As students at Concordia, G.M. 吉安-马尔科(Gian-Marco)和萨拉(Sara (Wiese) Ciallella)是体育界的佼佼者.M. as captain of the lacrosse team and Sara as the re-founder of Concordia University Irvine’s cheer program. Today, happily married and parents to a little girl, with another one on the way, 这对夫妇以同样的激情追求事业和家庭生活.
“I’m the type that’s always squeezing everything in,” says Sara, an avid runner, mom and physical therapist at a SoCal hospital. “我喜欢花时间和我的女儿和丈夫在一起，我们会做尽可能多的有趣的事情.”
G.M. works for the Anaheim Ducks, a National Hockey League (NHL) team, and today runs the club’s digital marketing strategy and campaigns, plus the esports division (the Ducks’ presence in video games).
他说:“NHL将我们的组织视为整个联盟的潮流引领者. “作为营销人员，我们的目标是通过冰球发展来帮助扩大我们的粉丝基础, through fans of esports, or by supporting live event aficionados.”
G.M.他的主要职责是领导一个为电子邮件创建信息的数字营销团队, social media and online ads, targeting audiences potentially interested in attending games.
“Our mentality is, if somebody goes to a game, they’ll love it. So how do we get people to go to that first game?” he says. “冰球一周可能要和不同的对手打三到四场比赛, and people may not want to sit at an arena four days out of seven. We have to figure out, what resonates with them? The opponent? Ticket prices? Giveaways? The experience? Food? Then you have to try to fill the arena.”
Marketing in sports is unique in the sense that, “你所要做的就是走进竞技场，如果那里坐满了人，人们都很兴奋, you did your job,” he says. “或者你在杂货店里看到衬衫和帽子，在汽车上看到贴纸和旗帜.”
Lately, 他的数字团队正在将票务活动中使用的成功策略应用于扩大他们的电子商务空间，以在线销售商品, an effort which is going “extremely well,” he says.
G.M., a San Diego native, was recruited to Concordia University Irvine for baseball, and met Sara on move-in day of their freshman year. When he decided baseball wasn’t for him, she invited him to play with her on the new men’s lacrosse team. Sara was playing with the guys because there was no women’s program. “I tried it and was a terrible mid-fielder,” G.M. recalls.
Then one day, the team’s goalie didn’t show up, and G.M. subbed at that position. 他说:“事实证明，我很擅长挡球。.
It all happened clearly for a purpose.
More than decent: he was named to the all conference team every year, the all-American team twice, and went on to play the sport in Europe, including on the Italian national team.
“It really felt cool,” he says. “I’m a type-1 diabetic and had always been an underdog. I hadn’t picked up a lacrosse stick until I went to Concordia. 几年前，在教堂里，他们让我们谈谈你能感觉到上帝真的指引你去某个地方的时刻. For me it was clear and obvious. Going to Concordia Irvine was complete divine intervention.”
萨拉也感到上帝把她从家乡华盛顿州带到了尔湾.
“My sister went to Concordia Irvine to be a teacher,” she says. “我来到中学参观，知道这正是我想去的地方. It was the only school I applied to.”
Dr. Vance Tammen, the head of exercise/sports sciences at the time and a family friend, was “my personal cheerleader and on-campus dad, always checking in,” she says. “He told my parents, ‘I’ll keep my eye out for her. Don’t worry.’”
和一群人打长曲棍球很有趣，直到对手变得更有侵略性.
“我受伤了，不想成为游戏的目标，”她说. She pivoted to another passion: cheerleading. In high school, 萨拉是全美啦啦队的一员，被选中在迈阿密海豚体育场的橙色碗赛场上为数千人助威.
“It was insane, the biggest rush I’ve ever had,” she says.
But CUI’s cheer program 已经好几年不存在了，所以萨拉把重建它作为自己的任务. 她招募了20名年轻女性，起草了一份提案，并通过了行政审批.
“I just decided to go after it,” she says. “我知道我要把一群优秀的核心女孩聚集在一起，她们有才华，会成为领导者的光辉榜样. I wanted to bring that level of excitement back to basketball games. Cheerleading is the ‘extra factor.’ They bring that sense of excitement and camaraderie.”
