Babes 'n' Sports Podcast
Welcome to Babes n Sports, hosted by sports media pros and besties Jamie Hersch and Tory Zawacki Roy. It blends motherhood, marriage, and unfiltered career stories from inside the male-dominated world of sports. With guest appearances from athletes, media figures, and parenting experts, we're here to entertain, connect, and empower listeners who are juggling professional ambition and family life - because we're still figuring it all out ourselves. The best thing we can do is learn, and laugh about it. Join us!
Babes 'n' Sports Podcast
Staying Strong in What You Know and What You Choose
Welcome to Babes n Sports — where accomplished sports professionals Jamie Hersch and Tory Zawacki Roy pull back the curtain on what it’s really like to juggle motherhood with high-pressure careers in the male-dominated world of sports.
With honesty and humor, Jamie (a play-by-play announcer for professional women’s hockey and soccer) and Tory (a 15-year ESPN storytelling veteran and former collegiate tennis player) share their personal journeys and the unique challenges working moms face in sports media.
This week’s Mansplain Moment of the Week has Tory reliving a cringeworthy exchange where she was forced to defend her NFL knowledge mid-interview. Meanwhile, Jamie reflects on finding unexpected empowerment in saying no to an assignment so she could prioritize being mom first. Together, they explore the guilt that comes with turning things down — and the relief and strength that follow when family comes first.
Subscribe now for real conversations about chasing big career goals while raising families, and connect with Jamie (@JamieHersch), Tory (@Tzawacki), and the show (@babensportspodcast) on social media.
Follow the conversation on instagram @babesinsportspodcast
Hi,
SPEAKER_00:everyone, and welcome to the Babes in Sports podcast. We are so excited you're here. My name's Jamie Hirsch. I'm
SPEAKER_01:Tori Z. Roy. We're two friends navigating being mothers, wives, and successful women in the demanding, male-dominated world of sports.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So in case you're new here, welcome. And if you're not new here, thanks so much for listening. We have been blown away by the amount of support and encouragement that we've had in this early stage of trying this new podcasting thing for the very first time. We are both professionals who work in the male dominated world of sports, as Tori said, but also trying to be moms. My quick background is I've done studio hosting and reporting for just about every sport there is for the past 15 years or so. And And I'm now currently focusing mostly on play-by-play with the National Women's Soccer League. So that's really what most of my attention is on right now. Tor.
SPEAKER_01:So dope. It's so good that you can actually focus on one sport, right? Instead of just trying to dabble in baseball and dabble in hockey and make sure you're getting all these names. It's like a breath of fresh air. So for me, I'm working on our US Open coverage at the moment as we start to dip into NFL season. As a former tennis player, former college athlete, tennis is my first love language, but it was an easy transition to be at ESPN for the next 15 years after that. So yeah, we've kind of seen it all. We've done it all. And that's what makes our experiences so similar. but also different. Like we are so compatible in so many ways yet in different venues of sports around the world, which is so cool. And I'm really proud that we're friends and we can do this. So thank you. Yes, of course.
SPEAKER_00:I will always say that I will forever think of you during the US Open because of our amazing memories that we've had there. Hashtag honey deuce. If you know, you know, and I wish I were there right now. I went last year with my aunt. It was so fun, but it would be great for you and I to one day reconvene. at the US Open.
SPEAKER_01:Just experience it and enjoy it. Right. Yeah, because you worked it mostly. I was working so many years there. Yeah. Yeah, that I honestly didn't have a honey deuce for the first time until like last year. I had the frosé honey deuce. So I knew I'm going this week. I highly just won though.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:strong.
SPEAKER_00:And there's like$30 right now. So it'll set you back quite a bit if you end up. They better
SPEAKER_01:fill it up. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:for real. All right. So before we get into the podcast, just again, kind of recap being what we're doing here. We're going to be sharing our stories as moms and also the pressures of being a mom while working in a male-dominated field. We're hoping to have a lot of really great guests throughout the course of this podcast. Women who are in the sports industry as well or strong female figures, maybe not even in sports, but just kind of, again, in male-dominated fields. So if you're watching and you are that person or you know that person, please leave a comment and we'll reach out and hopefully we can connect that way. It'll be really fun.
