Full Great Women Great Danes Interview Transcript
UAlbany's Great Women Great Danes is a new series that will be published during Women's History Month. The series will feature Great Danes, past and present, and celebrate the women of UAlbany.
Q: As a student-athlete, you were a successful lacrosse player at UAlbany, can you tell me about your experience?
A: I definitely had a great experience here at UAlbany, I was with a really unique class, a group of girls that stayed together the entire four years up until our 2020 COVID year. We just had a good group. You know, they always say it is going to be the best four years of your life and for me, it was the best five years of my life. Although COVID had a drastic hit in 2020 to my season, I still got to come back and finish it out on a high note. I went through college with a great class of girls and was fortunate to have a very bonded team all five years. Just overall, my coaches, my teammates, the faculty, administration, made it a great college career.
Q: You were the Elite-18 winner in both 2021 and 2019, can you tell me about this award?
A: The Elite-18 award for me was very special because as competitive as I am on the field, I am also very competitive in the classroom. Competitive against myself, trying to make myself better every day, so to get that Elite-18 award, you know, really showcased that I do work hard on the field but I also work hard in the classroom and that was pretty special to me to earn.
Q: You started on attack and switched to defense, what was that transition like?
A: This is my favorite story to tell. I tell young girls about this as they’re going through their youth phase. I tell pretty much anyone that will listen that I grew up an attacker. I was a stubborn attacker that would refuse to play defense, would refuse to learn defense, and then I got to college and was recruited as an attacker. I played a couple og games my freshman year as an attacker and by the end of the season my coaches, Jess [Davos] and John [Battaglino] at the time, decided that defense would be a better spot for me. At first, it was definitely devastating. I spent my whole life being an attacker, working hard to be an attacker and I knew at the end of the day, that that’s where they saw the best position for me so I definitely, you know, went home at that summer worked really hard to try to stay as an attacker and I came back that fall and they were like “No, I definitely think that defense is the right position for you.” At that point I just had to put my head down, learn defense - which I never ever learned defense in my life - and understand that was going to be my role on the team … that’s where the coaches thought I would fit best. Where I was going to be for the next five years or four years, so it was definitely hard at first, but it’s a good lesson and being flexible and knowing your role on the team and doing whatever it takes to get on the field and be the best for your team.
Q: That transition was difficult as you say, and you didn’t want to be on defense, but in your final year at UAlbany, you led the conference in caused turnovers, can you talk about that?
A: I can attribute that to my coaches, Coach Leah [Gallagher] and Coach Katie [Thomson] and the fact that they understood that I did not know anything about defense. They understood that I was starting from scratch when they came in and I just had to work really hard, listen to them, absorb the knowledge they were giving me because I knew that they knew better than me, obviously I had never played before. I think just turning from an attacker to defender, the amount of work that I did have to put into learning… learning zone and learning defensive concepts I didn’t know before and really just putting my trust in my coaches. Trusting that they were putting me in the right place and that they were giving me the best knowledge to go out there in and perform at my best ability in a position that I knew really nothing about. It felt awesome to turn from an attacker to defender and then immediately get to be on the field and eventually become a decent defender by the end of my five years. It felt really good and it felt good to know that that transition gave me the ability to make an impact on my team.
Q: Can you talk to me about the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award in Information Systems and Business Analytics?
A: The outstanding senior award in information systems and business analytics was and is probably one of the most prized awards for me. Because not only was it based on my grades that I worked very hard for, but it was actually professor- and peer-voted on. This means that the peers that I worked with in class, that we study together, that we work through things, projects, and my professors, you know, they saw me doing that, they saw the hard work I was putting in. So it really is an honor that they recognized that and then my peers and my professors both voted on this award for me and I am deeply appreciative of them for that.
Q: You were an excellent student, an excellent athlete and you volunteered your extra time to the community, how did you do it all?
A: It’s not as hard as people think, you know, they look at you and think you have so much to do, but our time is pretty structured which is awesome. You have practice at a certain time, you have to be at treatment at a certain time, you have these two hours to study, and then once you get that done then hopefully you have some time for some community service. Coach Katie Thompson, she put a big emphasis on community service and giving back to the community around us, so her push for that community service really made us commit as a team to making sure that any extra time that we had we could schedule events. We could go to CityLax and give our time to them. Or we can schedule a clinic for the Albany High schoolers and just make that time valuable for them in whatever time that we had left.
Q: Can you talk to me about the wheelchair program you tried to start here in Albany?
A: The wheelchair lacrosse program came to me and my dad and they wanted to kind of tie our ties to the area of lacrosse and bring that to the wheelchair lacrosse they were trying to grow. I set up a time for my dad to go and speak to their program, speak about the roots of the game, and how they could translate that into their wheelchair lacrosse program. Unfortunately, I don’t think anything came about it, but he had a great time going and speaking with that group of people and hopefully, one day will be able to bring that to the area.
Q: Are you still involved with lacrosse?
A: I am still very much involved with lacrosse. My best friend and I started a girls youth program last summer that ran throughout the summer. We went to a couple of tournaments, that was awesome… and then we actually just merged with another team and we are going all the way from third grade to high school and we just finished up our winter season. So I’m very much involved with youth sports. I’m fortunate this year to be the varsity assistant coach for my high school Shenendehowa, that has been something that I wanted to do since I graduated. I’ve always wanted to go back and help out the program in any way that I could. Last year I was to be the JV assistant coach and this year I’ll be the varsity assistant coach.
Q: How did the women around you help you to become the woman and the athlete that you are today?
A: I’ve had a lot of strong women in my life. My grandma and Nana are very strong women who led their households. My mom, a volleyball player, a DI athlete as well, is very strong, I look up to her completely. She is always one to speak her mind, let people know what’s right and wrong and I just admire that about her. Obviously, my coaches, I have three very strong women coaches, Katie Rowan, Leah Gallagher, and Taylor Frank. They’ve all just been there, Taylor‘s been here since my freshman year but Katie and Leah stepping in during my junior year, they just showed me that it’s great to be a strong athlete on the field, how to be a good person off the field and how to have a little bit of fun and not take life too seriously.
Q: What does Women’s History Month mean to you?
A: I think Women’s History Month is exactly what we’re doing here. I heard the list of some of the people that you’re interviewing … being able to show off their unique experiences with sports, in the world of being a woman and making their way through a man's world IS Women’s History Month. It is amazing to be able to highlight their stories and what they’ve been through and hopefully this provides young girls an outlet to look up to and see that they can relate to and inspire to be a female AD or a women’s head coach or just someone that made it through college and had a lot of fun with their friends and is able to give back to their community when they’re older. I think Women’s History Month is all about showcasing that.
For more interviews from the Women's History Month #GreatWomenGreatDanes series, click here.
