By Melissa Wells
LONDON – Women’s Basketball analyst, Debbie Antonelli, said she doesn’t take anything for granted.
“I love my life and I am very blessed to be where I am right now,” she said.
Antonelli has been a lead television analyst for the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big XII Conference, Southeastern Conference and CSTV’s coverage of women’s basketball. She has also called numerous Division II National Championship Games and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association High School All-American Game on ESPN2.
Before joining the broadcast team in Charlotte, Antonelli served as a FOX Sports Net national television analyst during the American Basketball League’s first three seasons and was the analyst for the ABL’s Columbus Quest regional television package.
Debbie Antonelli played for NC State. (Photo via NC State Alumni Association)
Before her broadcast career jump-started, Antonelli was a three-year starting guard for North Carolina State Women’s basketball team. She helped guide her team to four NCAA appearances as well as two Sweet 16 appearances.
At NC State she graduated with a double major in business management and economics. She earned her master’s degree in sports administration at Ohio University. It was also at Ohio University where she met her husband of 20 years, Frank.
“The athletic director at NC State handed me the Ohio University directory my senior year of college,” she said. “When I went through it and saw all the jobs in there, I knew getting my master’s from OU was something I wanted to do.”
After her nine-month stay in Athens, the Cary, N.C., native then traveled to Kentucky to begin her career. However, it was not in broadcasting where she got her start.
“I knew I wanted to work in sports. I just didn’t know how,” she said. “When I was in college, if you would have told me I would work in broadcast someday, I would have been surprised.”
Antonelli went through school thinking she wanted to be an athletic director, but her love for basketball took her career somewhere else. In Kentucky, she was the director of marketing for the University of Kentucky. The first year she was there, a local cable company asked if she would help broadcast women’s basketball games. Antonelli’s boss thought she could do the job. In the fall of ’87 she started. She stayed at Kentucky for four years then moved on to Ohio State University.
“When I got there, OSU did not have a local TV package,” she said. “Being the director of marketing in the athletics department at OSU, I went to the local cable company in Columbus and I asked them if they could produce sports and they weren’t sure.”
Antonelli found the cost of doing eight women’s basketball games, and sold advertising to pay for the production.
“I loved doing the games because basketball is my passion,” she said. “However, I knew I couldn’t do both.”
She had offers from ESPN, but her affiliation with Ohio State made it difficult to transition. She continued her marketing job for four more years before making the plunge. She got married in 1992 and had her first child in 1995. That’s when she chose full-time radio and basketball broadcasting.
“It’s really worked out,” she said. “I just finished my 24th college basketball season and my boys are 17, 15, and 10, life’s not so bad,” she said.
Debbie Antonelli broadcasting for ACC. (Picture via Debbie Antonelli’s twitter page)
Antonelli said she’s still known as a basketball junkie, but she doesn’t mind. She loves the game. She doesn’t cover other sports because it would take precious time away from her family.
“I can’t remember a time in my life where basketball wasn’t in it,” she said. “As a player, as a coach, as an administrator, and as a broadcaster, I’ve been able to see the game from different angles.”
She also said networking is important and has helped her get where she is today.
“I categorize things I do in three ways: building, serving, and attitude,” she said. “I have to be bettering myself by building my experiences. I must be serving by setting a good example in what I do, and finally, if you have the right attitude you will succeed.”