Barry University fosters a mindset of optimism, cooperation and strength. This is especially true among our students involved in Athletics, where they take on challenges that call on them to excel both in academics and on the field. Here, we are proud to share some of the exciting and inspiring stories of Barry Sports stars.
The MVP Natalie Bieule-Rovirosa ’11, three-time gold medalist at the U.S. Paralympic National Championships
A devastating car crash wasn’t the end for Natalie Bieule-Rovirosa ’11. It was actually the beginning of something great. Bieule-Rovirosa lost her right leg as a high school senior after she was the passenger in a wreck involving a drunk driver.
Initially, Bieule-Rovirosa gave up on sports. But then something miraculous happened, as she found greater glory— and a higher purpose—than she ever had known prior to that horrific wreck. Bieule-Rovirosa got married; had her first daughter, Ava; and enrolled at Barry, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology. At the same time, she was training as a discus thrower for the U.S. Paralympics team.
“Having a newborn baby, training and going back to school was really tough,” Bieule-Rovirosa said. “I wanted to give up on my education.” But Barry Professor Dr. Wated said something that stuck with her. “What example are you showing your daughter if you quit?”
“That became a huge quote in my head.”
After her amputation, CrossFit was the first sport Bieule-Rovirosa tried.
She wanted Ava to see her mom doing things that even women with two legs can’t do. “I was competing against able-bodied women and winning,” says Bieule-Rovirosa.
Her success in CrossFit was how she was discovered by Team USA. “The discus came naturally to me because it’s like a dance—it’s all about hips and legs,” says Bieule-Rovirosa, who is a former competitive dancer in salsa and merengue.
“Barry Opened my eyes about service to others,” Bieule-Rovirosa said. “It's gratifying.”
As Shakira once told the world, the “hips don’t lie”—and neither do Bieule-Rovirosa’s accomplishments.
She won three straight gold medals in the discus at the U.S. Paralympic National Championships, and she came in sixth at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Bieule-Rovirosa gave up competing when her second daughter, Valentina, was diagnosed with autism. Happily, Valentina is making great progress, and Bieule-Rovirosa has started a new career as a coach. “Barry opened my eyes about service to others,” Bieule-Rovirosa said. “It’s gratifying.”
The Voice Joy Taylor ’09, TV and radio sports talk show host and podcaster with “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” show on Fox Sports.
Joy Taylor ’09, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, knew all about South Florida because her older brother—by more than a decade—is Jason Taylor, a former Miami Dolphins star who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. She knew she would like to go to school in the region, but what she didn’t know—at least initially—was what college to choose.
“[Miami] is an easy place to want to spend time in,” Taylor said. “I came down to visit two schools. I won’t tell you the name of the other school, but I visited that one first.
When she arrived at the school that shall not be named, she went to the “welcome center,” but the person working there was not very welcoming. “I wanted to talk to a counselor to get information on the school. They told me there was nobody available. They said, ‘Check out the pamphlets on the wall, and good luck.’” Taylor left that school and drove to Barry.
However, in the era before GPS, Taylor got lost. She called Barry, and a representative from the university stayed on the phone with her for 30 minutes, guiding her every step of the way. Once Taylor arrived, that person set her up with a counselor and a tour. “I decided to go to Barry that day,” Taylor said.
Upon arriving on campus to begin her studies, Taylor quickly joined Barry’s student-run radio station, WBRY. She eventually earned her bachelor’s degree in broadcast communications.
What has followed since then has been a number of successful moves, starting with her co-host role on the “Zaslow and Joy Show,” a radio program on Miami’s 790 The Ticket. Taylor then joined Fox Sports in March 2016, often working with Colin Cowherd. In 2021, it was announced that she would have her own Saturday program on Fox Sports Radio, aptly named The Joy Taylor Show.
“It was important for me to host the show by myself,” Taylor said. “Being the only woman to host a solo show on Fox Sports Radio was important. Being a Black woman, that representation is important as well.”
