“Learning by Doing”: How UCSC Can Repair Italy’s College Sports Culture

Paola Abbiezzi, Educational Director for Sport Communication Master and UCSC alumnus, describes UCSC’s sports facilities and sports masters programs — and how they can elevate Italian sports culture.

By Maddie Mulligan, Abby Osborne, Audrey Chang, Carly McCabe, & Ty Svenby

(Credit: Paola Abbiezzi)

Walking around the main campus of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), any passerby would find themselves hard-pressed to find the typical signs of sports culture.

With no central stadium, no popular sports clubs, and no student hype for any upcoming game, UCSC seems to lack a strong love for athletics that is often very potent in American universities.

But underneath the surface, UCSC has a community of passionate students and athletes that UCSC does not emphasize.

Paola Abbiezzi, Educational Director for Sport Communication Master and UCSC alumnus, outlines how UCSC’s masters programs in Sports Journalism and Sports Media can be a means of building Italy’s sports culture.

Combined with sports facilities and programs such as Cattolica per lo Sport that aim to balance sports with academics, UCSC can have a key role in allowing students to pursue sports-related careers or professional sports alongside academics.

Unlike the United States, Italy does not have a strong emphasis on sports culture and business. Lacking the significance that the U.S. places on fostering ardent recreational teams and creating sports business programs at universities, Italy instead is a place where it’s difficult to find sports, according to Abbiezzi.

“We don’t have many places in which young people can make sports. When young people are 15 or 14 years old, we see they don’t practice sports because they go to school, they don’t have time,” says Abbiezzi.

Pursuing professional sports often means going to an academy specific to a sport, such as soccer, that prioritizes sports over studying. Even more, students who want to emulate star athletes such as Christiano Ronaldo can end up leaving behind their studies all together.

“This is not something that is integrated with your professional-cultural development of your personal life,” says Abbiezzi.

Abbiezzi went on to say, “In Italy, the culture surrounding sports does not make it easy to balance with a professional or academic life. I think it’s a cultural problem.”

Students in Italy fall victim to a culture that makes it difficult to support pursuing sports.

UCSC plays a crucial role in facilitating a thriving sports culture among its students. Despite strong interest from the student body, the university has few initiatives for future opportunities. Abbiezzi discusses the existing initiatives, “Cattolica Per Lo Sport is a group of communications, economics and psychology professors that teach a variety of sports courses at UCSC. Students also are planning to start a run club around Milan for students searching for sports culture.”

However, these programs largely go unnoticed. Abbiezzi believes “Catholic University could decide to invest more in these activities.” The students at UCSC have a clear passion for sports, despite growing up in an Italian culture where sports are not closely integrated into their daily lives.

To bridge this gap, Abbiezzi suggests, “UCSC should promote deeper dialogue with teams, with clubs, and with the sport business to make an impact in the culture of sports in Italy.” She also says, “The U.S. is the model for college sports culture. I hope in the future, sports culture at UCSC will be more similar to that of America.”

Abbiezzi explains, “Sports facilities at Cattolica reflect the role athletics play within the university culture in Italy. Sports are often less emphasized in campus life at Cattolica compared for example to Università Bocconi which has an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a very esteemed sports center”.

However, not having a sports facility directly on campus doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Abbiezzi highlights the university’s Centro Universitario Sportivo as a place where students can participate in recreational sports and teams. She points out that there are “facilities connected to sports science,” which include labs and athlete performance analysis research.

Abbiezzi says, “These facilities help train future coaches, trainers, and sports professionals while emphasizing ethics in athletics.” She describes the goal as creating “a professional that can go in also with an ethical perspective in the sport.”

Despite the resources the Cattolica offers to the students, Abbiezzi believes that the university could do more to strengthen the sports culture on campus. She says, “Catholic University must invest in sports facilities to improve student engagement.”

As an esteemed professional in Sports Communication and Journalism, Abbiezzi explained that sports communicators focus on their sports club’s media and communication strategies, while sports journalists work independently within the team itself. Focusing on communications education, she directs the Alta Scuola in Media Comunicazione e Spettacolo (ALMED) Master’s in Sports Communication.

Abbiezzi has high hopes and pride in the next generation of sports communicators, saying, “I think that the program is unique for the cultural and ethical approach and for the presence of managers from brands, agencies, and in the sports marketing field so that students can have a process of learning by doing.”

Having earned two Master’s degrees in Sports Journalism and Sports Communication herself, Abbiezzi says, “The media scenario is really key to understanding the evolution of media. Sports is a place in which I think you can really learn how to use social media and digital in a specific context.”

This successful approach is evident in the work of ALMED Master’s students with the top sports programs in Milan. In their ninth year of the program, the 22 graduating students’ placement ranking is over 90% in the top sports media houses, according to Abbeizzi.

“I’m very proud to see my students on the field.”

Abbiezzi’s passion for sports media, marketing, and storytelling in Milan and at UCSC is evident in her hope and support for the next generation of sports professionals.

UCSC hasn’t just helped students in general in pursuing sports-related fields, but also has helped open up the historically male-dominated field to female students. Abbiezzi highlights the sexism that is deeply rooted in Italian culture, and how she sees this sexism beginning to fade through position as a professor of sports communication.

“I have many students, female students, that are great sports journalists, and they told me that they are happy, they are not discriminated against.”

Her experience as the head of the Educational Director of the Sport Communication Master has led to observe the evolution of more women pursuing degrees in sports communication.

Abbiezzi views this program as an integral way to facilitate the progress of Italian sports communication for women. When discussing the role that women fill within sports journalism, she explains that, “They have another approach to the sport that is not aggressive. So they have something that now in this, in this, in these years, is important.”

Abbiezzi also discussed her role with the Italian organization 100 Esperte, focused on highlighting women in STEM, which has expanded to highlight women within the sports communications field. This organization aims to highlight highly qualified women within male-dominated fields.

“It will be the future of sports.”