Beth Guiliani-Gatto had spent four years at Mansfield preparing for what came next. When the time finally arrived to leave, she wasn't quite ready.

It was the spring of 1994. Her final softball season had ended, her belongings were packed, and an assignment with ABC Sports was waiting in Columbus, Ohio.

Guiliani-Gatto had already missed her college commencement because the Mountaineers were still playing postseason softball. Now, outside Decker Gymnasium, she stood with teammate Kim and their families, trying to say goodbye to the people who had become such an important part of her life.

They cried.

For four years, seeing one another had been as simple as walking down the hallway. Now, with Kim returning to Binghamton and Guiliani-Gatto headed toward a career in sports television, even that small certainty was disappearing.

"We won't just walk down the hall and see each other tomorrow," Guiliani-Gatto remembered thinking.

She hugged her teammate. She hugged her parents. Then she climbed into her car and headed for Ohio, only to discover that she couldn't find the notebook containing her handwritten directions to the hotel.

Long before GPS and smartphones, she found herself at a rest stop, calling her parents and her friend to figure out where the directions had gone.

It was a hectic beginning to a professional journey that would eventually take her to Super Bowls, Olympic Games, some of the largest stages in sports television and, ultimately, a leadership position with the Buffalo Sabres.

But on that day in 1994, her thoughts were still with the people she was leaving behind.

More than three decades later, Guiliani-Gatto has an extraordinary collection of experiences to look back on. She is also one of the most accomplished two-sport athletes in Mansfield history, a basketball and softball standout who competed as Beth Guiliani and whose career earned her induction into the Mansfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

Yet when she reflects on those years, it isn't the awards or statistics she talks about first.

It's the people who recruited her, believed in her, challenged her and helped open doors she never could have imagined walking through.

It's the friendships that never ended.

And it's how a young woman from Western New York found a place that allowed her to become much more than she had envisioned when she first arrived.

"I think it goes back to it gave me the opportunity to just grow," Guiliani-Gatto said.

For Guiliani-Gatto, that opportunity began with a coach named Joe French, two home runs and a road sign bearing a number she would never forget.

A Chance to Be Both

Growing up in Western New York, Guiliani-Gatto never had much trouble finding something to do.

The youngest of four children and the only girl, she spent much of her childhood trying to keep up with her three older brothers and the boys who filled their neighborhood.

There was a park directly across the street from the family home. In the summers, the neighborhood kids rode their bicycles, rounded up whoever was available and played whatever sport they had enough people for.

Baseball. Basketball. Tennis. It didn't particularly matter.

As long as there was a game, Beth wanted to be part of it.

"Whatever I could do in sports, that was my obsession," Guiliani-Gatto recalled. "Sports is the only thing I have ever wanted to do in my life."

Her father, a police chief, helped nurture that passion. The family watched Wide World of Sports together, and athletics were a constant presence in the Guiliani household.

By the time she reached Niagara-Wheatfield High School, Beth had developed into an accomplished basketball and softball player, competing at high levels beyond her high school teams.

She was confident in her abilities and knew she wanted to continue competing in college.

What she didn't want was to give up either sport.

Several schools expressed interest, but most were recruiting her for basketball or softball.

Mansfield offered something different.

Joe French, who coached both sports for the Mountaineers, saw an opportunity for Guiliani to continue playing the two games she loved.

And he made certain she knew how interested Mansfield was.

French regularly traveled to see her compete. Members of his coaching staff attended her basketball games, and he developed a relationship with her father that Beth still remembers more than 30 years later.

Recruiting was different in those days. There were no social media highlights or online recruiting profiles. Coaches had to get in their cars, attend games and get to know the people they hoped would join their programs.

French did exactly that.

French also learned how important No. 14 was to Guiliani, who had worn the number throughout her basketball career. He jokingly informed her that Mansfield might not have an even-numbered jersey available.

Her father wasn't impressed.

If she couldn't wear 14, he joked, she wasn't going.

At one softball game, French offered Beth a challenge.

Hit a home run, and maybe she could earn the first digit.

She stepped to the plate and hit one.

French returned with another challenge. She had earned the one, he told her, but still needed the four.

Her next time up, she hit another home run.

"I guess 14's your number," French told her.

Then came her first trip to Mansfield.

