The 2013 HF-L Girls Varsity Soccer coaches and players celebrate with the sectional trophy. File photo
After 21 seasons, the last 17 of them at the varsity level, 186 wins and one sectional title, Chrissy Merrill is stepping away from coaching soccer at Honeoye Falls-Lima High School, but even though she is retiring, it does not mean she won’t be around the game.
Coach Merrill announced last Monday (February 6) that the 2022 season was her last.
“It was not an easy decision,” Merrill said. “Since Mike (her husband, HF-L boys varsity soccer coach Mike Merrill) and I had kids, I have been taking it one year at a time. I love it and have enjoyed it. It is part of who I am, but I don’t want to miss out with my own kids. Cade (their oldest child) will be a freshman at HF-L high school next year, Megan (their second child) will be in seventh grade and Jack (their youngest) will be in fourth. Cade will likely be on junior varsity and Megan will be playing modified. I missed a lot of their games last fall and I want to be a parent. I had thought about still coaching and maybe someday coaching Megan and her friends, but it’s hard to make that work right and I decided I didn’t want to do that. I have thought about when is the right time and I think this is the right time.”
Coach Chrissy Merrill announced her retirement last Monday. Photo by Brian Donohue
Merrill will leave quite a legacy behind. She has 186 wins, 98 losses and 20 ties in her 17 years as the varsity coach. She also guided the program to a Section V title in 2013, its first in 23 years, as well as seven league championships (2006, 2008, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020). She was named All-Greater Rochester Girls Soccer Coach of the Year in 2013.
Her soccer career started at an early age. The Long Island native has been playing the sport since the age of four or five. Her father was a soccer coach and her whole family played soccer. Merrill played soccer at Newfield High School in Selden. She then came to Western New York for college, playing at SUNY Geneseo for four years. Merrill did her student teaching at HF-L and was hired as a teacher in the district when a vacancy occurred.
“After four years of playing in college, I was looking to stay involved in the game,” Merrill said. “Coaching was just kind of natural and when an opening came up and I was asked if I would like to coach, I quickly said yes.”
With both she and her husband teaching and coaching and the active schedules of their three children, it might seem like Merrill has been juggling several soccer balls in the air at the same time.
“It’s a balance,” Merrill said. “But, I feel I am an amazing multi-tasker. I have a lot of lists so I know who needs what for school and who needs to be somewhere when. In the fall, we have an organized calendar with both Mike and I teaching and coaching and the kids being in school. Mike and I make it work.”
Asked what her favorite memory from her 17 years of coaching is, Merrill reflected a bit and admitted she had been anticipating the question.
One obvious favorite is that 2013 squad. The team went 16-0 during the regular season, beating some really good competition, and then secured the program’s first title since 1990.
“It was magical,” Merrill recalled. “We won in overtime against Pittsford Mendon and went all the way to the state championship before losing 1-0 in the final. That team was special, just an amazing group of girls and fantastic team chemistry. Not many coaches and players get to do that, but the kids worked hard and so did we as a coaching staff. In addition, I was pregnant with Jack who was born the morning of our senior recognition night. In addition, I think of all the players who I have coached. My favorite time of the season is the senior recognition night because most of the kids I have known since the youth program and it is fun to see how they have progressed to their senior season.”
Merrill has also enjoyed the camaraderie of the coaches she has faced over the years and those coaches within Section V generally, some of whom sent words of congratulations when word got out on social media about her retirement.
“Congrats Coach Merrill,” tweeted the Wheatland-Chili Girls Varsity Soccer team coached by Jen Quinn.
Merrill is also aware of the impact of being a female coach and role model for all students, but especially for the young women who play a sport.
“I think it is incredibly important for girls to see a female coach,” Merrill said. “In the HF-L girls program, we have an all-female coaching staff: Katie Joint, Paige Smith, Bailey Smith and Kristin Butka. I think it is important for them to have good male coaches, but I think it is also important for the female athletes to see positive female role models as coaches who are also moms.”
Her advice to young women who may want to be coaches was two-fold.
“I think it is important to have played both in high school and college, but I was also willing to lace up the cleats and be on the field with the girls,” she said. “You can still love playing the game no matter how old you are. I intend to keep sports as part of my life. If you want to continue being involved with the sport after college, consider being a coach and passing on that love and knowledge, the same as what your coaches showed you. For me, I enjoy the students as a teacher but coaching gives me a different perspective. It’s a different connection working with them on the field.”
Retiring from coaching varsity doesn’t mean Merrill will be far from the game. All three of the Merrill children love the game and Merrill has coached her daughter Megan’s travel team.
“I would like to keep doing the Blaze youth teams,” she said. “I just look forward to the next chapter.”
