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UConn Today
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The Neag School of Education’s thriving program boasts alumnae working across many professional leagues, including the NFL, NHL, NBA, and PWHL among others
Taylor Kielpinski-Rogers ’12 (ED), vice president of communications for the Boston Celtics, is pictured at the team’s championship parade in Boston in June 2024. (Submitted photo)
This time last year, Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes made headlines for the custom Kansas City Chiefs jackets they wore while cheering on their significant others during an NFL game. It was later revealed that the jackets were made by Kristin Juszczyk, wife of a San Francisco 49ers player, who subsequently secured a licensing agreement with the NFL that permitted her to use official logos in her designs.
That pivotal licensing agreement? It was managed by UConn Sport Management program alumna Xaimara Coss ’04 (ED), ’16 MS, who is the director of consumer products and retail marketing for the NFL.
Coss is just one of many outstanding alumnae of the Neag School of Education’s Sport Management Program, which trains students for careers not as an athlete on the court, field, or ice, but behind the scenes of sport. She and other alumnae are making a mark on professional leagues such as the NFL, NHL, NBA, and PWHL, among others.
“The UConn Sport Management Program has been led by a majority women faculty since the early 2000s, which is unique to other programs across the U.S.,” says Laura Burton, professor and head of the Department of Educational Leadership, where the Sport Management Program is located. “We have always emphasized that sport management is a profession available to anyone, regardless of their social identities. It is incredibly gratifying to watch the amazing and talented women who have graduated from the program make significant and positive impacts as sport management professionals.”
The UConn Sport Management Program has … always emphasized that sport management is a profession available to anyone, regardless of their social identities. — Laura Burton, head of the Department of Educational Leadership
Originally the Sport Marketing Program, the Sport Management Program evolved in the early 2000s under faculty member William Servedio into the comprehensive program that it is today. Graduates, of which there are 661 since 2004, go on to specialize in a variety of sport-related careers, such as athletic administrators; venue and event managers; sport agents; sport marketers; sponsorship and ticket sales associates; and more.
The program has an experiential learning component, requiring students to complete internships within the sport industry to help them gain invaluable experience while working toward their degrees. A notable partnership for this experiential learning is UConn Athletics, allowing students a fantastic learning opportunity right on campus.
“Our alumnae are doing amazing work in the sport industry not just to increase profits, but to make change in some of the systems that have historically excluded individuals based on their social identities or relegated them to only certain roles,” says professor Jennifer McGarry, who has been a part of UConn’s Sport Management Program since 2002.
Some of Coss’ favorite memories from the Sport Management Program were her experiences working with Husky Sport – now Husky Nutrition & Sport – which engages in nutrition and physical activity education alongside youth, adult caregivers of children, and adults eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed). Her love for community relations and outreach, which Husky Sport cultivated, has impacted her work throughout her career, even now that she works more on the revenue side of sport.
“I implemented a licensing program to support minority-owned and diverse businesses,” Coss says. “I built the framework when I worked at the NBA, and I brought the framework here to the NFL and we recently launched a similar program. One of my main responsibilities is to generate revenue. While these programs may not directly contribute to that goal, the NFL supports diversity, equity, and inclusion and encourages us to keep these values in mind while conducting business.”
She also chaired the Latinx employee resource group at the NBA, where she worked for nearly 10 years as a finance manager and later as a global licensing manager. She was also a founding member of the Pride employee resource group in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
“A lot of the valuable work done by employee resource groups involves networking and giving back through community service,” she says.
Coss was recently promoted to her current director position with the NFL, which she describes as the largest league she has worked for in terms of volume and fan engagement. Her small but mighty team manages the NFL’s apparel and headwear business, handling product approvals, seeking new business opportunities (like Juszczyk), negotiating deals, onboarding new businesses, and collaborating with other teams. Coss also serves on the Media & Business diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
“We manage anything related to apparel and headwear that’s not on the field,” she says. “Any product you see out in the market with a logo on it, whether it’s a team logo or the NFL logo, that is managed by us.”
Coss says her Sport Management courses, especially in marketing and sport law, laid the foundation for her work today. She often thinks back on the projects she completed for class – she recalls working on a marketing assignment focused on the Pepsi brand and finds it fulfilling that she now works with similar partners in her current role.
