Beyond the Milwaukee Bucks court, women are paving the way into the business of sports

MILWAUKEE -- For years the sports industry was a male dominated industry, but that's not the case for the Milwaukee Bucks. There are plenty of talented women leading the way for the team, and possibly more coming soon.

Women in SportsWhile the Bucks players and coaches are the most visible representatives of the team, there are hundreds of others who work for the Bucks away from the court, and many of them are women. "One thing that we are fortunate about with the Bucks is that we are fairly gender balanced despite perceptions that it's a male dominated industry," said Alicia Dupies, Milwaukee Bucks vice president of corporate social responsibility. Recently, the Bucks celebrated some of those women in the organization with their inaugural "Women in Sports" night. The event provided other women a chance to learn the stories and career paths of the Bucks executives.

"It was great to be able to share our career journey and how we got into the sports and entertainment industry," said Dupies.

Women in Sports"Really getting in at any level no matter what industry it is, getting in at the lowest level if you need to working your butt off working hard, saying yes to everything and eventually going in your career, but just be really winning to work hard and be confident is key for a female, male or female, but especially women was the message tonight," said Kareeda Chones-Aguan, Milwaukee Bucks vice president of business strategy and activation. "Really just to learn about their career paths and the steps that they took in their careers. It was very engaging, very insightful," said Alicia Moore, Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. It also gave the Bucks executives a chance to share and explain their management styles.

Women in Sports"I just love being in a leadership opportunity and my goal is to always raise up the people around me my team grow them to be some of the most amazing leaders they can be whether they stay with the Bucks or they move on," said Chones-Aguan.

Kareeda Chones-AguanWhile some of those attending are already local professional women, others are hoping this night will help when starting their careers. "I was hoping to get out of it ways that women can get involved in the sports industry and where I should start as a soon to be college graduate and what I should be doing to involve myself in sports more," said Morgan Vukovich, Carthage College junior.

Shannon McCormick"It's nice to hear from people with such power and prestige in the field I want to be in just told us to never say no and go after what we want because we are important and it was really wonderful to hear from them," said Shannon McCormick, Marquette University senior. With the success of the first Bucks "Women in Sports" night, it seems there will be more in the future -- and they'll likely have returning customers.