Angelina Marazzi wants her new office at St. George's to feel like a safe space.
She leaves her door open whether she's in or out. The office has a beanbag chair, a coffee machine and a candy stash. Marazzi puts out a quote of the week and a rotating question designed to promote positivity. Examples: What do you love about yourself? Why are you proud of yourself?
Marazzi takes the reins of a Dragons team that just reached new heights with a Class B championship and a program-record 24 wins last season under Olivia Healy, who is now the assistant director of athletics, alumni engagement and annual fund at the University of Chicago. Marazzi believes confidence will carry St. George's through the transition. She's learned its value throughout her playing and coaching career.
"I think (it's) just my self-willingness and my self-experience of being so hard on myself, and never saying I'm proud of myself until I decided to retire from playing overseas," she said. "It's great to have high standards, but what does that look like? So I've done a lot of mental work in that sense. Essentially: How can I help these kids be at that championship level, and have that mindset, but still know that it's OK to give yourself a pat on the back?"
A native of Manchester, N.H., Marazzi didn't start playing basketball seriously until her freshman year of high school at Manchester Central. She went on to play two years of prep school at Northfield Mount Hermon, then scored more than 1,200 points in her college career at St. Anselm and Fitchburg State. It wasn't until Marazzi went pro — she played two years in England's National Basketball League and won MVP of the league's second division — that she began to feel proud of her own on-court achievements.
"I had a great college career, but I carried the weight of the world on my shoulders with life, and my teammates and all the things, and even with the accolades I had, I didn't tap into my confidence yet," she said. "Then when I finally was sitting on a plane, I thought to myself, 'You have to be some type of good to be doing what you're doing.' So I think from that overall experience, one of the main things I really appreciated was learning how to tap into my confidence. That showed — on a piece of paper, statistically, and along with that, it was the best two years of my life."
While abroad, Marazzi also received a six-week grant to run a mental health and wellness program that she's brought back to the United States. She coached with the Four Nations U18 girls' national team and several youth boys teams in the U.K. before returning to New England.
Marazzi had initially applied to coach at her alma mater, but Northfield Mount Hermon did not bring her aboard. She spent a year as an assistant at Roger Williams. Then, on a Thursday night this past summer, Marazzi received a surprise call from St. George's after she had finished a day of training. The school announced the hire in June.
"I said absolutely, in like, five seconds," she said.
Marazzi was blown away by the immediate interest and engagement level from her new players. At 27, she believes her age plus her NEPSAC athlete and high-level basketball experiences help her be relatable. She's not going to try and replicate last year's roadmap to success; Marazzi wants her teams to reflect her own style, which she described as a "calm storm." But she's also not entering with strict guardrails for how the team will operate. Marazzi doesn't want to overwhelm people with plays and sets, and she's letting the Dragons take more ownership over their preseason team-building until practice officially hits.
"They already seem as though they'll run through a wall for me, and we haven't even gotten to the first practice yet," she said. "... Everyone deserves a voice, and I think putting that on their plate has really kind of opened them up to, like, change is good, and they're excited for it. Because as we know, a lot of times, people are uncomfortable with change and new, especially at this level. They could be the opposite way and be like, 'Oh no, is she's gonna bring in 30 plays? Is this gonna be harder? Is this gonna be easier?' But they are just going with the flow in such a positive way that it's been very helpful for me."
The Dragons don't need to rebuild their title-winning roster. They graduated two college-bound NEPSAC All-Stars in Mia Fiore (Merrimack) and Laura Johnson-Shedd (Assumption), but have a strong core of senior leaders in Hofstra commit Olivia VanPatten (Cranston, R.I.), Babson commit Molly Donovan (Duxbury, Mass.), Aleah Bracey (New Bedford, Mass.) and Emily Ryan (Middletown, R.I.). Marazzi has also worked closely with impact transfer guards Gianna Nichols (Sturbridge, Mass.) and Payton Scurry (Warwick, R.I.) since she understands the challenges of the boarding school transfer process.
"Especially with those two, I started building those relationships in the summer, but really just welcoming them, (to) come see me in the office, and they'll come and sit on the beanbag," Marazzi said. "Do I love them eating 20 chocolates? No, but for right now, that's OK."
As much as Marazzi works to instill confidence in the Dragons, she knows they'll also feed off of her own self-assurance.
"I can draw up the best end-of-game play that you can ever imagine, that would work perfectly against every different type of team. If I haven't tapped into each individual player and know what's going on in their world, it is pointless," she said. "I know basketball, and I'm still going to grow and learn a lot in the basketball world, but that can only go so far when this age of athletes and students are under so much pressure, then you put them in the boarding school world? I mean, they're forced into a college environment while still trying to develop brains and still trying to have fun. How do they handle pressure is the question.
"So, my confidence is there, and it has to be there, because high school students are very, very smart, even when we don't think they are. Players can read a coach, so if your blood pressure's high, if you're stressed out, if you don't know what to do, well, it's going to push out onto the team."
