What to wear to raise funds . . .
May 21, 2004
by Caitlin Crawshaw
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Maria Gallo |
To tackle the cash crunch, Maria Gallo, a member of the national champion University of Alberta Panda rugby team and national rugby team, agreed to help out with an unusual fundraising project--a calendar featuring semi-nude photos of players.
“It’s gotten to the point where the athlete kind of has to pay their own way as far as going to these camps and tournaments, which is unfortunate because it gets to be a financial burden,” says the U of A exercise physiology graduate student. Gallo and her teammates were given the option to pose for the calendar, the proceeds of which will allow the team to tour in England next November.
“There was no pressure to do it . . . it was totally up to you as a person, and also how much you wanted to display was up to you. Some girls are wearing spandex and sports bra, and some girls have like, a ball here and some cleats hanging off their chest--it’s pretty creative. And plus, it was up to the individual to come up with the idea,” Gallo explained.
“It was well done, I think it was a positive thing, I hope the public recognizes the effort. The women on the team work really hard to have athletic bodies, and I don’t mind that that is recognized, as long as it’s tasteful and classy.”
The calendars, she says, will be sold at tournaments, games, from players individually as well as from Rugby Canada’s web site.
Gallo, who is entering her third year of Panda rugby at the University of Alberta, has played the sport for nearly nine years, and has played for university teams for six of those years. Being part of the squad gives her a national profile. The team has won five consecutive national championships since the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) organization founded a women's rugby league in 1999, and has a 41–1–1 record in its five-year history.
“I’ve had two seasons with the Pandas, and they’ve been really positive seasons, and obviously the Pandas have a really strong squad. So practices were at a high level, and there were a lot of good skills from the players. So it just kept my hands on the ball--it just means more playing time, more games, and the only way you get good at rugby is by game experience,” Gallo enthuses.
“It’s really excellent to have more exposure to rugby, and the Pandas did that for me.”
A seasoned and dedicated athlete, Gallo is also a PhD student in exercise physiology at the U of A. But while Gallo’s schedule might seem wearing, she explains that the academics and sport work well together.
“The grad life kind of offers the flexibility to go away weeks at a time, as long as your graduate supervisor’s comfortable with it and you catch up on the work. So it’s almost easier than being a professional or someone who works, because the people who are around you tend to be more understanding and appreciate the fact that you take time off to go play rugby,” said Gallo. Within the next two years, she hopes to move on to teaching and research, having completed her doctorate.
To Panda rugby head coach Helen Wright, the sport attracts the kind of woman who challenges herself both physically and mentally.
“I would venture to say that a lot of the national players are kind of post-secondary, second-degree oriented individuals. A lot of them are in grad studies. On the Pandas we had three grad students also in that high kind of academic performance category,” she said.
In Wright’s view, Gallo is a strong contributor to the team on numerous levels.
“She’s a huge tackler--she hits like a ton of bricks. In defense she can change the momentum of the game, and in attack, she’s just a power runner and she can get through the holds and is a challenge to tackle,” said Wright.
But besides athletic prowess, Gallo is an experienced athlete, and a strong leader, says the Panda coach and U of A alumna.
“I think sometimes the girls are more worried about her than the coach, because she draws that kind of intensity out.”
Related link - internal
The U of A Pandas Rugby website:
http://www.bears.ualberta.ca/content.cfm?seas=5&act=57&div=0&team=0&pt=act_home_pub
Related links - external
Rugby Canada:
http://www.rugbycanada.ca/
The Canadian Women’s Rugby team:
http://www.rugbycanada.ca/index.php?lang=en&page_id=117
This article originally appeared in the University of Alberta's ExpressNews