Women & Sport: Off the field, these women are also making strides in sports

It should go without saying: there is no shortage of female athletes making major accomplishments on the field, ice, pitch and court these days. But women are also having an impact off the field.

From climbing the ranks of the front office, to working in media or investing in platforms to evolve the sports conversation to include women and professional women's sports, women are stepping into many new roles in sports. Not that long ago, some of these roles would have been unheard of for women.

Over the years, I’ve written about local women who have dedicated their careers to sports. In every instance, their love of sport is what motivates them to do what they do. Maybe they played sports growing up, or just love the adrenaline of arguing about their favorite team. Whatever the case, every woman I’ve spoken with has been adamant about holding the door open for other women to follow. In many cases, these women are also pushing to create spaces for women to be brought into the sports conversation within their own publications or networks.

Some of these women include journalists who cover college and professional sports, including SNY host and reporter Maria Marino. Marino, a North Jersey native, balances a lot. She anchors "SportsNite," a nightly recap show, hosts a Sunday morning football show called "Place Your Bets" and is the network’s UConn women’s basketball beat reporter. While partly immersed in covering men's sports, Marino is a staunch advocate for growing the conversation surrounding women’s sports.

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“Pushing for more and better-nuanced, thorough women’s sports coverage — and have that be a bigger part of the general conversation — that’s important,” she told me in an interview. So it should come as no surprise that last year Marino debuted a monthly SportsNite series about women in sports called "Game is Game."

There’s also Danielle McCartan, an on-air host with WFAN Sports Radio. She was on top of Yankees coverage this week as Aaron Judge secured his place in history with his 61st home run of the season in Toronto on Wednesday, tying the single-season home run record set by Roger Maris in 1961. McCartan manages to keep up with her on-air duties while also fulfilling other demanding roles in her life. She’s also a full-time middle school teacher and softball coach.

Though it may seem like McCartan is doing the impossible by essentially juggling two full-time careers, she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I feel like all teachers, or most teachers anyway, have side jobs,” she told me recently. “Mine is just really very public.”

Sometimes covering sports takes you across the country, like it has for Niki Lattarulo. In 2019, two months after graduating from the University of Rhode Island, Lattarulo, an Immaculate Heart Academy alumna, was hired by KCEN-TV, an NBC affiliate in Waco, Texas, where she worked as a weekend sports anchor and reporter for the station. She now is a sports reporter for NBC’s WSMV 4 in Nashville.

Lattarulo knew she wanted to be a sports reporter since she was a kid going to Yankees games with her family. During one game, she noticed Kim Jones, then the Yankees clubhouse reporter for YES Network — one of the few female big-time reporters she remembers growing up.

“I wanted to do it,” she told me. “I didn’t realize what the grind is of being on TV or anything like that — I was only in sixth grade — but, from then on, I wanted to be a reporter.”

The roles women fill in sports extend well beyond the big screen or big-time radio.

There’s plenty of people like Ashley Lynn, the first woman to head player engagement for an NFL team. She was elevated to the position in the Giants corporate office last year after working her way up the ranks since joining the organization in 2007. In her role, she works directly with players to help them navigate life in the league and beyond.

At first, Lynn thought being a woman would make it harder for players to relate to her — but she was wrong. “I never played a down in the NFL, but, really, that’s my strength when it comes to the locker room — just because everyone else around them is doing football things, and I kind of give them that balance on the other side,” she said.

For Lynn, “getting some more women or color, [or] any women” to join her in the executive ranks is important — and that’s a sentiment almost every woman in sports shares.

Women & Sport is a new NorthJersey.com column devoted to female athletes from the rec league level to those in college and the pros. If you've got a tip on an athlete from North Jersey who should be noted in the column, no matter how young they are or how old, please drop me a line at anzidei@northjersey.com.

Melanie Anzidei is a reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Women sports reporters making strides off the field