ALBANY, NY – Emma Baccellieri, a staff writer at Sports Illustrated, will serve as the virtual guest speaker at the 2025 Capital District Sports Women of the Year Awards Gala on Monday, August 4, 2025. The event will be held at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady, NY. The event 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 later in June.

Baccellieri has been a staff writer at Sports Illustrated since 2018. She has written for the magazine about everything from chess to sandlot baseball to competitive lifesaving—but much of her favorite work is centered on women’s sports. She received an honorable mention for the first-ever Billie Jean King Award for Excellence in Women’s Sports Coverage in 2024, with a portfolio including coverage of softball, basketball and soccer. Baccellieri has discussed her work and commented on women’s sports on television venues such as PBS NewsHour and the BBC.

Earlier in her career, Baccellieri’s work focused on baseball. She has written for six editions of The New York Times-bestselling Baseball Prospectus Annual, covered five World Series, and received several awards from the Society of American Baseball Research. She is the author of the forthcoming Court Queens: The Rise and Reign of Women’s Basketball, a photographic history of the sport that will be released by Hachette next March. Baccellieri is a graduate of Duke University and lives in Washington, D.C.

“We are blessed that Emma will be speaking to our recipients and their families and friends at this year’s Awards Gala,” said Eric McDowell, President of CDSWOY. “Her enjoyable prose at major events and her engaging features with Sports Illustrated provide inspiration to our award winners. We appreciate her time and look forward to her thoughts.”

The announcements of the 2025 Capital District Sports Women of the Year honorees will take place during the months of June and July prior to the CDSWOY Awards Gala on August 4 at Proctors. Announcements will be made from June 16 to July 15 at 3:00 PM Eastern time on CDSWOY.COM ^[6].