“I’ve definitely taken a lot of those skills and utilized them throughout my career,” she says. “I deal with contracts every day; we’re negotiating deals with clients and working closely with our legal team to make sure there is language in contracts that work for both parties.”
Her work recently earned her the league’s Champion for Change Award, one of the NFL Commissioner’s Awards.
“I was honored to receive the Champion for Change Award alongside my colleague Darrell Campbell,” Coss said. “This recognition highlights our commitment to driving change and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion both within and outside our organization.”
Gabriella Mendonca ’23 (ED) began her career in sport just under two years ago and already had a front seat to history working for the new Professional Women’s Hockey League during its inaugural season. Mendonca was the account manager of ticket sales, service, and activation for the New York team during the 2023-2024 season, but is the first to admit that she had never seen a hockey game until she started the job.
“I was like, ‘I don’t think I like hockey,’ but then I realized that hockey is a great sport,” she says. “These women were out there throwing punches, shoving each other into walls, there’s no fragility in it whatsoever. It’s skill and it’s speed and it’s competition. The players are all-in, and my job was to convey that to the New York population and get them to get behind the new team and league.”
Thanks to the Sport Management Program’s connections, Mendonca got her first taste of working for a team as a student equipment manager for the UConn women’s basketball team. A connection there led to her first job after graduation as an equipment manager for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.
“What I’ve learned is that anyone who works in any women’s sports in any league, it’s very much all hands on deck,” she says. “Sure, I did equipment, but I was also helping out with content, in the front office, and whatever people needed. It was the same at the PWHL.”
Mendonca says that type of environment allowed her to connect with coworkers and taught her about other career paths in the industry, one of which she has since pursued: coaching. In October 2024, Mendonca started her current position at Marist College as assistant coach and director of basketball operations for its women’s basketball team.
Mendonca credits the Sport Management professors – specifically, Burton, Danielle DeRosa, and Justin Evanovich – with teaching her how to translate coursework and lessons into the workplace. She says she knows those skills will help her as she continues to advance in her career.
“My professors were more than just teachers with PowerPoints; they genuinely took the time to get to know me and showed me that they cared about me and my peers,” she says. “My biggest goal in my current role is making sure my athletes know that I genuinely care for them and want to see them succeed, and I wouldn’t be able to do that if I hadn’t been on the other end of it while at UConn.”
Taylor Kielpinski-Rogers ’12 (ED) is a basketball person through and through. The vice president of communications for the Boston Celtics actually first joined the team as an intern – a requirement of the Sport Management Program that she says set the course for the past 12 years of her career.
“I truly am thankful that was a requirement,” she says. “The Celtics were still in the playoffs, so my first day of my internship was a playoff game. My internship really provided a great foundation for what I wanted to do in the sport industry.”
Now, Kielpinski-Rogers’ days are filled with leading publicity efforts both for the team – players’ press conferences, trades, and off-court initiatives – and the organization, including community programs, new corporate partners, social responsibility efforts, marketing initiatives, and ticket sales.
“No two days are alike,” she says. “If it’s in-season, am I at practice helping with media availabilities, am I at our games facilitating press conferences, are we out at community and corporate partnership events in Boston, or are we in the office or a practice facility? I like that variation.”
Kielpinski-Rogers also kept busy as a UConn student: She was a member of the cheerleading team all four years, worked in the men’s basketball office for three years, and worked in the Athletics marketing department as a game day assistant.
“Any game I was not cheering at, I was working at,” she says. “I credit getting that experience while in college for helping me obtain an internship with the Boston Celtics.”
I truly am thankful [a Sport Management internship] was a requirement. … My internship really provided a great foundation for what I wanted to do in the sport industry. — Taylor Kielpinski-Rogers ’12 (ED)
She also credits the small size of her Sport Management classes and how close she became with her classmates with helping her have a network of colleagues in the industry that she’s still in touch with today. Two of her former classmates, for example, work for agencies that represent Celtics players. Another classmate works for the St. Louis Cardinals, which dedicated a game night to Celtics player and St. Louis native Jayson Tatum in 2023, allowing Kielpinski-Rogers to collaborate with her classmate years after graduating.
Before she started her current role with the Celtics, Kielpinski-Rogers’ career path alternated between working for NBA teams and the NFL. As a basketball fan, she says she never thought she’d work in football, but that working in media and public relations for both organizations exposed her to a variety of departments and people.
