Sports have long been a field dominated by men. Whether on the playing field, off it or in an office, women have seldom been given equal opportunities to men in sports. In many ways, Ohio strays from this standard.
Ohio’s senior director of athletic communications Sara Legarsky has been an inspiration in Ohio’s athletic communications office for more than 10 years. However, when she first got to Ohio, things looked much different than they do now.
In 2018, Legarsky was the only woman to hold the position of sports information director at Ohio. At the time, Ohio University was under the leadership of former President Duane Nellis and former athletics director Jim Schaus.
Now, in Legarsky’s 11th year at Ohio, the communications department consists of only women.
“It happened organically… I just hired the best people for the position,” Legarsky said.
When Legarsky got her start in communications at St. Bonaventure, there weren’t any women working in full-time positions in the office where she interned. However, that didn’t bother her in pursuing a full-time job in athletics.
“I don't really remember seeing anyone in that role where I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the person I'm going to look up to,’” Legarsky said. “I think that is partly why I've taken it upon myself to try to be that person.”
Legarsky is proud to work for OU, one of the country’s only schools with a female athletic director and a female president. For Legarsky, it’s an honor to see so many women hold deserving positions of power, no matter the field.
“It's really great. I love to see (Ohio) being one of the handful that has a woman AD and a woman president,” Legarsky said. “I think it's something that is really cool for our students to see and to learn from these women and to see them front-facing, leading a university in that way. Being able to see both holding those powers during this time, I think, is something that's important.”
Although Ohio is home to many women of power, it remains the only program in the Mid-American Conference with a woman in charge of communications for both men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Outside of basketball, Ohio is also the only MAC program with a woman as the head of football communications.
Despite the diversification of the field across the board in recent years, there are still challenges for women working in sports. For Legarsky, there were a couple alarming moments when she was first establishing herself in the field.
“I've been here a long time, so people in the men's basketball space and the softball space are used to me, but that was an adjustment,” Legarsky said. “When I first started my first couple years with the men's team, I would be stopped by security guards trying to get to the locker room after the game, even though I would have a team pass.”
Luckily for Legarsky, the issues she had only happened outside of OU. Ohio athletic director Julie Cromer has set up an environment where anyone can thrive, and it's not weird to see a woman in power.
In her first season with Ohio, Legarsky was the communications director for hall-of-fame coach Frank Solich.
“Frank was so open and respectful, he did not care that a woman was now his SID, let alone a 24-year-old woman who was probably not much older than his oldest players,” Legarsky said.
Though sports still have a long way to go before reaching an acceptable level of diversification, departments like OU’s are setting the tone for a future where it is not weird to see a woman in power in athletics.
“We've had a number of women leave who have been students here, whether they're writers or help with stats, photographers, videographers, go on and do amazing things in athletics,” Legarsky said. “Part of me hopes that my faith that was put into them was able to help them along the way.”