Traveling south from Western New York, Guiliani-Gatto remembers the beautiful drive through the mountains of northern Pennsylvania and the anticipation of seeing the campus.

Near the end of the journey, she noticed a road sign.

Mansfield — 14 miles.

There was that number again.

"Fourteen. That's my number. I love it," she recalled thinking.

But the coincidences were only part of the excitement.

Mansfield was close enough that her family could regularly attend games, yet far enough away to give her a chance to experience college on her own. The campus appealed to her immediately, and its Mass Communications program offered the broadcasting education she wanted.

Most importantly, the people recruiting her had demonstrated that she mattered to them.

"I felt like they invested so much time in me," Guiliani-Gatto said. "I respected that and just thought, 'I'm going to go there. They're going to care.'"

That ultimately separated Mansfield from the other schools she considered.

She wasn't looking for someone to convince her she could play college sports. She already believed she could.

She was looking for a place that would let her pursue everything she wanted to pursue, surround her with people who cared about her future and give her a chance to contribute.

At Mansfield, she found all three.

More Than Teammates

When Guiliani arrived on campus in the fall of 1990, it didn't take long for Mansfield to begin feeling like home.

She had the advantage of belonging to two athletic teams, which meant she immediately knew other students through basketball workouts and fall softball activities.

And then there was Kathy Murphy.

French had spent much of the recruiting process telling Guiliani about another talented basketball player from Skaneateles, New York, whom he hoped would also come to Mansfield.

He thought the two might make good roommates.

They hadn't met until a campus visit, when Guiliani overheard Murphy mention that she was going to see Coach French.

The two began talking.

"Beth from Niagara Falls?"

"Kathy from Skaneateles?"

Within minutes, the girls had connected. Soon afterward, they decided to room together.

They spent their freshman year in Hemlock Hall before moving into the same Cedarcrest suite for the next three years.

More than three decades later, Murphy remains one of Guiliani-Gatto's closest friends.

"Mansfield felt like home super quickly," she said. "When you're an athlete, you were so lucky to have built-in friends."

Her family helped make those first days memorable, too.

During an early campus visit, Guiliani's parents ordered several sheet pizzas from Pudgie's and invited students from both sides of the residence hall floor into the common lounge.

It was a simple gesture, but it gave a group of young people who barely knew one another a chance to begin building relationships.

Those relationships became one of the defining parts of her Mansfield experience.

Guiliani-Gatto still laughs about late-night gatherings after basketball road trips, afternoons spent driving to the Arnot Mall and the mischief that occasionally accompanied college life.

She remembers an evening after a long trip back from Millersville when she and her teammates joined friends at a gathering near Cedarcrest. Tina Foshee ended up down a sloped backyard, and the others laughed so hard while trying to pull her back up that they could barely help.

There were trips to the Champion outlet, memories of the old campus gathering places and countless ordinary days that remain vivid more than three decades later.

There was also work to be done.

Guiliani remembers taking 18 credits during her first semester while trying to manage two sports. After that experience, she vowed not to repeat such a demanding schedule.

She spent hours studying in the residence halls and campus libraries, working through assignments in an era before students could carry an entire university's worth of resources around on a laptop.

The friendships helped make the difficult days manageable.

Murphy, Foshee and Dawn Owens became what Guiliani-Gatto affectionately calls her "ride-or-die girls."

Those friendships have endured through weddings, children, careers and the loss of parents.

When Guiliani-Gatto lost her mother and father, her Mansfield friends were there. They traveled to Niagara Falls to support her, and amid the sadness, the old stories eventually brought laughter.

The women who had once shared residence halls and locker rooms had become family.

"We've all been there for the birth of our children, death of our parents, all those kinds of things," Guiliani-Gatto said.

Now the mother of two college students herself, she sees those relationships from a different perspective.

Her daughter Miranda competes in track and field at Stony Brook, while her son Dylan attends Buffalo State. Both are enjoying opportunities of their own, but Guiliani-Gatto recognizes that their college experiences are different from hers.

At Mansfield, she knew her teammates' families. Her parents regularly took the girls to dinner when they visited. The closeness extended beyond the students themselves.

"It just feels like one big family," Guiliani-Gatto said.

That family included more than teammates.

It included coaches, professors, administrators and people around town whose names never appeared in a box score.

