Celebrating Women’s History Month

MARCH 30, 2023

BY BRANDY GOMEZ

GUEST

The references to male and female in this piece are not to enforce the idea of a binary. They are meant to focus on the reality of misogyny that women face in sports and the male-centric ideologies that create such.

The National Women’s History Alliance, which led the movement for March to be declared Women’s History Month, announced the 2023 theme for March is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”. Keeping with this theme, MLQ spoke to women in our league who tell our stories in various forms. Our next interview was with Brandy Gomez, an MLQ athlete and host of The Small Hoop.

Can you give us a brief overview of your player biography in the sport? 
My name is Brandy Gomez, I have been playing quadball for about two years now. I’ve played for many teams including Texas State University, the San Antonio Soldaddies, Gulf Coast Gumbeaux, and Texas Hill Country Heattt!

What got you into the media side of the sport? 
It was a crazy idea that started with Julie Picasso, a great friend of mine, where we have a gender-diverse podcast since this is a gender-diverse sport. I was excited, but nervous, since the media can be tough sometimes. However, my friends motivated me to do it and be a voice of encouragement to more women in the sport.

Do you have any tips for others who might feel unqualified to put their voice out there? 
Don't be afraid! The quadball community is filled with amazing and kind people. Challenge yourself to meet someone new at each tournament.

When you're working your craft to get information to the public, are there any language or prose that you think could help others switch from just talking about the sport to translating it for viewers? 
I think this generation is mainly TikTok-inclined so short videos of quadball go a long way.

Do you have any general thoughts on how we tend to discuss the sport? Things that are good? Need changing? 
I think when people discuss quadball, it can be hard to explain without using Harry Potter as a description—no matter how hard were trying to get away from the whole Harry Potter origin. We need to accentuate how athletic and challenging this sport is. How often do you see someone running with a stick, dodging dodgeballs, and making a pass mid-tackle? I like the gender diversity in the sport, I think its the best part.

What's a hot take you feel like you have about the sport/future of the sport?
My hot take is that we are making history. Right now you can say we're legends. This sport makes it big, and we can say we were the first to professionally play it. This sport is the future. It'll be normalized soon enough.

Support Gomez and her work today by subscribing to The Small Hoop on YouTube.