SEAWOLF ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: LAUREN MAGIERA

THEN: UAA gymnast, 2005-08
*B.A., Journalism & Public Communications, 2009
*Competed in every meet of 4-year career
*Career highs of 9.775 on beam, 9.75 on bars and 9.525 on vault
*Helped team set season bars average record as senior
*2007 MPSF All-Academic Team

NOW: Sports Anchor/Reporter at WGN-TV, Chicago
*First female sports anchor in WGN history
*Covers all major Chicago sports, including MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL
*Previous jobs at local TV in Anchorage, Wisconsin, and with Green Bay Packers

Coming all the way from Chicago, what made you interested in choosing UAA?
“It started because I hadn’t found a college right away. In gymnastics you’re a ticking clock – you can only do it up until a certain age. I had gone on recruit trips, but nothing ever really came together, so I didn’t go to college right away. I was just coaching gymnastics and cocktail waitressing and being a nanny, and trying to stay in training shape. I was getting really nervous because after a year had gone by, I thought, ‘I don’t think anyone wants to sign a 19-year-old freshman. That puts me at 23 as a senior and that’s like great-grandmother in gymnastics age.’

“So I started reaching out to schools to see if there were any roster openings, and Coach P (Paul Stoklos) had responded and was interested in the fact that my strength was on uneven bars. It’s difficult to find a gymnast whose strength is uneven bars. You can find vaulters, balance beam, floor exercise, and girls who can compete on bars, but to have that be my specialty, I think it piqued his curiosity. He said, ‘Look, there’s someone at your gym who I’m recruiting anyway, so as long as I’m there, I want to see what kind of shape you’re in, I want to talk to you, I want to see what kind of head you have on your shoulders, what kind of competitor you are, what kind of teammate you’ll be. So as long as I’m there I’d like to see your routines and get to know you a little bit.’

“So he came and he said, ‘You’re right there as far as where I need to be to be in competition shape, let’s stay in touch.’ And I just saw that as so much motivation to work harder, get in the gym earlier, stay longer, do more conditioning, and my training really peaked. Finally, he reached out and he said ‘I’m looking for someone to start in the spring semester. You’re not in high school, you’re NCAA eligible, so we can get you enrolled in classes and get you up here (immediately).’ I saw that as an opportunity that I was not going to let get away from me. So it started out just looking to get my foot in the door anywhere, and I’m so grateful to Coach P because he had such an outside-the-box way of recruiting and the way that he heavily recruited every corner of the country in a way that would best fit being a UAA student-athlete, and, like (former athletic director) Dr. (Steve) Cobb used to say, ‘Student’ comes first.’

“(Coach Stoklos) would have you focus on ‘Hey, what kind of a teammate are you going to be? Are you going to be able to handle the darkness in the winter, the cold, the rigorous travel that comes with being part of this team? Are you going to be able to pass your classes?’ So, I was grateful to him for giving me this opportunity and for seeing something that maybe a lot of other coaches didn’t see. And then as soon as I stepped on campus, I no longer thought that I was just reaching for straws, for any opportunity I could get. As soon as I stepped on campus, I realized that was home, and that that was the best possible place I could’ve ended up.”

What was your most memorable gymnastics moment at UAA?
“This may sound silly, but I think of competing at Yale. (The Seawolves edged the Bulldogs 189.600-189.250 on Feb. 3, 2008 in Connecticut.) Because we had such a difficult season that year, we just were getting hit with injuries and illness and eligibility issues – it was just one hit after another. For some reason this meet stands out to me so much because, with such difficult travel to get all the way to the East Coast, coach came out and said, ‘Hey, we did not come all this way to come out and flop. He gave this very motivational speech and the girls just banded together, and we came out and had one of our best meets of the season. Of all the wins that we had, of all the high scores, I remember that meet most because of the camaraderie. We just were overcoming adversity together. It just meant so much to me that everyone came out, everyone had their best meet – one through five, vault, bars, beam floor. Just to come out and know that we had overcome such low lows in that season. Those are the moments you look back on your career and say ‘I was part of a team. I was really part of something special and I’m proud of that.’ “

What was your fondest memory of UAA outside the gym?
“One thing that I really appreciate about UAA is that there’s never a shortage of the reminder that you are a student-athlete – student comes first. I never felt like I was there to only put up high scores, to only win a championship. I felt like I was there to be supported as a student, and as a bonus we would love for you to be a Seawolf and compete for us. And that was so nice, because the fact that I can do a double backflip on bars isn’t going to matter now that I’m 35 years – it’s never going to pay off today. But the skillset that I learned in the classroom, and the education, and the work ethic and learning how to prioritize my time properly – those are things that I’ve really taken into my adult life, and I’m just so grateful that UAA really prioritized that with me. 

“I appreciated the fact that I had a quiet place to study, with support. Another thing that I am so grateful for – and I won’t have my diploma without it – was my access to tutors. I’m dyslexic and I have a pretty severe learning disability that I’ve struggled with my entire life. It’s very difficult for me just to learn on my own in a classroom setting. I really need tutors – I have my whole life and I didn’t think I was going to have access to that in college. When I had explained to Coach that studies can be very, very difficult for me, he explained to me that there’s access to tutors for student-athletes. And so, a lot of tutors had a major impact outside of my competition at UAA.