“I feel very fortunate to have my career be where it is currently,” she says. “The Celtics organization is truly made up of wonderful people.”
Alexis Bazydola ’19 (ED) was born and raised in Nashville, interned for the Predators hockey team all three summers during college, and is now the team’s hockey operations coordinator.
“I grew up around the game of hockey,” she says. “My dad and all his brothers played, not professionally, but I’ve been around the game since I was 10 days old. My dad was coaching kids at a practice facility here, so I was at a rink right when I was born.”
The Predators were also founded the same year that Bazydola was born, so her family were early season ticket holders. When she first arrived in Storrs, however, Bazydola was a management major with the School of Business. Luckily, she began working for the UConn men’s ice hockey team during her first year and enrolled in the Sport Management Program her junior year.
“I reached out to the hockey team a couple weeks into being on campus,” she says. “It was the best opportunity. I learned so much and it was the first time I had ever worked in sports. I’m very grateful and I’m still connected with the coaching staff. My whole college career, the different things that I did, helped me get to where I am today.”
As hockey operations coordinator for the Predators, Bazydola tracks game statistics, prepares the free agency recruitment package, handles logistics for scouting meetings, coordinates team events, guides players’ families on game nights, takes care of credentialing for scouts, and hires and supervises her department’s interns. It’s a lot of moving parts, but Bazydola says that’s what makes it fun.
The Sport Management Program prepared her for all of it, she says, but the relationships she gained throughout her time at the Neag School are the most valuable to her. She speaks frequently with a classmate who also works for the NHL, just in Tampa. Bazydola credits the small size of the program for allowing her and her peers to get to know each other well.
“I’ve learned that those relationships are what I need to hold dear to my heart,” she says. “I’m so fortunate to have the people that I graduated with still in my life.”
She says the learning never stops, however, and that she’s still exploring where she excels and what she enjoys doing most in her field. She’s grateful for her colleagues and how they all work together to do what’s best for the team. When Bazydola interviews potential interns, she tells them: It’s about what’s on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.
“I adore what I do,” she says. “Nashville’s unique; there’s something special about the fact that it’s my home, but this fanbase, organization, and the leadership I get to learn under are second to none. It’s a great opportunity to start my career here.”
These four women are just a few of the UConn Sport Management Program alumnae working and succeeding in the industry, and program faculty are working to ensure many more join their ranks each year. Faculty have helped students create a Women in Sport group, which strives to support any UConn student who identifies as female and wishes to explore the world of sport or create more allies within sport for women.
“Women in Sport offers a fantastic opportunity for women to not only deepen their knowledge of sport but also to connect and build a supportive community with women who share the same passion and curiosity,” says DeRosa, assistant professor in residence in the Sport Management Program. “The student group is intentional about its programming, inviting speakers who share their insights on their own professional journey, as well as creating space for women to celebrate each other’s successes, and support each other through setbacks. I have had the privilege of being a faculty advisor to the group since its inception, and I am continually inspired by the students who make up the group.”
The group is a natural extension of what Sport Management alumnae have been doing for each other for years: supporting each other and maintaining a network once they leave Storrs. Having such a support network is the first piece of advice the four women would give to young women aiming for a career in sport.
“Find an organization that will pour into you,” Bazydola says. “Find your way in but find your group of women that will support each other. I have a group of six or seven women – we all were hired at the same time, are around the same age, and are at all different levels of the company. It’s that support network, that constant sounding board.”
Find your group of women that will support each other. … It’s that support network, that constant sounding board. — Alexis Bazydola ’19 (ED)
Coss agrees and also recommends finding a mentor that you can turn to: “Having a mentor or sponsor is hugely important. You need somebody to advocate for you when you’re not sitting in that room. Or even people to just give you advice.”
She also encourages young women entering sport to get outside their comfort zone – whatever you’re uncomfortable with, try it, as it will only make you better. Mendonca similarly recommends self-growth and self-awareness: “If you’re genuinely and authentically yourself, there will always be people who will like you. Learn who you are and what you want.”
Ultimately, when it comes to entering the sports industry, Kielpinski-Rogers urges women to just go for it.
“I want women to know that there’s a place for them and they belong in this industry,” she says. “They can have, and are already having, a strong influence in this industry.”
To learn more about the Neag School of Education’s Sport Management program, visit sport.education.uconn.edu. Applications to the undergraduate Sport Management program are currently being accepted until Feb. 1.
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