Capelletto, who ended her career with the Elon women’s soccer team in October, has been a key part of Elon’s athletics marketing staff since joining last year, including running on-field promotions, running stadium music and manning the marketing table. It is a part.
“As a student-athlete, it was amazing to see what goes into our game,” Cappelletto said. “It’s great to be able to play a role in the environment created by marketing.”
Capellet started playing soccer at an early age and decided to continue playing soccer in college. Born in New York, Capellet wanted to head south for college. Elon was the first school Capellet visited, and she instantly fell in love.
“It’s kind of like that cheap feeling you get when you’re home, but you just knew this was the place,” Capelletto said. “Everything about Elon was perfect. Academics, athletics, everything was perfect for my goals.”
Capelletto, a senior captain for Phoenix who will be on the field this season, is a four-year player with the program and helped Elon win the CAA Championship in the spring of 2021, the first in school history. She finished her Elon career with 17 starts and four assists.
Off the field, Cappelletto majors in sports management and is heavily involved in extracurricular activities. She is the vice president of Elon’s Sports Management Association, the mental health chair and women’s soccer representative on Elon’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and an executive committee member of the Elon Chapter of Morgan’s Message. He is also a member of the branch. She is a female influencer in the sports world.
In addition to these roles, Cappelletto also works as an Athletics Marketing Assistant at Elon. Ms. Capelletto’s interest in marketing was sparked by one of her sports management classes she was taking. She wanted an on-campus job to gain experience in sports, so she enlisted the help of Elon’s assistant director of marketing and fan engagement, Mary DeFreest, her director of athletics, and Elon’s I applied for her role in the marketing department.
As a full-time student-athlete, Capellet was concerned about not being able to devote much time to marketing due to soccer practices and other team events. But DeFreest said she was grateful for Cappelletto’s time.
“We try to say to the general student body, we’ll take whatever you give us,” DeFreest said. “Emilia gives us a lot of time and is also a full-time student-athlete, so she really embodies that element.”
Cappelletto said he never really thought about the work that goes on behind the scenes to create games until he joined Elon’s athletic marketing staff. When she was working on her first game for marketing, she was amazed at how much attention to detail went into event planning.
“Working on my first game, it was definitely a shock when I just opened it up and saw all the scripts and play-by-play,” Cappelletto said. “As an athlete, you hear the national anthem, you hear the ads, but you have no idea how much is actually put into it.”
Having student-athletes help with marketing is beneficial to DeFreest because they can provide valuable feedback and insight from teammates and peers, and generate new ideas for promotions that the team is excited about.
“It’s really great from a student-athlete standpoint to be able to see what the team is passionate about,” DeFreest said. “This is helpful because you can make sure you’re doing things that your team cares about and that they’re buying into it and that they know what’s going on.”
DeFreest and assistant director of marketing Zoe Mooney empower student employees to take on more responsibilities than students at other Division I schools. For DeFreest, who himself worked in marketing as a student at Indiana University, watching students grow and progress at Elon is his favorite part of his job.
“We give our students experiences and opportunities that other schools don’t have,” DeFreest said. “Our Elon students have a competitive advantage when it comes to careers and internships.”
Since joining Elon’s student marketing staff, Cappelletto has held several roles in a variety of Elon sports and has become one of the most trusted students in marketing.
“She has grown so much because of the time she has given us,” DeFreest said. “She was hungry to learn a lot. She had a real passion for doing a good job.”
Cappelletto parlayed his work with Elon Athletics into a summer internship with Major League Baseball doing marketing work. Projects she has supported include All-Star Her Week, Home Run Her Derby, MLB’s London Her Series, and more.
“It was the summer of a lifetime,” Capellet said. “I learned so much and was really happy to spend every day with people in my department and interns.”
Marketing has become a passion and career aspiration for Capelletto, but the job also gives her the opportunity to cheer on her classmates and friends at home games. Capellet, a member of Phoenix Fanatics, a group of marketing students who support Elon student section leaders, enjoys the opportunity to cheer on her fellow student-athletes.
“I’m always going to support our student-athletes,” Cappelletto said. “I’m going to attend every game that I can and I’m going to love every moment of the game because that’s who I am. I love supporting the people I know.”
Upon returning to Elon for the spring semester, Capelletto will work in the marketing department in the spring before graduating in May. After enjoying marketing with Elon and her MLB, she hopes to pursue a career in sports marketing.
This spring will be bittersweet for DeFreest. She has loved working with Capellet over the past two years, as she is happy to see her working toward her promising future career in her industry. .
“She’s a very passionate person, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what she does,” DeFreest said. “She’s hard-working, dedicated, and incredibly loyal. She doesn’t shy away from any opportunity that’s presented to her, which is great. Any employer would want someone like that.”
As Capelletto looks ahead to his final semester at Elon University, he is grateful to those who have helped him get to this point, both in his soccer and athletic career.
“It’s honestly easy to try to balance everything because of my bosses. They’re the best and I appreciate all the time I can give them,” Capelletto said. “I’m also very thankful for everything my parents have given me, because without them I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity to play in any of the years I’ve been playing.” We were able to play without them and they continued to support us. I can’t thank them enough. ”
“Rising Phoenix” is a new student-led initiative covering Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students have the opportunity to leverage the athletic department’s various web and social media platforms to highlight moments, people, and events that have an impact . Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, etc.)? Contact Jacob Kissamoah. jksamore@elon.edu.
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