CSU East Bay Kinesiology professor, Leticia Malavasi, uses her passion for health and fitness to serve as a role model female soccer referee and to personally train clients to reach their personal fitness goals.

Malavasi has always had an understanding of sports. In Brazil, where she grew up, she was a professional basketball player. She came to the U.S. in 2006 to pursue a Ph.D. in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She finished her Ph.D. in 2010 and in January 2011 she moved to California in order to pursue a teaching opportunity.

Malavasi’s advisor in Illinois knew the head of the department at CSUEB, so he got in touch with her and told her that Malavasi was available for the position and in the area. She was then evaluated during an interview and was given a quarter to see if she was a good fit and would be granted to stay if she did well.

“Leticia is an athlete, and has trained with all levels including the elite,” Associate Kinesiology Professor Cathy Inouye said. “She has many years worked as a fitness-strength trainer and this in addition to her academic background makes her exceedingly qualified to teach activity classes for us.”

Malavasi is a part-time lecturer for CSUEB’s kinesiology department by day and a personal trainer at Plus One Health Mangament Fitness Center in Menlo Park at night. During the weekends she keeps herself on the run as a United States Soccer Referee and travels to tournaments all over the country.

While teaching at CSUEB, Malavasi became aware that the intramural soccer teams were looking for people to referee. Even though it was a minimal paying job, she decided to pursue it, mostly because it fit her schedule.

She began her career by only refereeing for recreational city games; however, after receiving an invitation to referee a tournament in southern Illinois, she began to become more serious about her pastime.

“I went there and it was funny because I saw this gentleman who looked back at me and said ‘who are you?’ I told him my name and where I’m from and he said ‘but I’m from that region and you never came to one of the classes,’ then I said, ‘What Class?’” she said.

In order to become a professional soccer referee and to be affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation, you actually need to take a beginners refereeing class. Once you pass a test assessing how much you understand the rules, you then can upgrade to a higher level, she said.

In 2010, four years after she began her career as a referee, Malavasi finally took the test and became an official referee. In California she was invited to referee at a higher level and now travels frequently throughout the state for both women and men’s semi-professional soccer games.

“She has a very refined knowledge of the game that is very instinctual and far beyond her years,” said Natalie Josef, Malavasi’s training partner. “If a player does something wrong on the field, like foul someone or does something unsportsmanlike, she has this amazing ability to silence the player with a stare. But right after she gives the player the stare, she’ll give him or her some constructive criticism and by the end of it they end up thanking her. She takes the field with confidence and grace and people respect her. From young girls to adult men; they all respect her.”

After becoming a professional soccer referee, Malavasi and Josef became aware that the career was not too popular amongst female referees.

“We have many women and girls take the class and referee for a while, but they usually stop because they get tired of being yelled at and criticized, or they have a family, go to school, or choose just to play,” Josef said. “It’s especially rare to find females doing the higher level games. When we get asked to referee a women’s professional soccer league game, for example, we struggle to find the four women we need to make it an all female crew.”

Both Malavasi and Josef express a deep care for encouraging and supporting women who want to become referees.

“We always lobby for all female crews for girls and women’s playoffs and finals and we are always looking out for new female refs so we can help them,” she said. “We each struggled a lot before we started working together, and now, our hope is to save future female referees from having to do it alone.”

Though refereeing for soccer is her passion, Malavasi said it comes with a price. She will often face times when she is presented with bribes by coaches, parents, or managers of a team she is refereeing.

“They will try their best to see if they can ease you off before a game and try to see if they can get an advantage towards another team,” she said. “But I’m a very ethical person; I don’t take bribes. I think that’s selfish for the person because if you’re good you have to prove yourself. If you’re a good player, you have to prove yourself as a good player, and if you’re a good team, you will prove that you’re a good team.”

According to Malavasi, the issue of bribes is not  new within the soccer federation; she has known colleagues that have given bribes as well. However, she takes pride in knowing that even though she can’t control the actions of others, she can control her own.

“If I can do something right as a person, I will do it. But sometimes it doesn’t just depend on me, sometimes it depends on other people as well,” she said.

Along with the challenges she faces with her refereeing career, Malavasi believes the personal rewards she receives are well worth her time.

“I am very well known in my own community and I am recognized for the people I work with, and that for me is a big reward because if they don’t recognize me as a good referee, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I do get offered to go to tournaments in places like Hawaii, so to me that is actually a reward.”

Aside from teaching during the week and refereeing on weekends, Malavasi also conducts personal training sessions at Plus One Health Management’s facility in Menlo Park.

A friend, an employee of the company’s technology center, asked if she would be interested in a possible position. Apprehensive that her friend had her in mind for a “techy” position, Malavasi initially declined.

However her contact explained that his company is equipped with a fitness center and connected her with the General Manager of the facility, whose curiosity was peaked, and from there one thing lead to another.

“Her credentials, passion for health and fitness, and her professional, yet approachable demeanor, lead me to believe she would operate well with clients and fit in perfectly with the staff at the fitness center,” said Cynthia Jackson, Plus One’s GM.

She flew through her phone screening, in-person interviews, on-site clinical anatomy and physiology testing and practical audition with a fitness staff member, Jackson said.

In her final interview with the GM, she was offered the job. She started with only two hours of personal training per week and within three weeks; she had clients totaling more than 20 hours of training sessions.

“I was not expecting at all to be hired by [Plus One] but it was something that just happened,” Malavasi said. “Sometimes you just have to know people or know that there’s an opportunity out there.

At the fitness center Malavasi conducts initial assessments for new members and manages a large personal training clientele roster, Jackson said.

Malavasi finds that structuring her daily activities and allowing herself free time when she can get it is what helps her manage her rigorous schedule.

“I have to keep on time, everything has to be time-wise,” she said. “When I do have time off, I try to relax because I need some time to myself, either talk to friends, just to ease my mind a little. A good calendar really does make all the difference.”