Marisa

Photography by Colleen Claggett.

“Being at the Olympics was always a career goal of mine. I know my dad's not here to enjoy it with me, but I feel like we're able to continue that connection through my work in soccer.”

After years of hard work, Marisa Pilla is in Tokyo this summer for the Olympics. She might not be dribbling past defenders or making diving saves under the goalposts, but she’s on the field as the only sideline reporter for the US Olympic Soccer Broadcast Team. It’s been a long road to Japan, but this is yet another milestone in a thrilling career in soccer broadcasting that many could only dream of. 

You might have seen her all over the country on TV doing sideline coverage for MLS, NWSL, or the US Women’s National Team, but her journey starts all the way back in Philadelphia in the ‘90s. 

“I think a lot of kids fall into soccer at a young age,” remembered Marisa. After all, she started playing almost as soon as she could walk, and her childhood was characterized by watching Serie A games with her father -- who played semipro for the Delaware Wings and Philadelphia Inter. 

Like for many kids in the ‘90s, though, the 1999 Women’s World Cup was perhaps the most important moment in her soccer foundation. 

“My dad and I would watch games together all the time and, and he really took to the women's national team when the 1999 Women's World Cup happened. I was about eight years old, and he was just so in awe that they were all so strong and so competitive and that they were just going out there and basically kicking ass and taking names. He loved that, and he wanted me to see that there were women doing this and that I didn’t have to be afraid to be strong or be competitive or want to win. Sometimes, as girls, those aren't always the best qualities that people want to teach you, but he always wanted me to be a strong figure.”

Following the success of the World Cup, the Women’s United Soccer Association was founded, and Philadelphia got its very own team. Most weekends, Marisa and her father would watch the Philadelphia Charge games at Villanova Stadium, and she still remembers meeting Mia Hamm at one of those games. That meeting only solidified her love for the sport.

“He took me to a game, and I got to get an autograph by Mia Hamm. I still have the poster. It's this ratty old poster that I made with magic markers. My dad saw how important the game was for me, and he just wanted to keep that ignited because he knew that feeling. Those moments watching the World Cup with him or getting to meet Mia Hamm just made me love soccer even more.”

After falling in love with soccer at such a young age, Marisa continued to play at the club and travel level throughout high school. 

“I loved playing. I loved competing. When I played, I wanted to be Mia Hamm, and I wanted to be Julie Foudy. But my dad passed away when I was 14 years old, and I kind of fell out of love with soccer around then.”

“Looking back as an adult, I think that really had an impact. I couldn’t share that passion for soccer with him anymore. So around that age is when I didn’t want to push myself as much in the game. I could have pushed myself more, but I think it was just too hard.”

“Around that time, too, is when I realized that I loved writing. That’s when sports broadcasting clicked for me.”

After showing passion and talent for writing in high school, Marisa soon began to dream of a career in sports journalism and sports broadcasting. 

“I did some research, and I realized I could be a sports broadcaster. I thought, ‘I want to be Julie Foudy, but I can't play like her, so maybe I can talk about her.’ I just wanted to be able to combine the things that I’ve always loved doing since I was little and make it into a job.”

Her first step to making that dream a reality was going to college. Penn State and Temple were a few of the options she considered, but after seeing the University of Maryland continuously pop up as one of the best journalism schools in the country, she made up her mind and committed to Maryland without even visiting the campus.

As soon as she arrived at the University of Maryland, Marisa hit the ground running. 

“I wanted to be involved with as many things as possible. I fully covered a ton of stuff, and I never planned on being a soccer-specific reporter. It just very much happened naturally, which I think is pretty cool. But back then, I covered the women's basketball team, I did stuff for men's lacrosse, I did women's field hockey, softball, baseball, I did gymnastics, and some wrestling -- pretty much any sport. Anything that they would let me cover, I covered.”

“I really just wanted to be able to do anything because all I wanted was for someone to hire me as soon as I graduated,” said Marisa. But the job hunt after graduating did not go as planned. In a field as saturated as sports broadcasting, finding even an entry-level job was a titanic endeavor. 

“I applied to over 220 jobs, and I only heard back from one. It was a no. And I was just devastated because you work so hard and you have a plan, and then you see your friends who had different majors get jobs so quickly that it can be a bit discouraging.”