Then there was Steve McCloskey, Mansfield's longtime sports information director, whom Guiliani-Gatto remembers for the genuine interest he took in the athletes he covered. Long before the internet made every accomplishment instantly accessible, McCloskey helped ensure that stories of Mansfield athletes reached newspapers back in their hometowns.

"He cared about the athletes in a way he didn't have to," Guiliani-Gatto said.

She also remembers Roger Maisner, Mansfield's longtime athletic director, who knew his student-athletes personally and was a familiar presence throughout her college years.

And there was Deb Calkins, a local supporter who helped Guiliani and her teammates organize Thanksgiving when some of the players couldn't make it home, supplying the pots, pans and other things they needed to prepare dinner.

Guiliani remembers the people working inside Decker Gym just as fondly as some of the athletes who played there.

"You knew everybody and everybody knew you," she said. "I liked that."

At a school where relationships were built through daily interactions, students didn't have to be star athletes to feel that they mattered.

And those relationships would become especially important when Guiliani faced some of the most difficult moments of her college career.

The Coach Who Helped Her Stay

Guiliani's success at Mansfield was remarkable, but her four years were not without challenges.

She learned quickly that college basketball demanded more than talent.

During an early practice, an older player knocked the freshman to the floor on a drive to the basket and delivered a memorable introduction.

"Welcome to college basketball."

Guiliani understood the message.

She would have to earn everything.

And she did.

As a freshman, the 5-foot-6 guard was named PSAC East Rookie of the Year and earned Second-Team All-PSAC East honors.

She became one of the Mountaineers' most dependable players, eventually surpassing 1,000 career points.

By her senior year, Guiliani was team captain, earned First-Team All-PSAC East honors and led Mansfield in scoring at 14.5 points per game.

During the final week of the 1993-94 basketball season, she scored 34 points against Millersville and 25 in a victory over Kutztown, earning PSAC East Player of the Week recognition.

She was also named Mansfield's 1994 Winter Athlete of the Year.

Yet the relationships and challenges behind those accomplishments remain just as important to her.

Following a coaching change in the basketball program, Guiliani struggled with her role and her relationship with the new leadership.

She was accustomed to competing, contributing and being trusted on the floor. At times, she found herself on the bench, frustrated by circumstances she had never experienced before.

The difficulties eventually became serious enough that she considered leaving Mansfield.

That's when Edith Gallagher became much more than a softball coach.

Gallagher had taken over the Mountaineers' softball program in 1992 and quickly earned Guiliani's admiration as a coach, leader and mentor.

At one point, the two sat together on a bus and talked through everything Guiliani was feeling.

"If it weren't for Coach Gallagher, who I absolutely worshiped and adored, I might have left," Guiliani-Gatto said. "She's a brilliant woman."

Gallagher helped her work through her frustrations and consider the larger reasons she had chosen Mansfield in the first place.

Her mother offered a similar reminder: college was about earning an education, not simply playing sports.

The conversations helped Guiliani make a decision she remains grateful for today.

She stayed.

"She was a great coach and mentor then," Guiliani-Gatto said, "and ultimately, I think, helped me make the right decision to stay in the place that did actually fit me perfectly."

Softball provided a different kind of experience.

For four years, Guiliani traded No. 14 on the basketball court for No. 30 on the softball diamond, moving almost immediately from one season to the next while playing shortstop for some of the most successful teams in Mansfield history.

The transition wasn't always easy. The move from hardwood to dirt caused knee problems early in her career, and the year-round demands could be exhausting.

But by her sophomore year, Guiliani found herself especially eager for softball season.

Winning was part of the reason.

The Mountaineers captured consecutive ECAC championships in 1991 and 1992, the second coming in Gallagher's first season as head coach.

In 1994, Guiliani put together an outstanding final season, starting all 38 games and batting .451. Alongside her was Horseheads native Tricia Matison, who anchored the Mountaineers' pitching staff with a 10-5 record and 1.97 ERA over 96 innings. Together, they helped Mansfield finish 23-15 and return to the ECAC championship game.

The Mountaineers finished as the tournament runner-up, but Guiliani's contributions helped establish her as one of the best all-around female athletes to wear a Mansfield uniform.

Still, the biggest thing Gallagher gave her wasn't another championship opportunity.

