Marisa Pashby is the newly hired Director of Events for Future Legends. Marisa is an experienced event planner from the Bay Area, and we are so excited to get her out to Windsor!
Q: Could you provide us with a quick summary of your education and career path thus far?/ What is your connection to the sports industry and how you got into your career?
A: I got my Bachelor’s in Communications from Santa Clara University, and have a certificate in Event and Meeting Planning from San Francisco State. Going into college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I stumbled across an open position for Assistant Music Director with our on-campus programming board and ended up falling in love with planning events. I realized at one of the concerts that we hosted that this is what I wanted to do with my career. After that, I got some opportunities in hospitality for Super Bowl L, interned with the San Francisco Giants in their special events department, and assisted with alumni and homecoming events for UC Hastings. For the last 3 years, I have been focusing on more corporate events in healthcare. This position with Future Legends is taking my favorite parts of every role I have had and combining them into an awesome project that I am really excited to start!
Q: What is your goal for Future Legends?
A: My goal for myself is to really lay the foundation for this department and provide a whole variety of events that will cater to a diverse group of people. We have Colorado State nearby, young families, and kids coming out to tournaments, so I want to be able to create events that will make everyone happy. Whether it’s a really awesome concert, a food and wine festival, or movies in the ballpark, I want our department to add something different to the overall project.
Q: Do you have a background growing up with sports?
A: I played a lot of team sports growing up and really enjoyed playing water polo through high school. My family is heavily involved in tournament sports, so I understand the appeal of a project like Future Legends. My family are also HUGE San Francisco Giants fans. We grew up watching games all the time, whether it was at my grandparents’ house, our home, or in the ballpark. I grew up loving team sports through watching, playing, and cheering on my siblings. This project is a perfect way to combine my passion for events with my passion for sports.
Q: Why is this project important to you?
A: For me personally, this position is exactly where I was aiming to go in my career. I didn’t think that I would be able to get back to this place, especially in sports and entertainment. It is exciting to be a part of something this big and know that I’ll be able to have my career lead up to something like this. For Future Legends in general, this project is important for the whole sports world, more so now than ever. We are living in chaos but knowing that we have something like this to look forward to is incredible. We can help bring people back into the things that they love.
Q: What excites you most about Future Legends?
A: Everything! I love that we’re creating a Miracle Field for kids with disabilities, as well as having more affordable and accessible tournaments. It also comes back to what I was saying about how Future Legends has so many moving parts. It’s not just a professional stadium, or a youth tournament facility, or an event venue. It is something that I have never seen before. As an event planner, I love being able to see these sports facilities and knowing that I will be able to reimagine them into event spaces that you may not have thought to build them out into.
Q: What makes Future Legends different from most facilities?
A: First and foremost, the diversity and inclusiveness of what we offer and to who, makes it different. Also, the fact that it is a stay and play site, but you also could leave and see so much in the surrounding area. It is in the best location.
Q: Which sport has had the biggest impact on your life and why?
A: Baseball has had the biggest impact on my life. Some of my earliest memories are sitting on the couch with my grandpa watching the Giants play. He would explain what was going on in the game, and it is how I developed a love for it. It was my favorite part of my weekend. Two of my brothers are also great baseball players. They are really excited about this project, and it has been fun talking with them about it! I’ve seen how tournaments have impacted their lives – so I know that Future Legends is going to have that effect on other kids. It is a great feeling.
Q: Do you have a favorite event you’ve ever worked on?
A: Yes, the last concert that I planned for Santa Clara. It was one of the biggest shows we had planned, and I won an award for it! We got a co-headliner for the first time, which led us to reach out to a more diverse group of people. That was the culmination of my college career, and for me, it really solidified that special events were what I wanted to work on. Even though it was the end of that job, it did not feel like the end. That concert marked the beginning of the rest of my career and motivated me to keep pushing, to learn more, and to help out wherever I could to get to that spot in my career.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A: Everyone that I have met on this team has been so passionate, intelligent, driven, and very welcoming. I am excited to be a part of a team like this and to provide these events and memories to people from all over the country and the world!
Written by: Ashley Kavanagh
