Sports Communications Hooked Andrea Mazzarelli From the Start

By Sydney Ciano

Revere native Andrea Mazzarelli kept her career in sports close to home after finding her rhythm in the sports marketing field after college.

Mazzarelli attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester after graduating from Revere High School in 2007. She studied Spanish in college and also completed coursework in English and literature. As a student, sports marketing and media were not visible career paths like they are today. Without seeing a clear path in sports, Mazzarelli believed she would pursue a more traditional communications career.

Heading into her senior year, though, she interned with Comcast SportsNet New England (now NBC Sports Boston). Following her first experience in the sports networking world, she landed part-time promotional work with the Red Sox and Celtics and interned with the Revere Journal after graduating college in 2011.

At the Journal, Mazzarelli focused on becoming a “jack of all trades,” learning the ins and outs of reporting, sales, and sports writing to continue being a part of the sports media space.

Even without the mainstream sports media education that exists today, Mazzarelli put her all into making a career out of an important element of her life. She grew up as an athlete and sports enthusiast, playing soccer in her childhood and continuing with the sport at RHS where she became team captain as an upper-classman. She was a member of the indoor and outdoor track teams as well, realizing she loved the excitement of learning a new sport.

Entering the sports industry, Mazzarelli grew to love the excitement of working directly with teams. In fact, she shocked herself when she packed up and moved to Colorado to work for the U.S. Olympic Committee (now the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee).

Starting out, she worked in the Committee’s communications department. In this “overarching umbrella role,” Mazzarelli attended the Rio Games in 2016. She then applied her skills to work with one of the national governing bodies, USA Hockey – working specifically with the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team.

“Getting to work with Team USA… it was really an eye-opening [and]… enriching experience,” Mazzarelli said.

With the team, she traveled to Brazil, Korea, Canada, and Finland, working as the team’s communications manager and main public relations contact. When the team competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games in South Korea, she witnessed national history firsthand.

At those Games, the team won gold for the first time in 20 years, leading Mazzarelli to put together a gold-medal publicity tour across North America.

“We did Ellen DeGeneres, we did Jimmy Fallon, we did a number of things. We made so many [television] appearances,” Mazzarelli remembered. “It was just an absolute blast to be a part of that group and be able to elevate the profiles of those women after having, essentially, made history.”

The team made a special place in her heart for women’s hockey and strengthened her appreciation for women in sports – professional and amateur.

Despite the excitement of Team USA, Mazzarelli thought it was time to head back to Boston.

“There was a desire to move closer to home and… settle [down], I had just gotten married and thinking about starting a family,” she said. “The idea of moving back to the Boston area was really attractive to me.”

So, she packed up again and headed back to the Bruins, calling it her “second stint” with the organization. From 2013 to 2015, Mazzarelli started out as their promotions and marketing activation coordinator. In 2020, she was named the Bruins’ marketing director.

“I love my role [as their marketing director]… I have a wonderful team, a wonderful atmosphere,” she said. “It’s very work hard, play hard.”

With the Bruins, Mazzarelli developed meaningful connections with her coworkers and the brand. She said being able to represent a team she’s been a fan of since a young age has been an incredible experience. The organization gave her a “second family,” seeing her own team through nights, weekends, games, and all brand events. In other words, it was the culture that kept her coming back to the Bruins.

In her first year working in professional sports with the Bruins in 2013, “I felt like I was on top of the world… I was hooked from then.”

That year, the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in a sprint of a season. Even though they came up short, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games, Mazzarelli grew passionate for the brand she has always loved. Ten years later, she experienced another historic season.

“This past season was incredible; it was obviously incredibly historic. I felt like every single night we had an opportunity to make history… we were just riding the high, it was definitely a ton of fun and I would say morale was incredibly high – everyone was super excited to get to the playoffs,” she said. “Obviously, it didn’t go the way that we all hoped in Round 1 with the Panthers, but it was still the best season in NHL history and one that won’t be soon forgotten for all the records that were broken.”

Reflecting on her journey in the sports marketing world, Mazzarelli said she could never be more grateful to the first person to give her a break in sports. The once-in-a-lifetime experiences and the people she has met along the way will be held close to her heart for a lifetime.