SPEAKER_01:We've learned a lot in the last week. Haven't we, Jane?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, we sure have. If only the viewers slash listeners could hear and see what is going on behind the scenes. This is really fun. And also a great encouragement to anyone out there thinking of doing a podcast. Hey, why not? If we can do it, you can too.
SPEAKER_01:Let us fall so you can rise. That's what we're doing here. That's all. And Jamie, you touched on this earlier. I want to just also take a moment to give a quick shout out to everyone who took some time to listen, comment, send us words of encouragement on starting our show. You have no idea how much that means to us. Just hearing it and even our closest friends, our family reaching out, that's so cool because we're so passionate about this. So thank you. And I also want to say how valuable relationships are that we make in this industry. I've had the opportunity to work alongside our editor, Rachel Kott, And now I can call her a dear friend. And Rachel, thank you for being a badass woman in this industry and for being here for us for this crazy journey. So we've got more coming up. Let's go into episode two. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. All right, so today's topic is going to really center around the idea of setting boundaries at work. It is something we talk about, we certainly think about, but do we actually do it? And how have we done it? Did it take us a long time to do it? Are we still not really good at doing it? And so I guess I just wanted to kind of talk to you, Tori, about the value of saying no. I feel like so often in this industry, and especially if you're a woman in this industry, where opportunities were fewer and farther between, Everyone told me throughout my early years, say yes to everything. And I took that to heart and I did. And I worked overtime in my first job making$12 an hour. Shout out Madison, Wisconsin, local news, local TV sports.
UNKNOWN:Woo.
SPEAKER_00:What a ride. But I said yes to everything. And since then, like, I mean, my schedule changed. mostly when I was at MLB Network and NHL Network, it was literally all over the place because sports happen every single day, right? So I didn't have a Monday through Friday, hardly ever. Like more often than not, I would have a Tuesday, Wednesday off, or I'd have like a Tuesday, Saturday off that work week. And it was crazy before I had kids. And then once I had kids, it got even crazier, right? And so I didn't say no for a long time because I just felt like that team player mentality where I was like, I am going to do what's best for the good of the team, the good of the company. And sure, if someone needs a swap last minute, or if they need me to work a double shift, of course, yes, I'll make it work at all costs. And those costs ended up getting higher and higher once you have kids, right? It ends up being a big stressor in your marriage, frankly. And especially, my husband works a normal job, so it was always him who had to read rearrange his schedule because I was saying yes to every tweak and change that my schedule threw at us. So that's kind of my experience before we get into like how we change our mindset around that. I want to hear your experience, Tor, about the pressures of saying yes.
SPEAKER_01:A thousand percent. And I think anyone who has started young in the sports industry, sports media industry, can say that there is this feeling of you're replaceable, right? So if it's not doing it for the better of the team, it's doing it because if you say no, if you don't seem like you're willing to do whatever it takes to make a show better, to make a small segment in the show better, to just be there, to run the teleprompter at the craziest hours of the day, if you're not willing to do that, then don't worry. Someone is waiting at our front door to take your job. And of course, that was never, it's never literally said to you, but back when we started, I would say Yes. Yes. Yeah. So like I didn't, it was already hard enough to get my foot in the door. I didn't, I didn't want to mess anything up. So yes, you need me to be in at 3am, you know, fine. You're also 22 years old, 23 years old, and you're starting with people who are also the same age. So we're all in it together. It was like college extended. So yeah, for whatever that reason is that it stays with you, it's very deep.
