“I experienced things I never would have experienced otherwise.”
Maria Marchesano, the head coach of women’s basketball at Mount Saint Mary’s University, sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 feet podcast and gives us insight into her journey as a basketball coach. She talks about their first 20 win season in over 20 years, the path that led her to become a coach, and her experience playing overseas in Italy!
In this episode, we discuss:
How this past season went for Mount Saint Mary’s Women’s Basketball team (0:30)
How Coach Marchesano got into coaching (4:08)
Maria’s favorite travel experience (7:17)
Maria’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (9:47)
Maria’s next adventure (10:43)
Highs and Lows for Mount Saint Mary’s Women’s Basketball 2019-2020 Season
Courtney: Excited to chat with you and just get to know a little bit more about you and about your season and about your career as a basketball coach. So how about we just take things right off and you tell us a little bit about the highs and lows of your season.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Yeah, well, it's been obviously a really, really crazy year. When we, as a staff, took over this program almost three years ago now, we knew it was going to be an uphill battle. So for this year it was kind of just everything, seeing it all come together, seeing the hard work of the previous two years come into this season, we didn't lose a lot. We had been young for the last two years with a lot of freshmen and sophomores.
So this year we were getting some injuries back, we got a transfer eligible and then plus we got our young kids some really good experience over the last two years. So the highs and lows of this season was battling our tough non-conference which we always play a really hard non-conference. We play a lot of guarantee games to bring money in for our budget. And then getting to our conference season and having a really, really great conference season, competing for a regular season championship, ending up in second place and then getting ready to make that conference tournament run. And winning our first game in the quarterfinals and then getting ready for that semifinal game. And then just finding out that, just like everywhere else, our tournament was going to be canceled, which is definitely the right decision. But it was tough for our girls to kind of handle.
I remember when we called them up there, we were supposed to have our shoot around that day at 2:00 and I messaged them because I found out about 12:30. I said, "Hey guys, let's meet at 1:00." And I'm sure they knew at that point, this probably means we're not playing. And as soon as I started talking, there was just tears everywhere. And even our athletic director had tears in her eyes as she talked to the girls. It was just one of those things where we had had such a great season. First 20 win season in over 20 years in our program. We had the longest winning streak in over 21 years. And we didn't lose in the month of February and led the conference in a lot of different categories.
So we had so many highs, but then the low of all lows was just to find out that we didn't get to finish and didn't get to compete for that championship. So like I said, it's one of those things where it was definitely the right decision and the situation we're in this world right now is just so crazy and so scary. It's definitely the right decision, but nonetheless not easy for our girls to swallow.
Courtney: Yeah. Hard to not be able to finish such a great season.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Yeah, absolutely. And then they were so excited and not only for themselves, but just, we wanted to bring that championship to the school, bring it to our administration who was so supportive of us. Our athletic director played women's basketball at the Mount and just to be able to do that for our fans. And then obviously the hard work, we didn't get to see it come to fruition, but to feel like we kind of let them down as well because we didn't get to do that for them. It was, just like I said, tough couple days.
Courtney: Yeah. Yeah, no, definitely. That's hard to end the season off that way without really being able to end the season off.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Right. And we're not the only ones going through it. And we understand that. I mean, there's so many stories, teams that hadn’t made the big dance in 10 plus years and they're finally back and then they don't get to go or teams that finally won their championship and then it gets canceled and then teams like us who didn't even get to finish their conference championship. So I mean, we're all going through this together, but it's just a very surreal and just kind of a big bummer at the end of the day.
How Maria Marchesano’s Started Coaching Women’s Basketball
Courtney: Yeah. It's a hard pill to swallow, nonetheless. Everybody's going through it, but it's still a hard one to swallow. How did you get the title of head coach at Mount Saint Mary's? What got you there?
Coach Maria Marchesano: Well, I kind of had a different path than I guess most. Coming out of college, I would have said I never wanted to be a coach. I didn't want to have to decide playing time. I always thought that that was such a difficult thing. Everyone in high school is so good and everyone's kind of the star of their team or at least has a huge role. And then you get to college and they all want the same thing and everyone wants the same thing. And I didn't like that, the idea of having to kind of decide who gets to play. But I played overseas a couple of years and I got into coaching a little bit over there. And then one year in between seasons overseas, I decided to coach at this small Division II school right outside of Fort Wayne, where I'm from, Manchester College, which is now Manchester University.
And I coached both softball and basketball there and just kind of fell in love with it. I fell in love with the college atmosphere, being on a college campus, saw the kind of the other things that go into coaching, not just the X's and O's and the satisfaction of seeing a kid develop and being with them through those kind of 18 to 22 vulnerable years in their lives. And when I first started coaching at Manchester, I knew that was what I was going to do from then on, which was kind of ironic because I had always said I never wanted to be a coach. So from there I jumped to a small Division II, Urbana University, became the head coach there. From there, went to Walsh and this whole time I was kind of like, "I want to get back to Division I."
I played at Division I and I had gotten passed up for some jobs since I had only coached at the DII and DIII levels. So I took an associate head coach position at IEPY. And from there after just one year, I applied for the job at the Mount and was able to attain it and become the head coach there.
Courtney: Oh, that's awesome. That sounds like a really good career so far in coaching. Where did you play overseas?
Coach Maria Marchesano: I played in Italy. I had opportunities in a couple different countries, but my dad was born and raised in Italy and all my family on his side still lives there, which is a really scary time right now for them. But when I was picking where to play, I knew I wanted to play there. I wanted to learn the language better. I wanted to be able to live in that culture, as we visited all the time as kids growing up. But I just, I knew I wanted to be there as much as I could. So I played over there for almost five years.
Courtney: Oh wow. That's so cool. That's cool that you got to go and play and be around family and learn your culture a lot better.