It was guidance at a moment when Guiliani needed it.

And that relationship has continued throughout her life.

When Miranda began navigating the college recruiting process, Guiliani-Gatto called the coach who had once helped her through her own uncertainty.

Gallagher answered.

She offered advice, explained how recruiting had changed and made herself available whenever Guiliani-Gatto needed another conversation.

More than 30 years after their time together at Mansfield, Gallagher remains someone Beth knows she can turn to.

"She's been a supporter, I feel like, still my whole life," Guiliani-Gatto said.

That is a relationship no Hall of Fame plaque can adequately explain.

Years after graduation, Guiliani-Gatto found herself unexpectedly traveling through Mansfield with a colleague on the way to another event.

They decided to drive through town.

Then they went up the hill toward campus.

Then Guiliani-Gatto wanted to see Decker.

Standing on the gymnasium floor again, she was struck by how familiar everything felt, right down to the smell of the hardwood.

She wondered whether Gallagher might still be around.

Someone directed her to the coach's office, and before long, she was standing in front of the woman who had once helped her decide to stay at Mansfield.

The two spent time catching up, and Guiliani-Gatto left with more Mansfield shirts and another memory of the place she had never really stopped carrying with her.

It was an unplanned visit.

But for Guiliani-Gatto, it was another reminder that the relationships formed at Mansfield were never limited to four years.

A Door to the World

As important as basketball and softball were to Guiliani, she had another dream when she arrived at Mansfield.

She wanted to work in sports broadcasting.

Originally, she envisioned being in front of the camera.

Then she tried it.

"All right, let's pivot because I don't really like that," she remembered thinking.

Fortunately, Mansfield's Mass Communications program gave students opportunities to experience nearly every part of a television production.

During Guiliani's time on campus, the department was developing a television studio where students could produce news reports, operate cameras, work behind the anchor desk and learn how to manage broadcasts.

She spent countless hours there, discovering that the work happening behind the scenes was exactly what interested her.

Two faculty members became especially important to her development.

Priscilla Travis, her adviser, provided the kind of personal and professional guidance Guiliani-Gatto still speaks about with deep appreciation.

She could walk into Travis' office, talk openly about her future and trust that someone was genuinely interested in helping her find the right path.

"Priscilla really gave me so much incredible professional guidance," Guiliani-Gatto said. "No strings attached. She was always available."

Howard Travis helped create the connection that would change the course of her career.

Through his relationships in sports broadcasting, Mansfield students began receiving opportunities to work with ABC Sports.

Guiliani heard classmates talking about their experiences and wanted to know how she could become involved.

Soon, she was sitting in her residence hall room speaking on a landline telephone with ABC Sports' Ed McKenna.

The conversation lasted about 15 minutes.

"Let's give it a shot," McKenna told her.

Guiliani was still a teenager when she went to Michigan for her first ABC golf assignment.

She immediately wanted another.

When she heard that the U.S. Women's Open was coming to Oakmont, she asked McKenna if she could work that event, too.

He told her to slow down.

It was her first show. They needed to see how things went.

But she earned the next opportunity.

And then another.

By the time Guiliani graduated, she had already begun building a network of people throughout the sports television industry.

She had worked major events, learned from experienced professionals and discovered that showing up prepared, working hard and treating people well could lead to opportunities she had never envisioned.

That is why, when her final Mansfield softball season ended in 1994, she was headed directly to Columbus for another golf assignment rather than returning home to celebrate graduation.

The work continued.

Her earliest assignments were far from glamorous. She worked long hours in entry-level roles, took whatever responsibilities were available and stayed in touch with the people who had given her a chance.

Roughly two years after graduating, those relationships and her work ethic helped lead to a production manager position.

What began through a connection made at Mansfield became an eight-year career traveling with ABC Sports.

There were Monday Night Football games, Super Bowls and opportunities to work major events across the country.

Her career in television production also took her to Olympic Games in Atlanta, Australia and Greece, allowing her to experience parts of the world the young athlete who grew up across from a neighborhood park could hardly have imagined.

One of the moments that confirmed she was on the right path came during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Guiliani was 23 years old, attending a gathering for the people involved in broadcasting the Games.

As she walked into the room, she recognized people everywhere.

They knew her.

And she knew them.

