DAVIS, Calif. -- When the Marya Welch Initiative launched in the summer of 2017, Carol Benedetti needed little prodding when it came to offering her financial support.

After all, the UC Davis intercollegiate athletics department's new fundraising campaign raised support for women's athletics in honor of the very founder of women's sports at the university. Benedetti starred in three sports during the final years prior to the passage of Title IX, competing under the tutelage of Welch, Barbara Heller and Judy Meyers Brame. 

Furthermore, the Marya Welch Initiative steered its first-year efforts toward improvements to the La Rue Field softball complex. Benedetti started at catcher for four years at UC Davis, served as an assistant softball coach under Deanna Sciaraffa and Barbara Luick (now Barbara Jahn), and even helmed the Aggie softball team for two seasons while completing a master's degree in physical education. She also sat on one of the first Title IX committees, which she remembers had a focus on improving facilities.

In other words, in the most literal of senses, the Marya Welch Initiative truly hit home for the 1984 Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Famer.

"It just seemed like a specific fund that was going to a definite goal," said Benedetti. "Sometimes it's a little more satisfying to give to something like that – other than a general fund, where you don't really know where things are going. It had a defined goal to it, and it was something that financially I could do."

An improvement to the La Rue Field was certainly was a draw for Benedetti, given her experience as a student-athlete and coach. Before finding its home on the northwest corner of campus, the program roamed the university grounds looking for a place to play. Much of her time as a coach was spent on what is now the current A Street intramural field, meaning home runs by left-handed sluggers would pelt the northbound traffic on that street. At another point, the softball team ended up in what is still a large grass pasture adjacent to Wyatt Pavilion and the former University Club. "It was solid grass. I think we actually mowed the lawn ourselves," Benedetti said.

Originally from Hayward, Benedetti became introduced to UC Davis thanks to attend the annual Preview Day. She majored in psychology and considered her academics as her top priority, but a posting for volleyball tryouts on a Hickey Gym bulletin board called to athlete side of her. 

"I was kind of nervous about it but I decided to try out," Benedetti recalls. "In those days, the sports were in each quarter. They didn't overlap. So you finished one quarter and you went to another sport. I just started from there, and went from sport to sport."

As they still do today, volleyball and field hockey both ran in the fall. While some of her colleagues chose to play multiple sports in a quarter – for example, friend and roommate Pam Gill (now Pam Gill-Fisher) famously lettered in seven sports as an Aggie – Benedetti chose to focus on one at a time. Thus, she played setter for the volleyball team for two years, earned two Outstanding Performance certificates as a right halfback in field hockey, then switched back to volleyball for her final year so she could play in the Division For Girls' and Women's Sports national tournament. 

"The volleyball championship that we went to in 1970, Bobbie [Estes] made all of the uniforms for that," Benedetti said. "Thinking back on it, I don't think there were funds to go. It was in Long Beach, so it wasn't far away, but we funded it ourselves. I remember we stayed at somebody's house in Long Beach. But it was still a great experience."

Benedetti also participated with the fencing club while at UC Davis, as she had high school experience with that sport. In 1968, she placed second in the women's introductory foil division, then subsequently won the unclassified foil division to earn a 'C' classification in fencing. Furthermore, Benedetti tried her hand at basketball, mostly to give herself an activity in the winter quarter. In fact, her version of the sport was the 6-on-6 variant (sometimes known as "basquette"), with offense-only and defense-only players on the court.

After Benedetti graduated, she remained at UC Davis as an assistant to Brame and Sciaraffa. When Title IX of the Education Amendments passed in 1972, she and Gill-Fisher served on the advisory committee under then-new athletics director, Joe Singleton. After all, those two athletes were among the star Aggies in the pre-Title IX years, and had perhaps the best first-hand insight as to what needed to be implemented in UC Davis athletics' pursuit of gender equity. 

"They put a committee together to look at things and come up with some suggestions to equalize things. It was more in the vein of facilities," Benedetti said.

She was Sciaraffa's assistant when UC Davis softball enjoyed its undefeated 1973 season, then took over as head coach while completing her master's degree and serving as a teaching assistant in the department. Benedetti also assumed the reigns of the Aggie field hockey program in 1976.

While she still considers softball her favorite sport, Benedetti continued playing field hockey well after college. She competed in tournaments around the country and in Canada as part of the Pacific Southwest Section II squad, and even helped her team to a division championship at the 1978 national tourney in Washington. In 1984, Benedetti had the pleasure of entering the CAAHOF alongside Gill-Fisher, making them the fifth and sixth Aggie women to earn such enshrinement.

All of this took place while Benedetti enjoyed a successful career as an accountant, mostly for a Woodland CPA firm, then briefly on her own before her outright retirement. As her work life wound down, she not only stepped up her support for UC Davis athletics and the Marya Welch Initiative, but she began tending to the university's garden... literally. Benedetti became a financial contributor and volunteer to the campus's Arboretum. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted her twice-weekly visits to the Arb, but she looks forward to the time when she can return to her work there.

"I hope they can figure out a way to get us back," she says. "I really do enjoy gardening, and I enjoy learning about plants. I've gotten into creating a habitat for things. Since I started, it has become a very important part of my life. I would volunteer four or five days a week if I thought I could keep up."

Now more than a half-century removed from her time as a student-athlete, Benedetti carries fond memories from her days at UC Davis. She is quick to point out that both academics and athletics combined to form her experience at the university, and both played a part in informing her life path since. Scholastically, that she has a bachelor's degree in psychology, a master's in P.E., and a career in accounting speaks to the renaissance woman in her. "I just consider my academic experience making me curious about things for most of my life. It got me interested in different subjects and keeping fairly active in educating myself," Benedetti says.

In terms of sports, it led to Benedetti's P.E. degree, a span in coaching, plus it kept her playing field hockey into the 1980s. "I don't do much now besides walk and ride the stationary bike in my garage, but I participated in stuff into my 40s," she said. "It has been a very big part of my life."

Finally, Benedetti's contributions to UC Davis athletics – both to the Marya Welch Initiative and to Team Aggie in general – come from a place of utmost gratitude. 

"It was something that was very important to me when I was playing, and I feel like if you have a good experience somewhere, that you need to give back so that other people can have the same experience, or even better," she said. "Also, it keeps you connected to that good feeling that you have, and that connection carries on when you're no longer doing it. I'm proud that I went to UC Davis, and I want to pay it back."

ABOUT UC DAVIS:
With the addition of equestrian and women's beach volleyball in 2018, more than 700 student-athletes represent the fifth-ranked public school in the nation on one of 25 intercollegiate athletics teams.

UC Davis, a national leader in Title IX gender equity and leadership, is centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley; and offers an unrivaled student-athlete experience that features the ideal combination of elite academics, Division I athletics and personal growth.

Ranked annually in the top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis is uncommonly committed to preparing student-athletes for life after graduation with Aggie EVO — an innovative student-athlete outcomes program that helps young women and men develop passions, gain real-world experience, and enjoy a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school. Through Aggie EVO, Intercollegiate Athletics provides unmatched resources and a vast network of working professionals to ensure post-graduation success for its student-athletes.