Student Liv Maher speaks during the Women in Sports Business Networking Night

To end Women’s History Month strong, the Women’s History Committee and the Spartan Shield Society held a Women in Sports Business Networking Night and had an overwhelming turn out. The panel at the event was made up of four women in the Castleton community who are involved in sports business.

            Molly DeMellier, assistant director of the Castleton fund and donor relations, wasn’t expecting the large crowd at the event.

            “When we reserved the room for the event we asked for seating for 25 to 30 people and when we had Liv (Olivia Maher) greeting we realized there were a ton of people there and ended up running out of chairs and having to get more,” DeMellier said.

            Women’s Head Lacrosse Coach Hannah Corkery ’13, Associate Dean for Athletics Deanna Tyson, Vermont Area Representative for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Melissa Crossman and Owner and Lifestyle/Wellness Coach at Body Essentials Christie Garofano ’98 were the speakers for the night.

            Corkery spoke about how being young and a woman affects how her athletes and students in general don’t immediately have the same respect for her that they would a male coach.

            “Every person addresses the males as ‘coach’ no matter what and it’s really apparent through emails from students that I don’t work with ‘Hey Hannah’ or ‘Hey Ms. Corkery’ not ‘Hi Coach’ or ‘Dear Coach’ so that’s just one thing,” Corkery pointed out.

            Crossman reminded students that they can balance their family, career and passions and that they shouldn’t have to give something up. Garofano wanted students to have confidence in themselves and that she’s had to get rid of negative people in her life that didn’t believe in her and they may have to do that as well.

Tyson talked about how she got her start in college athletics when she was in high school and tried out for the boys’ soccer team. Administration wouldn’t let her play, so she had to play field hockey instead and ended up making the national team but had to play at a division one school. She noted that she only started field hockey as a high school junior, walked on to the team at a division one college and got a scholarship her last three years.

When she graduated and realized she wanted a family, she went from coaching to being an administrator and landed at Castleton, but it was before Castleton was what it is today.

She was doing everything, according to DeMellier, who said she told them about one day where she had to follow around the person mowing the field putting the lines down and do laundry for a game Castleton ended up hosting they weren’t originally supposed to.

Students got a lot out of the event learning about these women’s lives.

“I thought it was a really great opportunity for professional women in our Castleton community to share their experiences in the work place with members of the campus. They were once in our shoes so it was awesome to get some insight and each of their stories left an impression on me,” Lacy Parmenter, a Castleton senior said.

That was what the event was meant to do.

“With confidence, you will be successful. Being a woman shouldn’t set you back,” DeMellier said, explaining what stuck out most to her.

Corkery agreed with that statement and had some advice for students.

“You’ve just got to get involved and then things just come from there so many different opportunities just roll around and it’s great,” said Corkery who is not only a head coach which entails a lot but she’s also in charge of intermurals, on the Women’s History Committee, she’s the league representative for the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association, represents the league for regional ranking, and is the head of lacrosse for all the NAC coaches.