The Eagles men’s basketball 那时候，球队几乎每年都要参加全国比赛，“一支顶级篮球队需要一支啦啦队来支持他们,” Sara says.
The club was approved in 2008 and steadily grew. Sara served as its first captain and coach.
“当我们继续表演时，人们说，‘哇，这些女孩真的很棒，’”她说. “Gaining that respect took a long time. We designed the uniforms, 通过在校园里的糕饼义卖来筹集资金.”
The squad cheered not just at men’s and women’s basketball games, but at baseball and softball games, lacrosse games and pep assemblies and Midnight Madness.
“看到啦啦队从一个俱乐部发展成为一项受人尊敬的运动——他们非常有天赋，在比赛中表现出色——这令人难以置信，因为这正是我们想要的。,” Sara says.
Meanwhile, her friendship with G.M. 成长，尽管他们来自不同的宗教背景. Sara was a dyed in-the-wool Lutheran. G.M. had almost no church background. 他母亲的家族是犹太人，在大屠杀之前逃离了德国. 他说，他的曾祖父在二战后帮助重新起草了德国宪法.
Soon, he and Sara began attending church together.
“Her family is very energetic in the Lutheran church,” he says. “她有坚实的基础，并把很多东西传给了我.”
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and sports management, 然后在他获得长曲棍球资格的最后一年留下来攻读MBA，并帮助指导康考迪亚大学欧文分校的长曲棍球队, which won national championships in 2015 and 2017. G.M. 进入了大学全明星队，并前往欧洲为意大利国家队效力. 他在2012年的欧洲锦标赛和2014年的丹佛世界锦标赛中担任守门员.
康科迪亚教会我的一件事是，上帝如何使用你，你该如何回馈? What talents and gifts and knowledge do you have to instill in others?
Back in California, Sara had earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise sports science, and the pair was married in 2014. G.M. went to work for the Ducks, went on to play in the World Championship for Italy, and continued to play post-collegiate lacrosse for a SoCal league until the COVID pandemic began; meanwhile, Sara became a physical therapist at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton (not the children’s hospital). 她在神经物理治疗(NCS)方面获得了委员会认证，目前领导着一个脊髓康复团队. 这意味着她可以在医院里帮助急性期结束的脊髓损伤患者, 但为了回家，每天需要几个小时的严格治疗来恢复功能.
她说:“许多人瘫痪了，不能站立、行走，也不能从床上坐到椅子上。. “有些人的功能水平较低，医生告诉他们可能再也不能走路了. 其他人将在一些帮助下行走，或者希望再次获得完全的独立."
In addition to her work at the hospital, Sara serves as a cycling instructor at a fitness gym in Anaheim, and an independent representative for Zyia Active, an athletic and leisure-wear maker she adores. 她通常每年跑几次半程马拉松，目前正在为下一次比赛进行训练.
G.M. is excited to reconnect with Concordia University Irvine again. 他曾与名誉教授柯特·卡托(Curt Cattau)合作，帮助制定了一些新项目的早期计划 sports business program and is serving as an advocate for the forthcoming Eagle Athletics Initiative.
“我对这个项目很感兴趣，因为我在体育领域的经历让我知道了哪些因素能让我做好准备，哪些没有,” he says. “That’s one reason I want to help it get off the ground. I love to give back. 康科迪亚教会我的一件事是，上帝如何使用你，你该如何回馈? What talents and gifts and knowledge do you have to instill in others?”
他最近入选了CUI曲棍球名人堂，并被评为2009-2019年度最佳守门员. He and Sara now attend Zion Lutheran in Anaheim, 他们喜欢自己的小组，和朋友一起深入学习圣经.
“我们在搬家那天相遇并最终结婚并不是偶然的，”G.M. says. “If you don’t believe in God, you’d say there’s no way you should have ended up at Concordia Irvine, or played lacrosse or met that way. It all happened clearly for a purpose.”