Gold Medalist and ESPN broadcaster Jessica Mendoza speaker for CDSWOY Awards Gala

ALBANY, NY – Jessica Mendoza, an Olympic Gold medalist and ESPN broadcaster, will serve as the virtual guest speaker at the 2023 Capital District Sports Women of the Year Awards Gala. The event will take place on Monday, August 7, 2023, at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady, NY and will begin at 7:00 p.m.

The Capital District Sports Women of the Year program (CDSWOY) honors the best and brightest female student-athletes from high schools and colleges in the Capital District of New York State. The student-athletes will be recognized for their achievements in academics, athletics, and community service. Ticket information will be announced in the month of July. Recipients will be announced throughout June and July at CDSWOY.COM.

“Jessica Mendoza is a trailblazer, and a fitting guest speaker for our 2023 honorees,” said Eric McDowell, President of the Capital District Sports Women of the Year Awards program. “From her days as an All-American softball star at Stanford, to her memorable moments on the U.S. Olympic softball medal-winning teams, to her broadcasting career, Jessica has been an inspiration. We are honored to have her speak to the CDSWOY Class of 2023.”

Jessica joined ESPN in 2007 and in 2015, became the first woman to serve as an analyst for nationally-televised Major League Baseball games. She has since become one of the leading voices in ESPN’s Major League Baseball coverage.

She appears regularly on ESPN studio shows including Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter, Get Up and First Take. In 2020, Jessica became the first woman to serve as a World Series game analyst on national radio as she joined the MLB on ESPN Radio team for the World Series.

She has continuously made history as a Major League Baseball analyst, becoming the first female ESPN MLB game analyst on television during the August 24, 2015 edition of Monday Night Baseball. A few months later, Jessica became the first female analyst for a nationally televised MLB Postseason game, calling the American League Wild Card Game on ESPN. That year, she also became the first female analyst for a Men’s College World Series telecast.

Jessica appeared on several Sunday Night Baseball telecasts during the stretch run of the 2015 season and in 2016, ESPN officially named her to the Sunday Night Baseball team. She is the second-longest tenured Sunday Night Baseball analyst in the history of ESPN’s marquee MLB telecast.

In the 2020 MLB season, she became the first woman to serve as a solo analyst for a national package of MLB game telecasts including weeknight games and holiday baseball. She also served as an analyst in ESPN’s exclusive English-language KBO League coverage for the 2020 regular season.

One of the most notable softball players of the 2000’s, Jessica’s on-field experience seamlessly translated to television. Her ESPN career began in 2007 with her serving as a softball analyst and college football sideline reporter. In addition to her current MLB contributions, Jessica has also provided analysis on ESPN and ABC Little League World Series coverage since 2016. She has served as an analyst and reporter for the Men’s College World Series and since 2007 has been the lead analyst for ESPN’s coverage of the Women’s College World Series. Jessica also contributes content to espnW. Prior to her work with ESPN, Jessica was a field reporter for Yahoo! Sports at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and also served as the lead college softball analyst on FOX Sports.

Jessica is a two-time Olympian and was a member of the U.S. Women’s National team from 2001-10. Her team took home the Gold Medal in Athens, Greece (2004) and the Silver Medal in Beijing, China (2008). She is both a three-time World Champion (2002, 2006, 2010) and World Cup Champion (2006, 2007, 2010), in addition to being a two-time Pan American Gold Medalist (2003, 2007). In 2006, she was named the USA Softball Athlete of the Year and was also recognized in 2008 as the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year. In 2019, Mendoza was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame.

Jessica was a four-time first team All-American while playing outfield at Stanford University. She led the team to their first ever Women’s College World Series appearance and finished her college career with school records that are still held today in: batting average (.416), hits (327), runs scored (230) and career home runs (50). She was a three-time Stanford Female Athlete of the Year and a First Team Academic All-American in 2002.

Jessica graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies in 2002 and a Masters in Social Sciences in Education in 2003. She is originally from Camarillo, Calif.

Previous speakers for the CDSWOY Awards Gala were Chris Plonsky (University of Texas Chief of Staff and Senior Associate Athletics Director), Tara VanDerveer (Stanford women’s basketball coach) and Lindsay Jacobellis (Olympic snowboarder).