In the four years Center Field has been in existence, several alumni have forged exemplary paths to numerous publications, broadcast networks, advertising and marketing agencies, and higher degree programs. They deserve a shout-out, a big shout-out, as they are the ones that have helped build Center Field into what it is today.
Marco Schaden ’18
Marco Schaden is currently a Master of Science candidate in Investigative Journalism as a Toni Stabile Fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. After graduating, he is looking to do investigative journalism within sports and labor. He was previously the editor of the Manhasset Press on Long Island for the past two years, receiving awards for feature writing and in-depth series. He was the editor-in-chief and editor-at-large of Center Field, which he co-founded with Professor Leander Schaerlaeckens and Matt Rzodkiewicz. He graduated from Marist College in 2018 where he majored in journalism and minored in political science.
Kristin Dolan ’18
Alongside Marco Schaden and Matt Rzodkiewicz, Kristin helped establish Center Field as the Managing Editor in 2018. After graduating from Marist, she served as the Club Social Operations Coordinator for the National Football League (NFL) before enrolling in law school. This May Kristin will be graduating with her J.D., concentrating in Sports Law, from Villanova University and her Certificate in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University. She hopes to use her legal education and passion for athlete advocacy to serve as legal counsel for a sports organization.
Nick Rudzewick ’18
Nick Rudzewick is a Video Producer at In The Know by Yahoo and he also owns and operates his own video production company, Rudz Media. Nick has been lucky to have some great success early in his career, highlighted by winning a People’s Voice Webby Award in 2020 and four different Telly awards over the years.
As the Multimedia Director in the early stages of Center Field, Nick assigned photographers and videographers to games and events that required them. He also photographed a lot himself, but his favorite achievement with Center Field was being able to release a 24-minute-long documentary on Marist Hockey. Nick learned more about storytelling and filmmaking by creating that piece than anything else. The best advice Nick gives to anyone looking to enter the media world is to just start telling stories with your work, and then never stop.
Matt Rzodkiewicz ’19
Matt is an Associate Producer at MLB and NHL Network. He really enjoys the content they create and loves being able to broadcast high quality work to viewers across the globe. Sports are playing a bigger role than ever in giving people something to take their minds off the stress of the world around them. Matt is very grateful he gets to have a small part in that, and only hopes to grow that influence moving forward.
Matt took over in Fall 2018, after Center Field’s debut season in Spring 2018 under Marco Schaden. He is really proud of the work they did in setting a precedent for the journalistic integrity of the outlet, and expanding our reach across multiple mediums and social platforms. It truly was a full-time job — one that you get out what you put in, and one that, upon seeing the work of today’s students, continues to pay off.
Meaghan Roche ’19
A wise man once said, “Every good story begins in Poughkeepsie, NY” — that’s where Meaghan found her love for all things editorial, as well as some lifelong friendships. After leaving her second home — the Center for Sports Communication — for the last time after graduation, Meaghan sought out sports editor positions and ultimately landed at NBC Sports with the perfect first job for her. Now in her current role as Search Engine Optimization Manager for The New York Post, Meaghan gets to apply her nerdy brain and love of New York and national sports, features, news, and more while trying to craft perfect headlines and optimized copy (has she mentioned that she is a perfectionist?). In the future, Meaghan hopes to take on positions that give her a similar feeling of community and opportunity that she enjoyed most about Center Field, and maybe one day come full circle and return to the title of ‘Editor in Chief.’ Stay tuned!
Will Bjarnar ’20
Will Bjarnar currently works as a researcher for NBC Sports’ Peacock show, Brother From Another, as well as a freelance researcher for NBC Sports in a broader sense. At the moment, most of his research is focused on the NFL, but he also works on the network’s Olympic coverage — he worked in Stamford during the Tokyo Olympics, and will return back for the Beijing Winter Games in February. In addition, Will is a writer for CelticsBlog, Clips Nation, and The Knicks Wall, obviously focusing on those NBA teams as well as the NBA at large. In the future, he hopes to take the knowledge he began applying at Center Field to a print or online (or both!) magazine and work as a sports, culture, or general features writer. Really, he just loves written journalism and hopes to apply it in any number of ways down the line for any number of outlets. You name it, he’s probably dreamt up a scenario.
Lily currently works at MLB Network as a Broadcast Associate, producing video content. After developing a passion for written and visual storytelling during her time at Center Field, she brings her signature high energy and creative ideas to MLB Network. Still always writing, she hopes to incorporate that aspect of her work into her career more, hoping to one day host her own show while continuing to cover the biggest moments and discussions in sports. The passion and energy she brings to both her current career and crazy dreams wouldn’t be near what it is without her time at Center Field: chasing stories, churning out wild ideas with incredibly talented people, and learning the value of surrounding yourself with people who support and supplement your ambition, but know when to not take it all so seriously. Whatever is exactly next no one on earth knows, but in the chaos of the industry and the world, she never forgets one of the most important lessons from Center Field: don’t fret; write more.
Dan Statile ’20
Dan currently works as an Account Executive at Grey – an advertising agency in Manhattan. In the future, he plans to go back to school and work in the field of clean energy, sustainability, and environmental policy.
Joining Center Field remains one of the best decisions Dan has ever made. He urges you to try anything and everything that you can. Dan was a soccer writer and did social media, but some of his favorite moments were the random projects on-camera work he got to do (something he says he has no skill or appetite for, but when else do you get to try these things!)
Dan also urges you to build as many relationships as you can; with your CF peers, players and coaches of teams you cover, folks from Athletics, administrators and faculty, everyone. Have meaningful conversations with as many people as you can, and get to know them. It will make your work at CF better, and it will make your college experience better altogether.