“At the end of the summer, I was ready to take a job at the mall. I just wanted a job. But I got offered a job as a production assistant for CSN Mid-Atlantic, where I had previously interned. And I started off just rolling teleprompter at three in the morning for like twelve bucks an hour. I was living in my friend's parents’ basement in Silver Spring, Maryland, and that's how I got started. For the first six months after college, I was doing that.”

After those first few months, Marisa was able to work her way into the station’s digital department, where she was a digital content producer and social media director. Soon enough, she was able to move out of that basement in Silver Spring, but she still had hopes to one day do on-camera work. 

“I’d heard there was one guy at the station that I had to talk to if I wanted to be on camera. And I saw him getting on the elevator, and I just got up from my desk and chased him down. So I ended up getting a couple of sideline games for college basketball, and that turned into an opportunity to be a part of their Washington Wizards coverage for the 2015 season.”

Following a successful season with the Wizards, Marisa expected to be called back the following year to continue doing sideline reporting for the team. But the call never came. 

“I was heartbroken,” recalled Marisa. “But out of nowhere, I found a job application for the Philadelphia Union, and I just applied.”

Marisa would end up getting the position to do reporting for the Philadelphia Union, and everything started clicking. 

“Nothing has ever felt as natural as broadcasting soccer does,” said Marisa. “And the opportunity with the Union let me come full circle. Just being in my hometown talking about the sport that my dad loved so much, in the city that he immigrated to. That’s been really special for me, and it’s also been incredible to have my family be able to watch me on TV. My great uncle has been living in the city for 60 years, and he’s able to watch me on TV talking about the game we all love. My mom, my sister, my brother, my husband, and all my friends can watch me too. They’re my biggest support system, and it’s amazing to be able to share this whole experience together. 

Besides how meaningful it was for Marisa to return home with a job in broadcasting, getting to cover soccer from the sidelines week and week out has been an incredible experience in and of itself. 

“Being on the field is very stimulating -- it's overstimulating sometimes. When I get there, it's very early, so no one's there. Slowly, fans start pouring in, and it's just like this incremental noise starts to build and build and build. It charges you up.”

Reporting from the sidelines also has given Marisa a different perspective on the game, figuratively and literally. 

“I get to see these players as people. This is their job, and I'm very aware of that when I'm down there. When you watch it on TV, it's entertainment, but when you’re down there, you get to really feel all of their emotions. I see things, and I hear things that then help me in the post-game interviews to try to bring those emotions to the fans.”

What most people might not know, though, is the intense preparation that it takes to perform on the sidelines as a reporter.

“Gameday prep usually takes a few days. During that week, as soon as I get home on Monday from the last game I cover, I'm sending emails to PR directors for each team and doing research on what happened in the other games that maybe I wasn’t able to watch because I was working. I try to find storylines that I think are interesting, things people are talking about, player requests, and I attend coach’s calls.”

After the first round of reconnaissance, Marisa then starts preparing everything she will physically need for gameday.

“I start to draft up what I want to say in my open hit. I also make very detailed graph-paper gameboards that have color-coded chunks of information. I try to bring a couple of pre-made storylines and sideline reports into the game in case the match calls for certain situations. So Monday through Thursday is all prep, research, and talking to people. On Friday, I send everything to my crew, and I fly out to wherever I have to go. On Saturday, I show up two hours ahead of the game, I check in with my audio guys, the whistle blows, and then the game is over in a heartbeat.”

Despite all the preparation ahead of the game, though, Marisa still gets nervous before covering matches. 

“I always tell myself that I'm not prepared, and then I always end up having more than enough information. But I always over-prepare because, to me, you can never over-prepare. You never know what could happen, especially in soccer. And even with all the preparation, I think every game I still get a little sense of nerves or excitement.” 

Still, nothing will beat the nerves she felt during her first nationally televised match for FS1 back in 2019. “JP Dellacamera and Maurice Edu were the commentators,” remembered Marisa. “I was just so nervous because even though I’d done it before, this was the big stage. And I’ve done more and more games like that, but I think I’ll always at least be a little nervous. That just shows you’re alive.”

