By Sophia Herrera
Our Lady of Mercy Academy
Around the age of eight, Julia Capitelli became fixated on the field of sports journalism.
Her parents would always find her watching the NHL or reading an article about a recent hockey game. She would watch or read any source of news she could get her hands on. This exposed her to the injustices between sexes and races in the journalism industry.
“There is a significant gap in the hockey sports broadcasting industry between men and women,” the rising senior at North Shore High School said. “There are still far more men than women. It’s been dominated by the men forever.”
“Julia is a fierce fighter for the underrepresented, with women being the main category there,” her father, Steve Capitelli, added. As she grew up, Julia was exposed to her family’s love for the New York Rangers. Her family bonded over watching a Rangers game and analyzing it. Although she has never played the game, her passion for hockey quickly consumed an enormous portion of her life.
As Julia continued to grow, she developed a love for writing. She decided she wanted to use her skills to promote the hockey broadcasting industry and to be an advocate for women in sports journalism. “I always feel like there’s a part of her that would love to write scathing pieces about injustice,” her father said.
Julia has calculated the tedious steps she must take to make it to her new dream job at NHL Network. First, she reached out to a New York Rangers blog titled foreverblueshirts. She was given a chance to write for the blog and continues to do so almost weekly. Her posts on the blog consist of her deep analysis of games. Unlike other journalists, Julia not only studies the main events of each game but also the actions of players and coaches away from the puck.
The next step she took was joining the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists. Julia applied because she wants to write in a more journalistic style. “Right now, a lot of my writing can sound like an essay I would write in English class, so I need to get used to the journalism style of writing,” she acknowledged. She also aims to get more of an understanding of broadcast media. “Overall, I’m looking for this week to be the first step to a career in journalism.”
“As far as journalism goes, I think it is really important that people get the truth,” she said. It was distressing for her to see the lack of truth in some of the news in recent years.
“It would be nice to be someone that just writes articles,” Julia concluded. “But I also think I would be really into broadcast media and to be a face that people see as a part of women’s representation in the field,”