Title: Star Basketball Player Now Has Blog at Washington Post
Monica McNutt (C’11), who helped lead the Georgetown women’s basketball team to the NCAA Sweet 16 tournament, is now giving advice to high school student-athletes in a blog for The Washington Post.
Monica McNutt (C’11), who helped lead the Georgetown women’s basketball team to the NCAA Sweet 16 tournament, is now giving advice to high school student-athletes in a blog for The Washington Post.
In her weekly Transition Game, which began in October, she helps budding college athletes understand what to expect and how to prepare for the world of college basketball.
“I’ve been where you are, and I’ve gone where you want to go,” McNutt says in an introductory video on washingtonpost.com. “I know what it is to be a student-athlete and I want to help you achieve success.”
Working Hard
McNutt talks in her blog about navigating the recruitment process, and leadership and attitude in life and on the court.
“It’s really about what I wish I knew when I was in high school,” she says in an interview. “My first blog posting was about how to work hard.”
“You’re good in high school,” adds McNutt, who was an All-Met player at Holy Cross Academy in Kensington, Md., before joining the Hoya women’s team as a guard. “You think you’re working hard, but you haven’t seen hard work. College athletics is something that you can’t know, [that] you just won’t get until you’re there.”
McNutt says college basketball can mean long days – with 8 a.m. classes or going in early to get iced if there’s been an injury. If there’s a road game, a student-athlete might not get home until 3 a.m., she adds.
“Make no mistake,” she says. “Being a student-athlete is a job.”
On and Off the Court
McNutt says her parents, professors and coaches helped her succeed academically and athletically.
“Monica has always been a leader on the court and a woman that others look up to,” says Georgetown women’s basketball head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy. “I have no doubt that she will conquer whatever comes up on the paths she decides to travel.”
An English major, McNutt took Barbara Feinman Todd’s Media and Techniques class last spring, and realized she wanted to become a journalist.
Through the class, McNutt found an internship in the sports department at Washington, D.C.’s NBC 4.
“She exemplifies what makes a great athlete and journalist,” says Feinman Todd, director of the journalism program in the English department. “She’s got persistence, a strong work ethic and a thick skin, and she craves constructive criticism.”
Serious Stories
In addition to the Post blog, she provides color commentary for the Georgetown women’s basketball games for Verizon Fios 1 Sports. She also spent the fall reporting Hoya football from the sidelines for the channel.
She hopes to attend graduate school for journalism this summer, and continue writing about women and sports.
“I think as women you’re a mom, you’re a sister, you’re a wife, and it’s different from being a dad or a husband,” she says. “As women, we take on so much on top of sports. I think there are some serious stories that need to be told.”