The connections that had begun through a college professor's willingness to help had grown into a professional network stretching across the sports industry.

"I'm doing the right things here," she remembered thinking.

There were other moments that hardly seemed real.

During one assignment, Guiliani and her colleagues found themselves outside the closed gates of Disney World in a production truck, waiting to film a parade in high definition.

They passed the time throwing a football while waiting for someone to open the gates.

"What life is better than this?" she remembered thinking.

The job took her to places and events she had once only watched on television with her father.

But none of it happened simply because she had been handed an opportunity.

She understood that the opportunity was only the beginning.

"I do believe luck and hard work go hand in hand," Guiliani-Gatto said.

Mansfield had helped open the first door.

She kept finding reasons for people to open the next one.

Finding Her Way Home

For all the places Guiliani-Gatto traveled, one place eventually became more important than any of them.

Home.

After college, she rekindled a relationship with her high school sweetheart, John Gatto, whom she later married.

They began building a life together, but the demands of television production frequently kept Beth on the road for long stretches.

As she thought about starting a family, she began reconsidering what she wanted from her career.

She had seen parents saying goodbye to crying children in airports.

She knew she did not want that to become a regular part of her own family's life.

Her parents and siblings were in Western New York, as was John's family. Beth wanted her children to grow up knowing their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

So she looked for an opportunity to return to Buffalo.

The Buffalo Sabres offered one.

It wasn't a glamorous promotion or an immediate move into executive leadership.

Guiliani-Gatto accepted an event coordinator position she admits she was overqualified for and underpaid to take.

But it allowed her to get her foot in the door.

From there, she worked her way up.

Event manager. Senior event manager. Director. Senior director.

Today, she serves as Vice President of Arena Operations, helping oversee the countless details and people required to operate KeyBank Center and produce major sporting and entertainment events in Buffalo.

It is a demanding career, one that requires considerable planning, coordination and responsibility.

It is also exactly where she wants to be.

Beth and John recently celebrated 29 years of marriage. Miranda is a Division I track and field athlete at Stony Brook, where she is pursuing her academic interests in science, while Dylan is studying television and film at Buffalo State.

Being home also allowed Guiliani-Gatto to be there for her parents through some of the most difficult periods of their lives, including her father's battle with ALS and her mother's fight with leukemia.

She remains deeply grateful that returning to Western New York gave her the opportunity to be present for her family.

For someone whose entire professional life has revolved around major events, she has come to appreciate how much the smaller moments matter.

And the people who helped shape her at Mansfield have never been far away.

One example came through Miranda's artistic talents.

Guiliani-Gatto's former Mansfield teammate Tina Foshee remembered that Miranda was a gifted illustrator and helped connect her with someone looking for artwork for a children's book.

That introduction led to another opportunity.

Miranda has since illustrated two children's books.

More than three decades after Beth first met Foshee at Mansfield, their friendship was still opening doors for the next generation.

It is another reminder that some of the most valuable things Guiliani-Gatto took from Mansfield were the relationships that continued long after she left.

The Human Piece

Ask Guiliani-Gatto what she carried from Mansfield into her professional career, and she doesn't begin with a specific game, a championship or a classroom assignment.

She talks about work ethic.

Then she talks about people.

She remembers watching Glenda Oswald lead by example, learning the importance of preparation and commitment from teammates who were willing to do the work nobody saw.

Those lessons remain central to how she leads today.

At KeyBank Center, Guiliani-Gatto has helped set up and take down thousands of chairs. She has worked alongside employees from practically every part of arena operations.

She believes a leader should never ask someone to do something they would not be willing to do themselves.

But there is another part of her leadership that feels particularly connected to Mansfield.

She makes an effort to know the people around her.

Not just their names or job descriptions.

Their lives.

Her department works with hundreds of employees, including security personnel, ushers, maintenance workers, cleaning crews and event staff.

She wants those people to feel valued.

"It's not enough to learn who they are," Guiliani-Gatto said. "It's about who they really are."

She approaches leadership with the understanding that every employee has a life outside the arena, with responsibilities, families and challenges that cannot always be separated from work.

"There's also the human piece," she said. "You can't manage the human piece without knowing the human."

For Guiliani-Gatto, that understanding reaches back to her upbringing and her father's example as a community-minded police chief.

But Mansfield gave her another place to practice it.

