Alumna Maria Marino is Camera Ready for NY Sports Fans

by Angela Daidone  |  Winter 2022

Maria Marino is becoming a familiar face on sports television in the New York area. The Hamburg, N.J., native is an on-air sports reporter and host for SNY-TV, the broadcast home of the New York Mets, as well as professional football, basketball and hockey teams, and other sports. She regularly anchors SportsNite, hosts Place Your Bets on NFL Sundays, and reports on UConn women’s basketball.

Marino earned her B.A. in Communications with a journalism concentration and Spanish minor from Ramapo College in 2011. She has always been a strong writer, she says, but her interviewing skills, love of the game, and confidence in front of a camera has helped propel her career in the exciting world of sports television.

“Getting booked on SNY for the first time was life-changing,” said Marino. “It enhanced my credibility and put me in more situations to work and learn alongside some of the best in sports media. I have been able to maximize my versatility in terms of skill and subject matter by hosting shows, participating on opinion panels, anchoring, and reporting in the field.”

Being a native of the greater NYC area helps, she said, so discussing the local teams feels even more special, adding that covering UConn women’s basketball is “a privilege.”

Marino started her career as a newspaper reporter with local media and gave her the foundation she needed for broadcasting. “Reporting and researching skills are needed for both formats… broadcasting is more of a performance that requires energy and execution in the moment, while writing is often much more thorough and takes longer to come together,” she said.

Earlier this year Marino interviewed four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird for a series of segments she was hosting on SNY called ‘She Got Game.’ She spoke a lot with her former coach at UConn, the 11-time national champion Geno Auriemma. “He is always a fantastic interview and infectious personality,” she said. Some other interviews that stand out are the football Giants’ Saquon Barkley; all-time Yankee great Mariano Rivera; members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team after their World Cup win in 2019; NBA players including Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum and Trae Young; and Olympic beach volleyball medalists Kerri Walsh-Jennings and April Ross.

Marino feels that legalized sports betting has had a major impact on sports media that have infiltrated just about every form of content. “The boom and demand have put sports betting companies in position to become some of the most prevalent sponsors of sports programming. Whether you like to place bets or not, the trends and data can offer different ways of breaking down the topics and entertaining viewers,” she said, noting that analytics have also become more commonplace and increased advanced statistics and viewership data have helped improve and justify more comprehensive coverage of women’s sports, as well.

What advice can she offer Ramapo students who wish to pursue a career in sports journalism?

“My advice is to be prepared that your career path may be unclear. I had a number of radio jobs, which actually helped me transition into television. The first one was for a local station where I covered hyperlocal news as a reporter and anchor. That provided me with enough experience to land an interview with SiriusXM, which is how I broke into sports. From there I was able to network and other opportunities opened up, such as anchoring for NBC Sports Radio, and then eventually working for a network called FNTSY, where I got in front of the camera daily before getting hired exclusively by SNY.”

She would also tell students to have patience. “Get creative. Network by making positive impressions and forming mutually beneficial relationships. Most importantly, work hard to improve your skills so when an opportunity does arise, you can handle it.”