SPEAKER_00:I would say it took me a long time to feel comfortable saying no. And by a within the last year or two, right? I only recently realized if I don't show up, someone else will do that and it will be okay. And I might miss something, but there's always going to be that next thing, right? There's always going to be that next assignment. The world keeps turning even if I'm not there hosting that show or reporting on this assignment. And that, I will say, The craziest part, and now I love telling young people especially this, the craziest thing that I have learned is that as I say no more... It's like a weird phenomenon and I'm not saying it's going to happen to everyone every time. But for me, I have found when I say no, oftentimes that will lead to that person, that company, that network asking for another opportunity. Okay, so you can't do this. What about this? And that has been like mind blowing. Like I can say no and they still are going to want me even if they have to work around my schedule a little bit. Like that has been so empowering. And again, I understand if you're young and you're just starting out, that may not be there. That privilege might not be there. But I would encourage anyone who feels a little more established in their industry, in their role, to say no every now and then for legit reasons. Your family is a legitimate reason. Your spouse not being able to work around their schedule, that's a legit reason for you to be able to say no. No, I need to be home with my kids that day. Or no, this is my son's graduation or something like that. That's a legit reason. And when you start saying no, you might actually find that people are going to understand that and they will still accommodate, even if you feel like it's scary to say no.
SPEAKER_01:that is such good advice. And it's almost like, wish somebody had told me that, you know? Um, so because it is, it's true. It's just, it's an unspoken thing. It it's there. Um, so when it, when it 10 years ago, Jamie would have liked to hear that. So that's, that's what we're trying to say. Um, if anyone's out there that is feeling pressure, feeling overworked, um, it's a, it's a, it is okay to say that. Um, did you ever feel too, like, I don't know, sometimes in our industry there, there's a boys club, you know, just not going to beat around it like it just is like it it's been male dominated for a long time um we're finally starting to shift the curve a little bit but sometimes i feel it's a badge of honor when people talk about all the stuff that they've missed for their job have you ever noticed that when it's like oh yeah no i had to travel for 48 hours straight to get this interview done but i got it done and it's like okay cool that's great if you feel that way i just it adds the pressure a little bit in my mind to be like do i have to do that like yeah i don't want No,
SPEAKER_00:it's not a badge of honor. Yeah. I mean, there are so many ways we could take this conversation. Cause I definitely feel that where it's like people want to sound impressive by being busier or missing more or doing more. And sometimes there's real value in doing less. And that by that, I mean less work. Like I, we made a very conscious decision to move our family to Las Vegas from the New York city area. area where we had been for almost a decade because not for a job but for family because I realized that at some point like I wanted my life to look a certain way and feel a certain way and while my whole life throughout forever as long as I can remember it's been career driven it's been career oriented what's going to be best for my career what makes sense in terms of a next step at some point I realized I care more about what my life looks like and my life is a lot bigger than just my job. Was there ever a work assignment tour that you had to say no to? All the time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. All the time. And I just became okay with it in the last two years. I would beat myself up about it. I remember I had just had Braxton. I had just come back to work. He was maybe six months old, maybe seven, eight months. And we just brought a nanny in to start working with us. And I got a call like, hey, we have a Josh Allen sit down tomorrow. I need you to be in Buffalo Mm-hmm. it is funny how things work out because that's what my job turned into for like two, three years. But I just, I just want to like shake that girl and be like, Tori, like you cannot go to Buffalo tomorrow. You just had a baby. It's really hard. And it's, I don't know why that this is like the first time that I think the industry, sometimes it feels like it's the first time they've ever had to hear that, you know? Yeah. And it's just like, but that doesn't make sense. It doesn't. And I'm glad that I'm still the person that they want to be there for a big interview. like that. Sometimes it's okay. And you know what? I still got even cooler opportunities after that.