Today, Taylor is a nationally known TV and radio sports talk show host and podcaster with a legion of fans of her own—which includes more than 365,000 followers on social media.
-Joy Taylor '09
A Dancer with an Eye for the Game MJ Acosta-Ruiz, host of Total Access on NFL Network
When MJ Acosta-Ruiz was a Miami Dolphins Hurricanette dancer from 2012 to 2013, she was already a young sports reporter for Spanish-language media, which meant she was likely watching the football games in a different way than other dancers. Mind you, Hurricanette dancers have to pass a football-IQ test to get hired. They have to possess at least a basic knowledge of the sport, but Acosta-Ruiz was taking it to a higher level.
“Other than the players, coaches, and referees, there’s no one with a better perspective of the field than the dancers,” Acosta-Ruiz said. “I was looking at the intricacies of football—was it really a catch, or did he break the plane of the end zone?—and I had the best seat in the house for every single home game.”
Acosta-Ruiz still has a unique perspective on the game. In 2020, she became the first Afro-Latina and first woman of color to host a show on NFL Network. But the road to becoming host of Total Access hasn’t always been paved. It’s been rather bumpy at times.
Born in Miami to Dominican parents and raised mostly in New York City, Acosta-Ruiz always loved to dance. Her father, Fernando, was a pro basketball player in the Dominican Republic, and he urged his daughter to play hoops.
Acosta-Ruiz had other ideas, although they still incorporated her father’s passion for sports. After graduating from Miami’s Sunset High, she attended the University of Miami from 2002 to 2005, but— other than serving as a Hurricanes dancer—it didn’t go well.
“I was a business major, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do other than dance,” she said. “Instead of incurring more student debt, I left school.”
She eventually earned her associate degree from Miami Dade College, and she enrolled at Barry in 2009.
Acosta-Ruiz started working in broadcasting while at Barry, which she said indicates how well she was trained at her alma mater.
Her career path included working at Miami TV station WPLG, covering the Chargers for NBC San Diego. While there, she also worked for Telemundo, and that work won her an Emmy. She later landed with NFL Network in 2018, reporting on the league’s two Bay Area teams at the time: the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers.
“Barry was my saving grace,” Acosta-Ruiz said. “By the time I enrolled, I was 24, older than most students, and I was focused.”
“I went in with a different mentality and sense of urgency. Barry changed everything for me because almost all my professors— such as Connie Hicks—worked or had worked in the broadcasting and journalism field.
The Ball in Her Court
Jessica Battaglia is a senior manager of operations, programming, and events for the United States Tennis Association (USTA). She has been a part of plenty of US Opens, was the team administrator for the US in the Olympics in Tokyo, and is the team leader for the Pan American Games.
But the event that helped shape her came in 2001 when she served as a volunteer with the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.
“It’s an intense competition,” says Battaglia, who earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science from the University of Florida. “Pros finish in eight or nine hours. Amateurs finish in 14 to 16 hours. People train for months and months. Being at the finish line and being a small part of their experience was a game-changer. It made me want to pursue this path of sport management.”
Battaglia took the next year to figure out how to do that, and her search led her to Barry, where she earned her master’s degree in sport management.
“I loved the smaller and more intimate feeling of the Barry campus,” Battaglia said. “I wanted to know my professors in a more meaningful way. Even though I enjoyed my time at UF, Barry was the right place for me at that time. It felt more personalized.”
After Barry, Battaglia started her sports career by working in 2005 as a volunteer coordinator for the NASDAQ-100, now known as the Miami Open.
That led to her job as a senior manager of operations, programming and events with the USTA and, eventually, the 2020 Summer Olympics Games in Tokyo, where Battaglia was part of the American delegation. “That has been the highlight of my career,” Battaglia says. She shared three tennis players Battaglia has had a decade-plus association with—Jenny Brady, Tommy Paul, and Frances Tiafoe.