“Outside of my tutors, another person who made a major impact was a staff member named Alysha Gobble. I forget what department she worked in, but she got to know my personality and she said, ‘I’m curious to why you’re a theater major? What do you want to do with that?’ And I wasn’t really sure, and I thought maybe I’d switch to education because there was a teacher in high school who really had a major impact on my life. And she said, ‘Lauren, you’re such a strong storyteller. Just hanging out with you, listening to you tell stories, you should look into journalism.’ And that had never crossed my mind. It had never crossed my mind that that’s something I could do or that it’s a career path that I could take. So, I signed up the next semester and I knew that ‘Oh, this isn’t just a job that I could survive.’ This is something that I felt passionate about, that excited me, that I thought maybe I could be good at. I’m just so grateful that she made that suggestion. She had gone out of her way to get to know me as a person, get to know my skill set, and suggest a career path that might support that.”

How did your education at UAA prepare you for some of the challenges you would face in the professional world?
“Number one, there’s no shortage of work ethic when it comes to UAA. Working really hard is respected around campus, I felt. We had practice at 6 a.m. That means that your alarm goes off at 5:10. That means that your day started the night before, when you supported your tomorrow by going to bed on time … It really taught me basic skill sets that you need to develop to become a young adult. This is an appropriate time to go to bed, this is an appropriate time to get up. Do I have enough time to get breakfast, pack my school bag, pack my leotard and whatever I need for practice, catch the shuttle, get to campus, get ready? Now it’s practice time. And as soon as practice is done, I only have this much time to shower and get ready before walking to class. I have this much time to study because I have a test at 3 o’clock. I didn’t have that skill set walking onto campus as a freshman. UAA really supported me in that sense. It taught me how to manage my time and prepare, and worth ethic – how to set myself up for success.”

You rose quick up the ranks, from local TV in Anchorage, to Packers sideline reporter, and now at WGN. What lessons did you learn at each stop?
“My first job at KIMO, the ABC Alaska affiliate, I learned a lot of lessons the hard way. There were things that that TV station taught me that a classroom could never teach me. I learned how to be a professional, and I learned how to be on the other side of the camera. Because for so long, I was a competitor. I was the one being interviewed for newspaper articles or for TV interviews or whatever it is, and for the first time in my life I was on the other side. So, I had to learn how to properly prepare, not as a competitor, but as a reporter covering a sport. And it’s a completely different kind of preparation as you can imagine. They were so gracious of understanding my age and my experience level, and in supporting me as I grew into the role.
 
“KTUU really encouraged me to think outside the box and do it creatively, do it differently. You’re in a position that nobody else gets to be in when you’re in McGrath, watching the mushers come in. How can you tell a story that a picture doesn’t, that a camera doesn’t? What are you seeing, what are you smelling, what kind of people are you meeting? What makes this so special? And I really used that in the future, when covering the Packers or covering the White Sox in spring training. I’m doing the exact thing everyone else is doing – how can I do it differently? Everyone is saying the same thing today – ‘Pitchers and catchers report, and so-and-so star pitcher is getting back on the mound,’ or whatever it is. So how can I do it differently? Talk to the pitcher and ask him what his off-season regime was. Well, he did some mental training. ‘Well, tell me what that was like?’ ‘Why did you decide to do that?’ ‘How is that going to make you a better pitcher?’

“I took that search for creativity with me when I went to Wisconsin and now at WGN. And I’m grateful that I have that skill set early on because it’s really paid off. When you get to this level, everyone’s good, everyone’s talented, everyone’s dialed in. But what makes you special? What makes you different? Why am I giving you the job instead of another blond girl who’s just as talented as you?”

How valuable are the mental skills you developed with gymnastics in your work?
“Most people know gymnastics can be a brutal sport physically. It will not only crush your heart, but your knees and your neck. But why I’m so grateful for gymnastics is, you fall down, you learn to get back up. You’re never going to hit a home run in gymnastics. You are constantly being judged. You’re in a leotard on a 4-inch-wide balance beam with judges critiquing every flip of your finger, every toe point, the level your chin is raised – and you get back down and then your coach tells you how you could’ve done it better. And I’ve really appreciated that, especially in this industry, because I grew some thick skin with some really tough coaches that I can look back and appreciate. I’m in the limelight now, like in a leotard, on a balance beam when I go on TV. Of course, I’m not literally in a leotard, but everyone’s watching, everyone’s judging, everyone’s telling me how I could have done it better. I’ve learned, you fall down you get back up. I’ve learned how to be strong and part of a (professional) team. It’s a grind, and that mental toughness really has paid off for me as an adult and in my career.”

You’ve gotten a chance to meet a who’s-who of sports figures since you moved back to the Midwest. Are there any particular people or events that stick out as special? 
“I remember covering the Iron Dog race and being in Nome and Sarah Palin’s husband was racing it. I was sitting in the garage while her husband was tinkering on the sled and I said ‘Oh my gosh, there’s Sarah Palin.’ And I thought that that was the coolest thing – I was meeting a celebrity. I thought to myself, ‘Man, I’ve really made it.’ … Now to look back, I mean the head coach of the (Chicago) Bears knows my name and I’m talking to world-champion Cubs, in the clubhouse with them, getting sprayed with champagne with them while they’re World Series champions. It’s such an awesome opportunity. But seriously, some of the players I’ve met, just the level of human in them. People look at them like they’re these superstars – and they are – but getting to see the human in them. Standing outside of an offensive lineman’s locker who’s 300 pounds and just seems like a giant, and just seeing a picture of his daughter in her gymnastics leotard in his locker … and just talking with him about his little daughter’s gymnastics practice. It’s just cool to chit-chat with them and see how human they are, and then going up there in the press box and watching them go be the best in the world at what they do.”