SLL-champion Genoa Comets’ football team.
“Really, I think the kids who play on the football team are definitely already aware of Serena, because she’s already had the opportunity to interact with some of the guys through boy’s basketball the last two years, and do I think that some of them might give her a little grief here and there?” asks her father Mike, who at 4 foot 9 suffers from the same condition as his daughter
“Well, sure. . .boys will be boys, and kids will be kids, but I can tell you this, Serena will give it right back to them, because she doesn’t take anything lying down,” he said.
“In the beginning we were worried about what extracurricular activities Serena would actually be able to get into, but she’s been such a refreshing surprise, because she really embraces her life, she embraces her music, her studies, and this managerial job, and she just approaches everything full-go,” he added.
“I think the biggest challenge Serena and I face, and the one that hurts the most, is that a lot of people simply think we can’t do certain things, because of our height,” Mike Parlette said. “But the truth of the matter is, we may have to work harder to do these things, and put forth more heart and effort, but we can live pretty successful and rewarding lives.”
Six-foot-9 Genoa basketball player Richard Wonnell and 4-foot-5 team manager Serena Parlette stand side by side. (Press photo by Harold Hamilton/www.hehphotos.com).
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