By Angelia Roggie
Features Editor
Female athletes can feel truly important. At least, author Andrea Montalbano seems to think so.
“The very act of signing her up and bringing her to her first practice … tells her she can do it and that she is important,” Montalbano said. “You are telling her that you believe they can compete on any field of life. It means that you think girls matter, because they do.”
These words echoed throughout the Reilly Center Tuesday, as Andrea Montalbano finished her speech as the keynote speaker at the 26th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Montalbano, a Harvard University graduate, first worked as an English news anchor for the Vatican Radio, then went to graduate school and became a desk assistant at ABC News Radio. She then worked her way up from a part-time researcher to supervising producer of NBC’s “Today” show. She has covered presidential elections, the World Trade Center attacks, the funeral of Princess Diana, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the Women’s World Cup, along with “Today’s” “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” series.
The annual event in which Montalbano spoke celebrates women’s role in sports and embraces the benefits of Title IX, which requires schools receiving federal financial aid to provide equal opportunities for females as they do for males.
Dr. Paula Scraba, professor of physical education and coordinator of the event, said Women in Sports Day is more than just a celebration of equal rights.
“It’s an opportunity for women to gather, in terms of coming together and being able to compete, as well as collaborate with other teams,” Scraba said. “These local schools that come have been competing against each other, but now they can come together as teammates, not opponents.”
The event brought in female athletes from more than 14 nearby schools. Members of the faculty and staff welcomed the girls, who then listened to Montalbano, an inductee of Harvard University’s Varsity Club Hall of Fame for her soccer career, speak about her experiences. In addition, participants had the opportunity to ask Montalbano questions, meet with coaches and participate in sports clinics. Bonaventure students and athletes, who ran the activities with the help of their coaches, guided the athletes to their clinics and other activities.
Montalbano’s address kicked off the day. She shared how soccer affected her life and gave the girls knowledge about how the sport will help them in their future careers, as the sport had helped prepare her for the professional world.
“You have to do your job,” she said. “But I do know that I was calm. I didn’t panic because I had learned to cope with pressure on the field.”
Montalbano spoke about her fun, yet chaotic, time working through the ranks to become supervising producer of NBC’s “Today” show.
“I had taken penalty kicks for a championship game,” she said. “I had been through tryouts. I had been in stressful situations. I could manage it.”
She even talked about how soccer gave her a good attitude she has always carried with her.
“I don’t know my lifetime win-loss record, but there might have been more losses than wins,” she said. “But I knew from playing sports that you do your best, win or lose, you learn from it and move on.”
Soccer also helped Montalbano recognize her enthusiasm for writing and pushed her to become an author. She channeled her passion in to the creation of her young adult novel, “Breakaway.”
“I got the letter from Harvard, inducting me into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame for soccer,” Montalbano said. “I wrote my speech about how soccer had impacted my life and realized then that I had found the perfect venue by which to share those lessons … writing for children.”
“Breakaway” follows the story of Lily James, a fictional soccer star of the Bombville Bombers, who has such a great love for the game it gets her into trouble.
“Lily is a strong female character, and that was one of the most important goals I had in writing the book,” Montalbano said. “I wanted to write about a girl who was in the game, even if she makes a lot of mistakes along the way.”
Montalbano’s novel will spearhead a series of digital character novellas called “Soccer Sisters.” The series will have a spokesperson in Brandi Chastain, who scored the winning penalty kick for the United States in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The 1992 graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism ended her 30-minute speech with her thoughts about Title IX and its prominence in her life decisions.
“I realized that as a direct beneficiary of Title IX and all those who worked to give me a chance to play, that I have a responsibility to share my knowledge, not just as a writer, but also as a coach and as a mother,” Montalbano said.
With all her work experience and a novel on her resume, Montalbano said it all came about because of one single characteristic she developed.
“I had the confidence to try, and I know now that that confidence came from being an athlete,” she said.
Scraba agreed in her final words to the visiting female athletes.
“The world is open to you if you are open to the world,” she said.
roggieac10@bonaventure.edu
