More Information ABOUT THE BOOK “Resilience, sacrifice, moxie, vulnerability. These powerful contrasts are part of both the world of sports and the journey of working motherhood, where daily struggles and triumphs collide. In their inspiring anthology, Hildreth and Leone take readers on an intimate journey into the hearts and lives of some of the most iconic women in sports.” “While offering a fresh and candid perspective on the challenges of motherhood, career and life, ‘Tough as a Mother’ also offers an empowering invitation to join a sisterhood of women who will share their struggles and provide some much-needed support and encouragement. “‘Tough as a Mother’ brings together an extraordinary group of women—athletes, coaches, broadcasters, and professionals who know firsthand the challenges and rewards of balancing family and career. The book features powerful stories and personal reflections from mothers like U.S. soccer star Alex Morgan, Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, Hall of Fame broadcaster Andrea Kremer, WWE Superstar Becky Lynch, U.S. track and field champion Alysia Montaño, and many more. They open up about the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs they’ve experienced — not as celebrities, but as fellow working moms. Through their stories, the reader is given a unique peek behind the curtain that will remind all working moms that they can do this, and that they are not alone.” — Taken from a news release about the book
LAKE PLACID — Emmy Award-winning ESPN broadcaster Jenn Hildreth’s doubleheader today starts with a book signing in Lake Placid and ends with her 30th high school reunion in St. Lawrence County.
Jenn, daughter of Saranac Lake artist Sandra Hildreth and SUNY Potsdam professor emeritus Joe Hildreth, graduated as salutatorian of Norwood-Norfolk Central School class of ‘95. She was a three-sport athlete. In 1995, she helped her basketball team win the Section X Championship.
Her Bookstore Plus sidewalk signing, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., introduces her debut book, “Tough as a Mother: Women in Sports, Working Moms, and the Shared Traits That Empower Us All,” which she co-authored with Aimee Leone, six-time Emmy Award winner and the senior vice president of talent relations for FOX Sports.
Legendary soccer player Julie Foudy wrote the book’s foreword.
THE ARTISTS’ DAUGHTER
Jenn grew up in Norwood, where her mother was a high school art teacher for 30 years at a neighboring school.
“I always knew her as a working mom, and I certainly think that set a baseline for me as to watching women work and that was just a natural thing to do,” Jenn said. “And then, I also saw it, I mean this quite genuinely, she is and was the best mom ever. She was always there for me. She wasn’t there for me in the mornings because she had to get up early and go to school before I did. But in terms of how you can truly be there for someone — supporting them, loving them, believing in them — I could get nothing better than what my mom gave to me.”
Jenn’s younger brother David, a graphic designer, created her book cover.
“It’s bit of a family affair,” she said. “He lives in Rochester. My parents divorced my senior year in high school. Obviously, they were together a long time before that. (Her father) was an art professor at SUNY Potsdam for, I think, almost 40 years. We grew and lived in Norwood until I went off to school.”
After graduating from Norwood-Norfolk Central, Jenn attended Emory University in Atlanta.
“I had family in the South,” she said. “My parents both originally had lived in Kentucky, and we always visited there. I genuinely believe there was a part of me that very much had that southern need for warmth inside of me. I never fared well in the cold winter, so, yeah, I wanted to go south. I wanted a small, liberal arts school, where I could play sports because as much as I might have had dreams of playing Division I sports, I wasn’t quite there. So, I looked for a smaller school, where I could still continue to play and get a great education and be warm, and that’s how I found Emory.”
SPORTS TRACK
Jenn was a soccer goalkeeper, basketball small forward/guard and track long jumper and triple jumper.
“However, I look at it now, I never dreamed of playing professional sports,” she said. “I think that’s a different dream that women have now because there are so many opportunities, which is wonderful. For me, I’m a competitive person by nature, and I loved playing sports. So, I wanted to try anything I could get my hands on. I was able to do that. Growing up in a small town, I think that was really beneficial. I was able to try everything and go into it without feeling that I was 10 years behind because I hadn’t been specializing in one sport since I was 3. It’s just where I live in Atlanta now, I feel like that’s what it is like.”
At Emory, Jenn majored in English and journalism, but she knew she wanted sports centered in her life.
Jenn was the 1998 recipient of the Charles B. Decker Memorial Scholarship, administered by the Adirondack Community Foundation, while a student at Emory.
That scholarship enabled her to accept a journalism internship with a major South African newspaper, where she covered local sports, setting her on the path to her professional career.
The Charles B. Decker Memorial Scholarship was established in 1991 upon the death of Charles B. Decker, 34, a journalist from Saranac Lake and a Watertown Daily Times assistant managing editor.
“(Sports) were something I wanted to work really hard at,” Jenn said. “That’s when I started thinking about a career in sports journalism. Around that time in the late ‘90s, you did start to see more women popping up, whether it’s writers or reporters or as anchors in sports. So, there just seemed to be more opportunities, and I’ve been happy to say, has continued as I’ve gone through 20-plus years in my career.”
Jenn never thought becoming a play-by-play announcer was an option. Women were sideline reporters.
“That was the role that I saw women in,” she said. “But as I got into the business, and just, again, tried everything, like I always had when I was playing sports, I gave play-by-play a try, and now you see a lot more women in this role. I’m so glad that I did.”
BIG TIME/MOTHERHOOD
Jenn worked for a few years as a high school sports reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A connection there led to television, where she worked at a small production company, which led to larger outlets, where she covered NCAA tournaments, National Women’s Soccer League, MLB, the Women’s World Cup and the Olympics.
“I got married, had kids, always knew I wanted a family, even though I had a job that was very demanding and I had to travel a lot and work really weird hours,” she said. “As soon as I had my first daughter, 2003, I quickly became aware of the challenges of having it all as they say, kind of juggle everything and be this driven-competitive sports broadcaster, who was trying to make her way in a really competitive field and also the mother that I wanted to be for my child. I think the seeds were sown then.
“This is a challenge that was really difficult for me to manage, and I knew I wasn’t alone in that, but I didn’t know where to look really for support in that.”
In the Atlanta suburbs where she lived with her husband Chris Riehn and their daughters Ashley and Madison, Jenn observed stay-at-home moms or mothers with older children.
“I didn’t see a lot women having the same sort of juggle and balance and struggle that I was going through, and I think as I went through my career, I sought out women like that, and that’s how I found Aimee, my co-author,” she said.
In the first iteration of Jenn’s book project, Aimee was an interviewee, who suggested they collaborate on a different sort of book, which was 18 years in the making.
“As she and I talked through the years, we often would talk, swapping stories about motherhood, how we lived this life, and how we balance it, and we both realized this book that we wrote together was one that we wished we could have had when our kids were younger and we were going through all of this,” Jenn said. “Because we wanted it to be something that women could pick up when they were doubting themselves or wondering if they could do it, and questioning and feeling all the guilt. We wanted to give them a little encouragement and empowerment. That is really where the idea of the book was born.”