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ESPN’s
Jessica Mendoza to Emcee 2015 SportsTravel Awards
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The leading
awards program for the sports-event industry
will be held
November 10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas
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Los
Angeles, CA – October 2015 / Newsmaker Alert / Olympic Gold Medalist
Jessica Mendoza—the first woman to work as an analyst during a Major League
Baseball post-season game—will emcee the 2015 SportsTravel Awards
ceremony. The winners of the 2015 SportsTravel Awards will be announced
during a gala ceremony on the evening of Tuesday, November 10, at the Thomas
& Mack Center in Las Vegas. The SportsTravel Awards are presented
in conjunction with the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the largest annual
gathering of sports-event organizers in the world, which will be held November
9–12 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
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 Mendoza,
who has captured the nation’s attention for her work on ESPN’s Sunday Night
Baseball and as an analyst during ESPN’s coverage of MLB’s post-season,
was a standout amateur athlete, a collegiate All-American and played professional
softball.
“I
can think of no one more appropriate to emcee our annual celebration of
excellence in sports than Jessica Mendoza,” said Timothy Schneider, publisher
of SportsTravel magazine. “Jessica embodies the essence of the SportsTravel
Awards program and is a broadcasting talent with whom sports fans are sure
to fall in love. We are proud to be showcasing her talents at TEAMS.” In
addition to emceeing the SportsTravel Awards, Mendoza will serve
as a professional broadcaster-moderator during the educational sessions
at TEAMS.
Called
an “ascendant voice” in sports broadcasting by the New York Times,
Mendoza replaced Curt Schilling as the analyst for ESPN’s Sunday Night
Baseball broadcasts in September. Mendoza’s list of sports achievements
is lengthy: At Camarillo (California) High School, she played softball
and basketball and was named “Female Athlete of the Year” in her junior
and senior years. She was named the Los Angeles Times “Player of
the Year” in 1998.
During
her time at Stanford University, Mendoza was a four-time NCAA first-team
All-American—making her only the fifth player in NCAA history to accomplish
that feat. She helped lead the Cardinal to their first-ever NCAA Women’s
College World Series appearance. Mendoza was named Stanford’s “Athlete
of the Year” three times and graduated with a master’s degree in social
sciences and education.
In
2004, Mendoza was a starting outfielder for Team USA, which won the gold
medal at the Olympic Games in Athens. She was a member of the U.S. national
softball team that played in 48 cities and traveled more than 43,000 miles
in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. In Beijing, Mendoza
again played in the outfield for Team USA, which won the silver medal.
Mendoza played professionally in the National Pro Fastpitch league and
for the USSSA Pride, which won the Cowles Cup Championship in 2010.
Mendoza
got her start with ESPN as a color analyst during the NCAA Women’s College
World Series, the NCAA Men’s College World Series and the Little League
World Series, and as a sideline reporter for ESPNU. Mendoza is a past president
of the Women’s Sports Foundation, an athletic ambassador for Team Darfur
and a board member of the National Education Association.
The
TEAMS
Conference & Expo is organized by Los Angeles–based Schneider
Publishing, which publishes SportsTravel,
the sports world’s event magazine, and Association
News, America’s most-read magazine for association executives.
TEAMS ’16 will be held September 26–29, 2016, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In addition to TEAMS, Schneider Publishing organizes Meetings
Quest, North America’s longest-running series of trade shows for meeting
planners. The group travel markets served by Schneider Publishing generate
106 million hotel room nights annually.
Media
Contact:
Ann
Shepphird
Schneider
Publishing
310-577-3700
SportsTravel,
TEAMS, Association News and Meetings Quest are registered trademarks
of Schneider Publishing.
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