Coach Maria Marchesano: It was an awesome experience, one that I wouldn't trade for anything. It was tough because obviously my parents and my siblings were here. It's not like you can come home on the weekends and see them. And the seasons are so long over there and I missed a lot, but at the same time it was such a cool experience from the athletic side, the competitive side to just the culture and going to the beaches and eating the food on a daily basis and just waking up and going for walks and just kind of soaking it in. It was a really cool experience.
Coach Marchesano’s Most Memorable Travel Experience
Courtney: That's really awesome. That sounds so cool. And what would you say your most memorable travel experience is, kind of going off that?
Coach Maria Marchesano: Yeah, no, I have a lot, but I think probably one of the more memorable was when I was playing overseas, if we got a weekend off, we would try and figure out places to go. And one of the... Well, actually twice we went, but the one weekend was super fun. It's cheap to travel within Europe. So we found these 40 euro flights to go to Barcelona for the weekend. And we had a three day weekend, had so much fun, met so many different people from all over, had a blast experiencing things that I never would have experienced otherwise, saw some really cool things.
And when we went there, the Italian language and the Spanish are so similar that we would just speak in Italian, or at least I would, and the people there would just speak back in Spanish and we didn't completely understand each other, but it was enough that we could communicate. And like I said, just one of the coolest experiences I've had, especially just traveling like that kind of on a whim.
Courtney: Yeah. That's so cool. I love that you just were able to go for a three day weekend and go and visit Spain. That's so cool.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Yeah, it was a good time.
Courtney: Yeah. Have you been able to travel internationally at all with any of your teams? Any of the teams you coached?
Coach Maria Marchesano: Not really. We went to Puerto Rico with my Urbana team, but that's about it. I don't even know if that's considered international. I think our U.S. passports worked there. It was a really cool experience. I mean, the gyms are open air gyms. You would see a game going on and maybe a dog run right past your bench.b The gyms were really cool. I loved it. I don't mind the heat so for me it was a great experience. We basically practiced outside, walked to the games and just kind of soaked it up. I think we went right around New Year's Eve. So it was really, really cold in Ohio where we were, and then to go down there and kind of get a break from the cold and also play two games. But that's the only experience I've had with traveling internationally with one of my teams.
Coach Marchesano’s Advice To Future College Athletes
Courtney: Oh, that's so fun. That's cool to think about the being an open air gym. That's awesome. Just kind of like a round off question towards the end here. If you're an athlete wanting to play for a team in university, what would your advice be to that athlete?
Coach Maria Marchesano: I just think with college athletics, it's you have to be very dedicated and you have to truly love it because when you get to the college level, there's so much work that goes into it. If you don't love it, the getting up early to run extra or to lift weights or to get your individual workout on the court in, it becomes like a job and it becomes miserable if you don't truly love it. But if you truly love it, it's one of the most rewarding experiences that you could possibly have in your life. One of the things about this year with it being a bummer that it ended, we still had our journey together and our journey together was amazing.
And these girls still have these relationships that they're going to have for the rest of their life. And while we didn't get to finish it off, that's just such a small piece of the whole experience of being a college athlete.
Coach Marchesano’s Next Adventure
Courtney: Yeah. That's a really good point. What's your next adventure? Do you have any travel plans or... ?
Coach Maria Marchesano: I mean, it's hard to think about travel right now. I got married almost two years ago and my husband hasn't been to Italy yet. So I would love to take him to Italy and show him where my family is and maybe even hit a couple of the places that I haven't been. I've been a ton of places in Italy, but there's still a couple of spots that I haven't gotten to experience at least I guess as a tourist. When I played over there, I saw a lot of cities like Venice and Lake Como, but I've never got to do the gondola stuff in Venice or I've never got to do the Piza.
Coach Maria Marchesano: I've seen it, we played there, but I've never got to be a tourist. So one of these days when everything slows down with the virus and all that crazy stuff that's going on, I would love to take him over there and kind of just be a tourist in Italy and take him to see where my family is. And my family owns a bar over there so I can't wait to show him that and show him all that stuff.
Courtney: Yeah. That sounds so great. And be able to share that, such a special place to you with someone [inaudible 00:12:15]. That's really awesome.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Absolutely. So many memories there growing up. I can't wait to get back over there. It's been too long.
Courtney: Yeah, definitely. So then also, what are you most excited about in the next season when you guys get to play again?
Coach Maria Marchesano: Well, like I mentioned earlier, we don't really lose anybody that played this year. So even though our year ended abruptly with the cancellation of our tournament, we do return almost everyone. So hopefully we can continue to work hard over the summer, get better. And every other team in our conference is going to lose people to graduation. So hopefully we can come back even stronger and have an even better year than we did last year. And I know the fact that we didn't get to finish our conference tournament, our girls are going to play with a chip on their shoulder and they're going to want to prove themselves since we didn't get to do it this year.
Courtney: Yeah. It's going to make them play even harder because they didn't get to finish it off. I'm sure they're going to be thinking about it for the rest of the time until the next season starts and really be motivated to just knock the next season out of the park.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Absolutely. Because we wanted to prove to everyone this year that we were good enough to be the best team in our conference and good enough to go to the big dance and didn't have that opportunity. So I know it's only going to fuel their work ethic all summer long and all fall as well.
Courtney: Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for letting us get a glimpse into your team and your season. It was so great chatting with you and getting to know you a little bit.
Coach Maria Marchesano: Thanks for having me. I love doing it. I'm excited to listen to some of the other people that you've talked to along the way. And yeah, I just appreciate being on.
Courtney: Yeah. Thanks so much for coming and chatting with us. We're super excited to watch your team excel in this next season that they'll get to play.
Mount Saint Mary’s Women’s Basketball
Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions
Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle