Ali Izzi called her shot. Before even enrolling at Springfield College, she knew she wanted to work in professional hockey. She just did not know what that would look like. Now, almost a decade later, Izzi has gone from Springfield College journalism student to American Hockey League (AHL) executive, to law school graduate, to National Hockey League (NHL) clerk, and has just recently taken her largest career leap thus far: becoming the general manager of the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) Vancouver Goldeneyes.
On a visit to Springfield College, Izzi told former Springfield College professor of communications Kyle Belanger of her goals, and Belanger believed in her from the start.
“I never doubted her,” said Belanger, who is not the least bit surprised by Izzi’s career move. “You can set your watch to Ali Izzi climbing the ladder,” he said.
Although Izzi’s dream of working in professional hockey has come to fruition, working in a front office was never something that was on her radar.
“When I went to college, I thought I was going to be the first female play-by-play in the NHL. That was my goal,” said Izzi.
Izzi was drawn to Alden Street by the journalism program the school boasted and the opportunity to gain early hands-on experience. Izzi jumped right into the fold and worked as a sideline reporter during football games and called games for the Springfield College radio station.
The program’s expansive alumni network and well connected staff also played a role in Izzi’s commitment to Springfield, knowing she would have connections in the industry she wanted to pursue.
“They were just really well connected. And they had a really large network of folks who were already in professional sports, so it really drew me to the school and as I went through that program, I got to experience a lot,” said Izzi.
Throughout Izzi’s time on Alden Street, Belanger believed in her the whole way and knew she would succeed.
“Ali Izzi has the kind of singular focus where when she says something, even as an undergraduate student, she would proclaim a thing and I’m just like, ‘alright, I’m going to ride shotgun on this. I don’t know where we’re going, but I trust you,’” said Belanger.
He also saw the shift in Izzi’s goals in professional hockey firsthand.
“I think her senior year, she interned with the AHL just really got in deep,” recalled Belanger. “It was at that point that I realized that she wasn’t thinking about working in the media side of it. That was when I realized ‘oh, this woman is thinking bigger than working at NESN. This woman doesn’t want to cover the Bruins. She wants to run the Bruins.’”
It was the relationship between Izzi and Belanger that would ultimately lead to Izzi landing an internship with the AHL, which she credits all to the connections she made at Springfield.
“Every single opportunity that I had during my time in Springfield came from the connections that the professors had in the pro community,” Izzi said. “Whether it was Kyle hooking me up with an internship or helping me get an internship at UMass Amherst to literally Alex Thomas, who was a senior when I was a freshman, being friends with Emily Vance, who was in the sport [management] major, being friends with Emily Assand, who worked at the AHL, who [while] I was shadowing Alex at a Springfield Falcons game was like, ‘oh, you’re interested in in hockey? Why don’t you come intern for me?’ And that was my first kind of internship in hockey with the AHL because Kyle introduced me to Alex, who introduced me to Emily, who introduced me to Emily.”
Izzi would thoroughly enjoy her time interning with the AHL and it would eventually lead to a full-time position. Izzi began working as the executive assistant for Dave Andrews, the chairman of the AHL’s board of governors, before working her way up the AHL ladder over the course of seven years to eventually becoming the vice president of hockey operations and governance for the AHL.
Throughout her time in the AHL’s front office, Izzi came to love the operations side of things and looked into getting her law degree to continue advancing her career in that field.
“All that time at the AHL is when I determined that I really found a lot of the work I was doing was legal adjacent and thought that to extend my career in this sport, getting a law degree could be helpful for me,” Izzi said. “And it’s actually something I remember talking to Kyle Belanger about at one point. and he was like, ‘Yeah, you could totally do that. You could totally be a GM. You could totally do this.’”
With the confidence of her former professor, Izzi went back to school and received her law degree from Western New England University while still working full time at the AHL.
After completing her degree, Izzi accepted a position as a clerk for the NHL, where she worked for a year.
“It was a fantastic experience,” said Izzi. “And it was one that I learned a lot from, but also made me realize how much I love being in the hockey ops space.”
Eager to get back on the operations side of things, the open opportunity at the Goldeneyes felt like a natural fit.
“When this opportunity came up, it felt like a great next step to kind of put all of my experience in the last eight years up to this point, kind of in one role, “ said Izzi.
Although becoming the general manager of one of a professional hockey league’s newest franchises is no small feat, Belanger knows it is just a testament to Izzi’s hard work and great character.
“Occasionally I would see students who would take a direct interest in them as humans, and Ali was one of those people because when you get to know Ali Izzi, she is a person who wants to know who you are, wants to know what gives you joy and deeply cares about people.” said Belanger.
Despite starting her collegiate career in a journalism program and ending up as a front office executive, Izzi still learned a lot from her time on Alden Street.
“The principles of sports journalism and sports media are so applicable to all other areas of the industry,” Izzi said. “Nobody I know in this industry, their path has been linear.”
Izzi is no exception to her own anecdote, from calling play-by-play for Springfield College Athletics to the Goldeneyes’ front office, her career has been anything but linear.
“The best thing you can do is to just try it all,” said Izzi.
(Photo Courtesy of PWHL)