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Yeah. There's always another game. There's always another assignment. I mean, I have a couple examples, but most recently, I remember being at the NWSL headquarters where we all call play-by-play and they bring everyone in and we call all the games remotely. So it's kind of cool because you have a little bit of camaraderie with everyone. But I was talking to a few people and I was saying, I'm new here and I feel bad because they asked me to do a couple games in September, but I can't do them. So I'm going to have to say no. How does that work? And they all looked at me like, well, most people are trying to get more games. You don't give up your games. And I sat there like, but I have to. And I did. And what's great is my boss and scheduler was so, so cool about it. She was like, no, of course. Totally. We'll figure it out. We've got other people who can do it. And I felt good. but I was like this is just you know this is kind of non-negotiable for me. I have to be able to feel like I can put my family first. And if I had something that weekend or travel plans or a big event or something, you have to be able to say no and it will be okay. And guess what? I still am going there. They didn't fire me or let me go. I just didn't work those two weekends or whatever. And it was okay. And then I think the other biggest example that I can think of is the Stanley Cup final. That is definitely Anytime I got to cover a Stanley Cup final, I was just in awe of how cool that is. You know, I think it's the hardest trophy to win in sports and it's a grind of two months of playoffs every single day. Like it's crazy. And so you see the emotion like pouring out of these players and coaches when they finally hoist the Stanley Cup and you understand the magnitude of what that trophy really means. And so to be able to cover something like that. And it's
SPEAKER_01:the end of the season for you too. You've been covering the whole season. So it's like everyone is in this together, finishing it together. It's so rewarding.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So it's, yeah, it's, it's really, really awesome to get to cover assignments like that. But, um, I got pregnant and had a baby at the end of April. And so there was no doubt in my mind, like I'm not going to the Stanley cup final in mid June. And so, yes, I missed that Stanley cup final. That was the epic seven game back and forth between the Bruins and the blues. And I would have loved to be there, but I wasn't, I was at home on the couch. with my six week old baby. And that was where I was supposed to be. And there was another Stanley Cup final. Turns out it would be a few years because this thing called COVID happened and I didn't cover it again in 2020 or 2021. But yeah, that's probably 11 months when the Stanley Cup would have been going on. And same thing. I wanted to go really badly, but I was like, okay, the Stanley Cup final for anyone who doesn't know hockey super well, it is the best of seven. And there's all these extra extra days off for travel and practice and everything. And it can take up to 20 days to complete. So skip ahead to like 2022. And that would have been my first chance to be back full coverage Stanley Cup final. And I just felt like I couldn't be gone that long. Like for anyone who doesn't know that much about hockey, like it's two and a half weeks if it goes seven games. That's a long time. It could be up to 20 days, actually. It's almost three weeks. And I just felt like that was not a thing I could actually do. ask my kids and husband to do is to have me be gone for that amount of time. So I agreed to do half of it. But what ended up happening was I missed the cup clinching game because I only did half of it. And that was really a tough pill to swallow. So that's an example of something that, you know, if I weren't a mom, there was no question I would have been there through all seven games. If it went seven, didn't matter. But when you're a mom, you have these dueling interests and your heart is in multiple places at once. And, um, it's just the, The Crossy Bear.
SPEAKER_01:I see that as a blessing that we get to have these, these passions pulling us in these directions, right? Like it just makes you more whole person. So that's how we got it. And good for you. Good for you for, you know what? It took us, it took us way too long, but we had to, we had no other way. Like, I just think we're so used to putting our careers first in hard work, hard work, hard work. Yeah. That when you suddenly can't make that your priority, you have to adjust. So we have to forgive ourselves a little bit, you know, and then it's okay that we, we had to take some time to yeah like let it go like yeah just it's okay so we got there yeah no matter
SPEAKER_00:yeah and just kind of to to end this part of our conversation like i i feel like the whole idea of saying no to work is a big deal when you take a step back and look at life in general right like someone told me once no one ever looks at a tombstone and it says hardest worker best employee like never like this is morbid right but like if you think about it like when We are on our deathbed.