She remembers being an 18-year-old surrounded by people who knew her, checked on her, recognized her potential and took an interest in what she hoped to become.

Now she tries to create that kind of environment for other people.

"I feel like I invested my time wisely at Mansfield," Guiliani-Gatto said. "And I think I sort of continue to do that."

Perhaps the clearest example comes whenever an application from a Mansfield graduate reaches her desk.

Guiliani-Gatto makes time for an interview.

Even if she doesn't believe the person is a fit for the available position, she wants to hear their story and offer whatever advice she can.

"I will interview someone just because they're from Mansfield," she said. "I want to hear all about them. I want to give them as much guidance as I can."

She remembers what it meant when people were willing to invest their time and confidence in her.

Now, whenever she can, she does the same for someone else.

What Mansfield Gave Her

In 2002, eight years after she had packed her belongings and driven away from Decker Gymnasium, Guiliani-Gatto returned to Mansfield for her induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

This time, she wasn't preparing for another game.

She could finally stop and look back.

Gallagher delivered her induction speech.

Beth's parents were there, along with an aunt and uncle who had attended so many of her games over the years.

John was there, too.

Surrounded by the people who had been part of her journey, Guiliani-Gatto began to understand just how much Mansfield had meant to her.

"Man, I loved this place," she remembered thinking.

That appreciation has only grown.

She still follows Mansfield Athletics. She remains close with former teammates, keeps in touch with Gallagher and Priscilla Travis, and continues supporting the softball program.

She also understands something now that she could not have fully appreciated at 18.

Mansfield wasn't simply a school where she happened to play basketball and softball.

It was a community that gave her the freedom to discover what she wanted to do with her life, the relationships to help her navigate it and the confidence to pursue opportunities beyond the campus.

None of that means her four years were always easy.

There were exhausting days, difficult relationships, disappointments and moments when she wondered whether she could continue.

But there were people who helped her find her way through those moments, too.

Joe French gave her the chance to continue playing two sports.

Edith Gallagher helped her stay when she was struggling.

Priscilla Travis gave her guidance that reached beyond the classroom.

Howard Travis helped create an introduction to professional sports television.

Ed McKenna gave her a chance to prove herself.

And Guiliani-Gatto took those opportunities and built a life that has reached far beyond what she first imagined in Western New York.

But perhaps the most revealing evidence of how much Mansfield changed her wasn't found in any of those accomplishments.

It was waiting in her childhood bedroom years later.

As she prepared for her wedding, Guiliani-Gatto discovered an old philosophy journal she had written during her freshman year at Mansfield.

She sat down and began reading the thoughts of the young woman she had been when she first arrived on campus.

Her fiancé, John, eventually wondered what was taking so long.

What surprised Guiliani-Gatto was how little of that young woman's outlook she still recognized.

Her experiences during those four years had introduced her to different people, backgrounds, ideas and perspectives she had never encountered growing up.

She had entered Mansfield with a relatively limited understanding of the world outside the one she knew.

She left seeing it differently.

"My mind changed so much in the time I spent at Mansfield," Guiliani-Gatto said.

As she continued reading, she realized how much she had grown in ways that no transcript or athletic record could measure.

"I can't even believe I was this naive, this young — not stupid, just never experienced it in my life," she recalled.

"Mansfield allowed me to experience it and take it into my adult life."

And there, perhaps, is the most meaningful part of Beth Guiliani-Gatto's Mansfield story.

She arrived because a coach believed she deserved the chance to play two sports.

She stayed because another coach helped her see beyond a difficult chapter.

She discovered a career because professors and professionals were willing to share their connections and invest in her potential.

She found lifelong friends because a small campus gave people the chance to become part of one another's lives.

And more than 30 years later, she is offering those same opportunities and relationships to people coming after her.

The awards remain. So do the statistics, the championships and the Hall of Fame recognition.

But the most lasting part of Mansfield's influence on Beth Guiliani-Gatto cannot be found in a record book.

It is there in the woman she became, the people she continues to care about and the opportunities she now creates for others.

She arrived at Mansfield knowing what she wanted to play.

She left having begun to discover what she could become.

Years later, reading through that old journal, she recognized the handwriting.

But she could hardly recognize the young woman who had written it.

Once a Mountie, Always a Mountie.