Floyd Parness made an immense impact on everyone he came into contact with as a cross country and track coach at North Branford High School. When Parness suddenly passed away at age 66 after collapsing on an early morning run on May 18, his athletes were overcome with sadness and disbelief, but then they starting thinking about ways to pay tribute to a man who meant so much to them. As a result, the race that Parness coordinated at the North Branford Potato and Corn Festival is being renamed Floyd’s 5K in his honor.

Parness, who lived in Northford and had recently retired from Sikorsky Aircraft after working there for 34 years, was the only three-sport head coach at North Branford High School. He began coaching outdoor track during the spring of 2005, started coaching cross country in the fall of 2006, and was head coach of the indoor track program since its inception. Parness coached both the boys and girls in all three of these programs.

Grace Little, who ran cross country for two years and has done indoor and outdoor track the past three years at North Branford, remembers the awful feeling when she heard that Parness had died.

“They called us all down to a room to tell us, and I’ve never experienced anything like that before. It doesn’t hit you right away. Hearing the news, I don’t know how to explain it, but it was terrible,” Little said. “Everybody had different coping mechanisms, but I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anybody. It was horrible.”

Little felt this way because Coach Parness was a father figure to her, as well as so many other people on his teams, at the school, and in the community. North Branford Director of Athletics Kory Kevorkian knows that Parness will be missed by all those who knew him.

“His impact on the student-athletes at North Branford High School during the years that he coached can’t properly be measured in words. He truly cared for the well-being of all of the student-athletes, and they loved him for that,” said Kevorkian. “In short, he loved the sports he coached, but he loved the kids more. The North Branford community has been doing a great job at supporting one another in an effort to move forward and heal during this time.”

The person at the high school who has been grieving the most since Parness passed away is his son Dave Parness, who is the head coach of North Branford’s boys’ basketball team. He is one of Parness’s three children, along with his brother Todd Parness and his sister Jennifer Fleming.

“I think some people when they lose a parent, the first holiday is difficult, because that’s where they really remember that family atmosphere. When you mention intertwine, he was involved with everything. It wasn’t just a certain time of year. It was the whole year for me with coaching. He was always around,” Dave Parness said. “I think that’s going to be, for myself, difficult this winter. I remember every day showing up for practice, and he was running with the kids. I’d joke that he can come inside and he’d say, ‘It’s nice out here,’ when it was 25 or 30 degrees. It was great. I don’t think many coaches get to coach at the same place as their father. I’ll always remember he’d come to the basketball games and sit on other side with 100 kids sitting around him. It was always a unique experience to see that.”

North Branford student-athletes both past and present were expectedly distraught when they learned of Floyd Parness’s passing. Little said that one of the biggest things for Parness was making sure his teams worked together as one cohesive family.

“It was really important to him that we all got along and made it a family situation. He also didn’t care if you were the fastest or slowest runner, as long as you were trying and having fun, which is different than a lot of other coaches. He took the time to get to know the athletes and supported everybody on the team,” said Little, who will be a senior at the high school this fall. “He had a quiet personality, but the team brought it out. He even opened up his house in Rhode Island, and the whole cross country team went up there for a weekend in the summer to do some bonding.”

Parness was known for going out of his way to make time for everyone. Whether it was birthdays, graduation parties, or even the prom, Parness would always be there, because he was genuinely interested in what was happening in the lives of those who were close to him.

“He just found time. He didn’t go out fishing or what other adults would do. His passion outside of work was to be around family and other kids. Our running joke was that he had more friends and contacts the age of high school kids than those his own age,” Dave Parness said. “When asked about how he had time, he would always say, ‘It’s a lot more fun hanging out with kids than it is adults.’”

Zach Augur is a 2014 North Branford graduate who was on the cross country and indoor track teams for all four years and also spent two seasons on the outdoor track squad. Augur said he loved the tight-knit team atmosphere that Coach Parness created every season.

“The biggest impact he had was the family feel on all three teams. Some of my best friends came out of those teams, and I attribute it to Floyd and the impact he had. He was so open, went to graduation parties, hosted pasta dinners, and he’d always have breakfast for us on Saturday mornings for practice. Certain memories stick out, but he fostered such a great team,” Augur said. “Floyd stressed doing well in all aspects of life. He made sure people were doing well in school, was close with our families, and generally cared about everyone’s health needs. He definitely cared for the whole person, not just the athlete, which in turn showed us we don’t need to focus on the athlete, but the whole individual.”

Augur added that one of the happiest moments he spent with Parness was when he ran a personal-best time in one of his final high school cross country races. Augur made the All-Shoreline Conference Second Team by virtue of his performance, with Coach Parness providing wonderful words of encouragement every step of the way.

“He was on the sidelines, and I remember his face, cheering me on, yelling my splits. He gave me a big hug after I made Second Team. It was by far my favorite memory of him, because it felt like it was a culmination of everything we had been working towards,” said Augur. “My last race was amazing, and Floyd was right there at the finish line. He was so happy, so that was definitely my fondest memory.”

Little said that she can’t imagine life at North Branford High School without Parness. It means a lot to her that the race at the Potato and Corn Festival was named for her beloved coach. A percentage of the profits will go toward the Floyd Parness Scholarship, and people can sign up by visiting nbpotatofest.com. The festival will take place from Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6.

“For our Potato and Corn Festival this year, the cross country team helps with the 5K he runs. His family has been in contact with us,” Little said. “It’s all in his memory. It’s about bringing the community together, and it’s what everybody will have wanted.”

Dave Parness said his father’s humble personality was such that he wouldn’t want any special recognition. However, he knows that all the positive memories and sentiments expressed throughout North Branford are a direct reflection of the way Coach Parness lived and how much he cared about the people in his life.

“His legacy to me will be—it wasn’t so much about the athlete, but he cared about the person. It was always the individual,” Dave Parness said. “I know when he coached his track kids, the slowest runner meant as much to him as the guy breaking school records. None of that mattered to him. He cared about the individual, and I think that was the same for every person he met.”