First Impressions:
Immediately, I can tell that my subject, Campbell, is very open about her struggles being a woman in the sports industry. She has been involved in multiple male-dominated sports and being the only girl only caused more pressure. She was expected to understand and perform everything perfectly despite being younger and smaller than her male teammates. This expectation caused her to experience some intense injuries, those of which were overlooked by her coaches expectations. Campbell has found many professional female athletes that inspire her, and these women have allowed her to continue participating in sports, and now at a college level. Campbell, among many other women, want female athletics to be celebrated the way that men’s athletics are. It’s clear that Campbell has seen first hand how underrepresented and underappreciated female athletes are, considering she had no choice but to play with all men. From an outside perspective, Campbell has had to see how ugly sports can be in order to eventually see the beauty of them.
Questions:
- Did you get to choose whether or not you played on boys hockey teams? Or was it the only option?
- Started with co-ed
- Dominantly men when growing up
- Eventually joined girls team-2 years-disbanded for women
- Back to boys- disbanded
- New organization for last year, no attention for women’s team and caused quitting
- Men’s teams loved her, was only difficult with older kids
2. What is it that kept you playing through disadvantages and injuries?
- Loved the sport
- Didn’t know there was severe injury
- Coach is still unaware
3. Did it take a lot of convincing for you to join the women’s rugby team?
- Long pitch to play
- Captains played with her for demo
- Started to get idea
- Was very against it at first, didn’t want to see women’s sports deprived
- Got hooked
- Different number of players for each game
4. What would you say is the biggest difference between your experiences on the UNE rugby team and your old hockey teams?
- “Family”
- Lots of team meetings and events with “family”
- More comfortable and closer with teammates
- Old teams had cliques
- Old teams were seperated
5. Ilona Maher seems to be a big role model of yours, what about her caught your attention? Do you see yourself in her?
- Whole team looks at pros
- Whole team idolizes
- Great inspiration
- Reference her frequently
- Relatable
- People-person
6. Did your past experiences ever make you want to give up on rugby?
- Never wanted to give up
- Exhaustion and soreness is familiar
- Very heavy and different then old schedule
7. Has anything you’ve learned from watching sports carried over into how you play?
- Similar exercises
- Train similarly
- Hockey mindsets
- F1 for physical- hockey for mental
- Gives balance for rugby
8. What advice would you give to young female athletes?
- “Dream big. Dream big, Campbell, push yourself, dream big.”
- “I can still run the ball, but they can do it faster than me. I can get into a scrum, and they can’t. Everybody’s body is built differently, but it has its advantages and disadvantages.”
- “You can always think about it, even though we’re a D3 school, everyone has their own dreams….. No matter where you started.”
Broadcast:
After discussing with Campbell Bologna, a sophomore on the UNE women’s rugby team from Woodbury, Connecticut, there is no doubt that she’s worked a great deal to get to where she is. Though it was no walk in the park trying to play amongst the boys growing up, Bologna always told herself “Dream big, Campbell, push yourself, dream big.”
Campbell grew up bouncing back and forth between multiple different youth hockey teams. Not because she wanted to necessarily, but because each of her teams kept getting disbanded. She also found that for every all girl’s team she was on, there was nowhere near as much attention for them as there was for the boy’s teams. Eventually this lack of appreciation, alongside a few horrible injuries, led her to quit hockey, as she was receiving next to no benefit from playing. She experienced first hand how little women were appreciated, especially in the sport’s realm.
Believe it or not, when you’re a young girl trying to prove yourself to a team of boys, you may find yourself pushing through some severities to keep playing. Campbell did just that, when she unknowingly played hockey through a broken back.
Though she did not know her back was broken, she continued through the pain because a man told her to. According to Campbell, her coach at the time is still unaware that he pushed her so hard she broke her back. Though hockey did not last for Campbell, she found herself playing college rugby here at UNE. Campbell explained that she was not planning on playing any sports in college, but after a few interactions with the team, she was hooked. She discussed how she became aware that the women’s rugby team had very few players, and refused to let another women’s sports team go underrepresented.
The UNE women’s rugby team treated Campbell a whole lot better than youth hockey ever did. She is very close with her teammates and claims to feel much more welcomed and appreciated. She even mentions how her team has a “family” structure, where each captain on the team is paired with a few of the underclassmen. Campbell feels like this “family” on the team consists of people she can go to for help, advice, or even entertainment!
Campbell has been very open about who she looks up to as not only a rugby player, but a female athlete. Ilona Maher came up pretty frequently, and she has been an inspiration to the whole UNE rugby team. I asked Campbell what specifically about Maher was inspiring, and she told me that Ilona has helped her view on body image a whole lot. Maher has allowed Campbell and many others to realize that different body types have different advantages, and every single one of them is beautiful and capable. “I can still run the ball, but they can do it faster than me. I can get into a scrum, and they can’t. Everybody’s body is built differently, but it has its advantages and disadvantages,” Campbell said regarding the lessons she’s learned from Maher.
When asked whether or not she’d ever thought about giving up on rugby, Campbell gave a very firm “never”. She explained that rugby is such an integral part of her life and she has never felt the desire to call it quits. Though she’s spent a lot of time with the UNE athletic trainers room in order to recover her aching muscles, no amount of soreness could make her consider leaving rugby. Ben Lui, the women’s rugby athletic trainer says, “From what I’ve seen of Campbell she is very passionate about rugby. She does a great job of looking past bumps in the road and keeping the goal of competing and doing the best she can at the center of her attention. She has done a great job working with me to ensure she is prepared to step on the field.”
Campbell, like most other female athletes, has had to play harder than any male athlete, but her hard work has paid off. It could be said that Bologna’s experiences with sports growing up were not exactly amazing, yet she has found her place and her team. Consider Campbell Bologna, the woman who could.
Broadcast Reflection:
Personally, I think the entire process went well in most aspects. Considering how stressed I was going into this, I am a little surprised that it wasn’t all that difficult once I got into my groove. I definitely feel like it was clear that I was nervous when I began presenting, but luckily was able to hold my composure. I definitely should work on making sure that I am calmer next time we have a presentation of this kind.
There was definitely some difficulty when it came to getting an outside source to quote. It took multiple days to get a response, and I had to reach out to a few different people. Luckily I was able to do a little bit of networking and get a response from one of the sources I wanted to quote. This caused a lot of added stress because it was the only piece of information I still needed to complete the project, so I definitely will be taking a different approach next time.
As for successes, it appeared that the audience was interested in what I had to say, and I was able to convey my information in a way that kept everyone engaged. Though I could have slowed down a little bit and been more composed, the audience appeared to understand everything I was saying. Being a little rushed was a direct consequence of my nerves, which as I mentioned before is something that I need to work on.