SPEAKER_01:of similar feelings, let us know, hit us up. We finally have our Instagram, babes in sports podcast at Jamie Hirsch at T's a wacky. Let us know what you're thinking. Let us know if you've been through this times where you had to say no and had a hard time. We're here. Mance Blaine moment of the week. I'm going to go this time because this one has stuck with me for a long time, Jame, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. But I had the opportunity to interview Dr. James Andrews for a story a couple of years back. For those who might not know, Dr. Andrews is the orthopedic surgeon to the stars. He's operated on Michael Jordan, Tom Brady. The list goes on. He's just the guy you'd call if you're a pro athlete. I was there to talk to him about his work on Drew Brees, who tore his shoulder labrum back in 2005. So the story. I had pitched and was covering was how Drew had written thank you notes to everyone who had impacted him his entire career, like personal handwritten notes. And Dr. James Andrews received the personalized letter, personalized signed football with his name on it, like really nice, like says a lot about Drew Brees, pretty cool story. He operated on Drew's shoulder. He essentially saved his career by doing that. So during the interview, the way I had phrased one of the questions included like, oh, the game that Drew got hurt, you know, that ended up being his last game for the San Diego Chargers. Someone in the room interrupts me, like wasn't live, you know, but we started the interview. We were recording and he goes, the saints. Do you mean, you mean the saints? And you can see it on the transcript. You see it. I've like, it's hilarious. Cause I go, no, no, no. He was the chargers. He was, he was playing for the chargers. That was the last game with the charger. And that guy showed up real quick. Wow. I cannot. I don't know. You know, I know I'm there for a reason. You're not
SPEAKER_00:just a pretty face, Tori. You know what I mean? Oh, my gosh. No, that is so maddening and so disrespectful. Even if that person was thinking it, to say that, to blurt that out mid-interview that you are conducting, that is unconscionable.
UNKNOWN:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Right. If I just messed up my whole,
SPEAKER_01:like, you know, when you're in the rhythm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, if our listeners could see
SPEAKER_01:Dr. Andrews though, so
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure you did. Wow. I
SPEAKER_01:appreciate you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That is incredible. Yeah. You knew your stuff. This is the, this is the point that women work our asses off to make sure we know our stuff because we want to be credible because credibility is so hard. Yeah. And so easy to lose as a woman in sports. So, Wow. I mean, props to you for continuing on being the pro that you are. Thank you. That would make me literally stop and be like, excuse me. Man, that makes my blood
SPEAKER_01:boil. I think I was just so shocked that I was like, like,
SPEAKER_00:God. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:But hey, keep up. Keep giving your mansplain moments because they're so cringe. And we love just hearing all the other ones because it makes us feel a lot better. We got one more thing. I lied. We got one more thing. if anyone wants to join us in this ridiculousness.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Okay. So Tori recently celebrated a milestone birthday. We went to Napa. We'll get into it later because it was epic. We've been
SPEAKER_01:to Napa.
SPEAKER_00:Epic trip, Napa Valley, heaven on earth. Could not recommend enough. But as most Napa trips involve not, Tori thought that we should do a three minute plank to offset all of the wine and all of the food that we were having. So we actually did it. And there were only three of us, the whole group. There were eight of us and only three of us. It was four of us.
SPEAKER_01:It was
SPEAKER_00:four of us.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, four of us. So half the group. And I had gave everyone a heads up. We had been training. We had been practicing for this moment.
SPEAKER_00:And I just want to say that. I did not practice, which is why it was brutal. Wait, what? No, I didn't practice planking before that. I don't like planking. That's not my jam. I'm such a loser. No, I'm proud of you. I'm good. And that's why your form was better than mine. Anyway, we decided to do a three minute plank and we did it. We cried. We did it.
SPEAKER_01:You're at a minute 30. Thanks buddy. Thanks buddy. So he kept us going, but yeah, shout out to Jamie, shout out to myself, shout out to Alan. We for making the three minute challenge. So let's do it. Why not?
SPEAKER_00:Let's do it. Everyone. Yes. Everyone. That is your challenge. Jamie, take us home, babe. Mamas or not. Doesn't matter. Do the three minute plank and let us know how it goes for you. We will reconvene. We're going to try to drop an episode every Tuesday, so be sure to check it out. Put your notifications on, subscribe wherever you get your local podcast. And check us out on YouTube eventually. And yes, thanks again for watching and listening to Babes in Sports. I'm Jamie Hirsch. She's Tori Z. Roy. And we will see you next time. Thanks, guys.