To battle the nerves, Marisa has learned that having pre-game rituals like the athletes she covers works well. Her Spotify pump-up playlist is filled with 90’s hip-hop, Britney Spears, and lots of Missy Elliott. And her ritual has carried over from MLS through her transition into covering the NWSL in 2019. Funnily enough, that change happened much more quickly than at any stage in her career before. 

“In 2019, the NWSL struck a new broadcast deal with ESPN because they wanted to capitalize on the success of the World Cup. I remember that day I’d had jury duty for 10 hours, and it was a miserable day, and I just got a call saying, ‘Hey, do you wanna be part of the broadcast team.’ I said yes immediately, and I was out in Portland covering games two weeks later.”

Marisa finished out 2019 covering the NWSL, and the following year, when the COVID-19 pandemic halted sports across the world, she was the first reporter back on the field when the 2020 Challenge Cup kicked off in Utah.

“I was lucky that they liked my work from 2019. CBS called me and asked me if I was interested in going to Utah for a month to cover the tournament. And I agreed without hesitation. I was in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, and I was in the bubble with all the players and operational people from the league. It was all kind of bizarre, though. The schedule was so hectic -- double-header games every three days. There would be a game in the morning, and then we’d have the middle of the day to kind of catch our breath and then immediately turn the page again and cover the game at night. It was all simultaneously very slow and very fast. It was a crazy experience, but by the end, I was just exhausted. When I got home, I was just like, ‘wow, I can’t believe I just did that.’”

Although being on the road for the 2020 Challenge Cup certainly took a toll on Marisa, she’s continued to travel around the country to cover the game she loves.

“It definitely takes some getting used to because it's such a change from my normal routine where I was used to working from home during the week and doing the Union on the weekend.

I'm very much a homebody. I liked being home, and I have my routine. So getting used to that travel schedule took a little bit of time. But when I come home, it's the best. I hang out with my husband and my dog throughout the week, and then I just have to go to work and hop on a plane to go to the other side of the country.”

Even if traveling can get tiring from time to time, Marisa mentions that she always remembers she’s lucky to be where she is. “I’m getting paid to watch and talk about soccer, which is just a dream come true, and I always like to keep that in perspective. I'm also racking up a lot of frequent flyer miles, so it's always good.” 

And now, after over a year of traveling all over North America to cover soccer, Marisa has had the chance to travel across the world to be the sideline reporter at the Olympics. The chance to get to follow the USWNT in Tokyo also comes with an added sense of excitement for Marisa, who will get to work with many of the idols she looked up to while growing up.

“It’s such a huge honor and something I’m really grateful for. NBC took a look at my work, and I think they appreciated that I knew these players so well, especially after the Challenge Cup last year. But I’m just over the moon because I grew up watching the Olympics, and I’m just humbled to be a part of it. I’m working with Arlo White, and then the analyst is Julie Foudy. And I’m just like, ‘wow, I had posters of you growing up!’ She’s just super friendly, and working with a team like that, it’s like everything has come full circle.”

Despite getting to cover a huge event like the Olympics, Marisa still has ambitious goals for the future. She’d still love to cover a World Cup -- both Men’s and Women’s --, and she would also like to cover Serie A because of her connection to the league since she was young.

After all the work she’s put in to carve a space for herself in the sports broadcasting world, it wouldn’t be strange to see her on the sidelines in Australia/New Zealand 2023 or Qatar 2022. 

“Even with everything I have planned ahead, looking back, I think the biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone trying to work in the sports world is that success is never linear,” concluded Marisa. 

“There are always going to be dips and turns. While you’re in them, it feels like your whole plan is unraveling, but really, it's just leading you in a different direction. And that doesn’t mean it’s bad. But during that journey, you also have to know your value. In this industry, many big outlets or companies will only offer opportunities that pay with experience, and you really need to evaluate how much you’re actually going to get out of it. I used to cover high school hockey two hours away from where I lived for $50, and I still could have ended up where I am today without that experience.”

“And for other women trying to make it into this field, just hold yourself strong. Don't feel like you have to apologize or be really mild or meek if that's not your nature. Be confident in who you are because if you're hired for a job, it was for a reason, and people want you there. Be the person they hired.”