“They trained with us as 12-year-old juniors in Boca Raton,” Battaglia said of the USTA’s former Player Development Operations hub. “It was not lost on me how hard they worked to get to the Olympics. I worked just as hard to have that experience. It was one of those full-circle moments.”
Navigating the Pandemic
Clara Stroude-Vazquez ’04 wanted to be the next Pat Summitt, the late, great coach who won eight national titles with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team.
“But I found something better,” she says today.
Stroude-Vazquez is now the Miami Heat’s chief of culture and inclusion, and it’s been a thrill for her to be involved with the championship franchise.
A native of Grenada, she spent her childhood shuffling between Washington, D.C., and the Caribbean.
“I’m extremely proud of us as an organization and how we got all our employees through the pandemic,” she said. “I’m also proud of the work we’ve done supporting social justice.”
After graduating from East Carolina University, she started searching for a master’s program.
“To coach at a high level,” she said, “I needed a business based degree to help me learn about budgeting and marketing.”
Barry became a strong draw for a variety of reasons, including its large alumni base that could help connect her with employment opportunities. Barry also offered an excellent sport management program and the Miami market, which would give her ample pro and college teams to choose from once she finished her education.
But what put Barry over the top for her was the university’s personal touch.
“One night, I got a call from Barry’s program administrator. It was after he was done teaching his grad class, so it had to be about 9 or 10 p.m.,” Stroude-Vazquez says. “He stayed on the phone with me for an hour, telling me about the program. Such a great conversation—he answered all of my questions.”
“I had a similar conversation with another university, and it didn’t go as well. I was sold on Barry. They had so much to offer.”
While at Barry, she served as a volunteer assistant coach, working with her school’s women’s basketball team.
As it turned out, coaching wasn’t her calling.
Instead, she landed an internship with the Miami Heat, starting in September 2003. The Heat was her calling.
“I started the same season as Dwyane Wade,” she said of the 13-time NBA All-Star drafted by the Heat in 2003. “By that spring, someone ahead of me in the marketing department got promoted, and I was hired full time.”
Stroude-Vazquez has been with the Heat ever since, and her current responsibilities include making sure the entire staff is up to date on all necessary training.
“I’m extremely proud of us as an organization and how we got all our employees through the pandemic,” she said. “I’m also proud of the work we’ve done supporting social justice.”
“But my biggest thrill was when we won our first NBA championship in 2006. It was an amazing feeling that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.”
Karma in Action Ebony Harris, associate counsel for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
When Ebony Harris ’13 left home for college, she told her sports-loving family that she would one day work for the Miami Heat. “Everybody thought I was crazy,” says Harris. “They were like, ‘Do you know how many people want a job with the Miami Heat? Girl …’”
As fate would have it, Harris attended a career fair on her second day at Barry University. On that August day, she saw a man walking across campus. “He was lost, and I was lost too, because I was new to campus,” Harris said. “He asked me where the student union was. I said I didn’t know, but we could figure it out together.”
A conversation followed, and Harris told the man about her goal to be hired by the Heat. Minutes later, when they arrived at their destination, he handed Harris a business card and said, “I’m the hiring manager for the Miami Heat.”
Harris handed the man a resume she had in her book bag. Less than a month later, the Heat’s Eddie Abad called her and hired her on the spot to be part of the retail operations team. “If you work hard for us,” the Heat told Harris, “we will work hard for you.”
Harris handed the man a resume she had in her book bag. Less than a month later, the Heat’s Eddie Abad called her and hired her on the spot to be part of the retail operations team. “If you work hard for us,” the Heat told Harris, “we will work hard for you.” Harris has certainly worked hard, earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Barry, both in sport management. She then earned a law degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, where she graduated summa cum laude.
As for her career in sports, after five years with the Heat, she worked for the Charlotte Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, and the Dallas Mavericks. Then, after some other stops, Harris was hired as associate counsel for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, where she works today.