Amelia Nick ’20
Amelia moved back to her hometown of Dover, VT, in March of 2020 and began working for her local newspaper, The Deerfield Valley News, in May of that year. In October, she got a shot as a reporter at the paper after an op-ed she had written was published. She has since become the beat writer for two local municipal boards. She also covers the occasional breaking news story and has done some investigative reporting work.
Amelia joined Center Field during her junior year as a way to better understand journalists in order to work with them as a public relations professional, her area of study. She eventually went on to become an assistant editor of Center Field during her senior year. Now, she has ambitions to continue down the path of journalism and turn it into a full-time career.
While at Marist, Amelia was a member and eventually captain of the club ski team. Now returning to those roots, in January of 2022, she moved on from her ad sales position at the paper and began running a ski school program at The Hermitage Members Club at Haystack Mountain. She continues to write stories for The Deerfield Valley News each week.
Jess King ’20
Jess is currently a Digital Services Representative at NBC Universal – Sports Group. She is responsible for tracking/monitoring NBC Sports digital advertising campaigns for the LA offices. Unfortunately, Jess hasn’t had the pleasure of going out to LA because of the pandemic, but any clients out of that region she deals with on a regular basis. She has enjoyed the job thus far!
While Jess doesn’t currently work in the journalism industry, she has found great pleasure in the backend sales of live sporting events. She believes her time as a writer and managing editor of Center Field has prepared her for this job in terms of her client-facing attitude and the ability to write a killer email. Ideally, Jess would like to explore this avenue greater and hope to become an Account Executive. She believes with the talents she has learned from this job already, and the way the paper caused her to act as an adult journalist while still being a college student will allow her to climb the latter a bit faster. Maybe she will find herself back in journalism down the line, who really knows. Due to the nature of the new norm we are living in, Jess finds it best to approach life with the “where the wind takes me” attitude. She was blessed to get this job after graduation during a hiring freeze and Jess will continue to ride this train—at least until it’s time to get on another one.
Mike Cahill ’20
Mike is currently a contributor for two Fansided sites. Rising Apple covers the New York Mets and Call to the Pen covers all of Major League Baseball. For both sites, he writes about rumors and analytics and makes predictions and rankings.
Dave Connelly ’21
Dave is a staff writer and quality control manager for SportsGrid – a sports betting network that is currently in a partnership with the FanDuel Sportsbook. Dave personally loves the betting niche of the sports industry as a whole and it’s something he would love to be a part of for the long-term future. It’s one of the fastest-growing industries in the country as states continue to legalize sports betting and being on the forefront of its emergence is something that really excites me. The nearly three years he spent at Center Field as the men’s basketball beat writer and editor-in-chief has made him a better writer, reporter, and person with lessons Dave still applies to his daily life. It’s the best decision he made during his time at Marist.
Nick Stanziale ’21
Nick is currently the director of marketing at Topinka Financial in Wayne, New Jersey. At Topinka Financial. His job is to help the development of the marketing department, overseeing all social media tasks and promoting the business through the use of social media on mainly Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Nick also engages with clients to keep them up to date about the practice’s events and schedules.
Although this wasn’t the expectation following his time at Marist, he is thoroughly happy with how things have gone so far. In the future, Nick still hopes to break into the sports media industry and become a writer, reporter, or broadcaster. This has been the goal since day one and he hopes to one day accomplish that feat. Nick learned a lot during his short three years at Center Field, but the most valuable lesson he learned was to step out of his comfort zone. In order to be successful in this type of business you have to establish a relationship with those around you, but also understand you have a job to accomplish. Nick is forever grateful for the great writers and editors that were around him during his years writing for the club. They all taught him so many valuable lessons and techniques that Nick still uses today.
Kristin Flanigan ’21
Kristin Flanigan graduated from Marist in the spring of 2021 and she is currently working as a Junior Art Director for Havas Life New York. In the future, Kristin hopes to further her career in advertising as an Art Director and one day as a Creative Director. She joined Center Field in her sophomore year at Marist and loved every minute of it until graduation. During her three years at the publication, Kristin had the freedom to grow as a creative and she got to learn and strengthen her graphic design skills. She is grateful for the experience, as the skills Kristin practiced then are now applied to her work daily.
Sabrina Molinaro ’21
After being a part of Center Field for three years, Sabrina graduated from Marist in May of 2021. Since then, she has moved to Boston where she spent some time in the renewable energy recruiting industry. She is currently working as a Marketing and Administrative Coordinator at Boston University’s School of Law. While Sabrina never had much of an eye for sports, she greatly enjoyed her time editing videos for Center Field not only for the work she did but for the people she met. She has carried her love of video editing with her out of college and is hoping to be able to incorporate it more into both her professional and personal life.
Ryan Loeffler ’21
I graduated from Marist last year with dual concentrations in Sports Communication and Journalism. I decided to further my education and go for my Master’s in Sports Broadcasting at Sacred Heart University after graduation.
I would love to give a huge shoutout to Marist’s Sports Communication department for allowing me to have the opportunities I’ve had, both while there and now at my new school. It helped me venture out of my comfort zone and take on challenges I never could have imagined myself doing. It broadened the sports industry as a whole from what I had understood it to be, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have been a part of such a wonderful program!
Sam DiGiovanni ’22
Center Field provided Sam with invaluable experience in sportswriting and collaboration in the newsroom. Getting to interview athletes and coaches and creating schedule plans with editors has been a blast. Sam loved covering games, writing stories and the creative freedom Center Field offers. Sam’s experience there and with TheKnicksWall.com helped him land a full-time gig at ClutchPoints. Sam has been an associate editor there since October 2021. His job is to write breaking news stories, the occasional editorial, and edit other people’s work.