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Where Are They Now?

Donna MacDougall-Bednarsky

Women's Soccer, 1982-85

As the United States confronts social issues on a daily basis, various movements have helped shape what our society is today. Women’s drive for equality is one of those most prominent movements ever. This decades long fight continues to produce countless achievements and one of the most important pieces of legislation written was Title IX -- which among other things provided gender equity in collegiate sports. Title IX made opportunities available to female athletes like former University of Connecticut soccer star Donna MacDougall.

As a freshman at Hanover Park High School in East Hanover, N.J., MacDougall, like many students, anticipated playing sports. However, when MacDougall entered high school, Hanover Park did not have women’s sports. A strong push by MacDougall and fellow students to the school’s board of education eventually led to the establishment of a women’s sports program. A fight for social justice and a strong commitment to beliefs and values, MacDougall’s campaign enabled her to star in soccer, field hockey, basketball and softball. MacDougall held such talent in soccer that she earned tryouts to a number of colleges, as scholarships were not available at the time.

UConn was MacDougall’s top choice for multiple reasons, including it was her father’s alma mater and the up-and-coming women’s soccer team UConn was fielding.

“Coach Lenny (Tsantiris) had a great group of local girls, soccer was just starting out and it was very exciting,” MacDougall recalls.

The women’s soccer team immediately felt the impact of MacDougall’s talents as they finished third overall in the nation after her first season on the squad. In MacDougall’s second year, the Huskies finished fourth overall in the country. MacDougall continued that same team success the following two years, but also achieved personally. MacDougall was twice named an All-American and to her this was a tremendous achievement made possible by playing on a great team.

Upon graduation from UConn with a communications degree, MacDougall was ready to get married and start a family. Her undergraduate career also included a stint as an intern in the UConn Athletic Communications office.

MacDougall married her husband Tony in 1987, whom she had met at a soccer camp at Shippensburg College in Pennsylvania and had her first child in 1989. Today MacDougall, who know goes by the last name Bednarsky, and her husband live in New Jersey and have four children: Peter, 15, Andrew, 13, Katheryne, 9, and Stephen, 7.

During the late ‘90s, Bednarsky returned to the high school program that she had helped create two decades before and coached the team. While coaching, Bednarsky led her team to three straight state championships. Bednarsky took pride instilling some of her fundamental beliefs in the young girls she was coaching.

“Ninety percent of the time I coached, I was pregnant so it showed to all of those girls that you could do all of the things you wanted to while still being a woman,” says Bednarsky.

Bednarsky no longer coaches the high school team but runs a high select club Under-10 team. Her husband teaches at the high school and coaches the men’s soccer team. Bednarsky has never forgotten UConn and enjoys taking her children to sports games when UConn teams travel to their area.

Pioneers aren’t always written about on the front page of the newspaper and it doesn’t take an event that rocks a nation to be a hero. Bednarsky’s fight for a cause she believed in ultimately enabled her and others to live lives where they were free to make their own choices that determined their future. While Title IX empowered many women, smaller fights had to be fought.  There is a fight for social justice on some level in everyone, Bednarsky took hers head on -- and won.

-Curran Kennedy