Basketball Bond At Center Of Mattera Sisters Guiding Stoneham High Spartans

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BOSTON — Julia and Sarah Mattera first took their sisterly bond to the basketball court at a young age, growing alongside each other as childhood teammates to now coaches of the Stoneham High girls basketball team.

From Arlington Catholic High School to AAU to Salem State University, the two Arlington, Mass. natives have been side by side. In collegiate athletics, Julia spent four seasons as a guard for the Vikings with Sarah right next to her as an assistant on the team’s coaching staff. As current Salem State alums, Julia and Sarah have most recently transitioned to sharing the sidelines (and clipboard) as head coach and assistant coach, respectively, with the Spartans, keeping their basketball journeys alive and well.

“I gravitated toward coaching because I just graduated from Salem playing four years of college basketball and I wasn’t ready to give the game up,” Julia told NESN.com. “I loved the game and still have a love and passion for the game that I want to carry and share with my players, and I hope I can help them improve each year and grow into amazing varsity players.”

It wasn’t very long ago when Julia and Sarah were sharing the court as high school teammates. Though at the time, there was a common difference between the girls and boys’ teams that’s made some universal strides recently.

“The boys would get the better game times or better practice times. Boys’ games would always get a bigger crowd,” Sarah told NESN.com. “I think it’s getting better for girls today but I still notice less fans.”

Since the power of social media has taken every realm by storm, including sports, the floodgates have busted open for little-known prospects to become overnight stars. LSU’s Angel Reese skyrocketed to becoming the face of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, taking on the role of the foe of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. Reese led LSU to a national championship, becoming a household name not just in collegiate athletics, but in sports.

This wasn’t necessarily the case just a few years ago with the list of female professional athletes who were globally recognized much more limited.

“We idolized male athletes because they were always in the spotlight so when did we ever see women athletes in the spotlight?” Julia said.

Growing up in the mid-2000s made it abundantly clear that Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki — and an extensive list of stars alike — ruled the basketball world. They owned the predominant eyes of viewers routinely tuning in and responsible for sellout arenas jam-packed with thousands of fans religiously devoted to following their careers.

The same couldn’t be said for Maya Moore, Dawn Stanley or Kara Lawson, who were the WNBA’s biggest names during that same period.

Today, it’s becoming normalized for female hoopers to find their place in the NBA. Becky Hammon, who played 16 seasons in the WNBA, joined the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant on Gregg Popovich’s staff in 2014 before departing in 2022. Lawson, the current head coach of the Duke University women’s team, spent two seasons as an assistant with the Boston Celtics. Meanwhile, five others are currently employed by an NBA coaching staff, including Brittni Donaldson of the Atlanta Hawks and Sonia Raman of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Still, there’s plenty of room left to continue moving forward.

“It’s important for young girls and sports to be able to see women in higher positions so that they have role models that they can look up to,” Sarah explained. “It’s important for them to know that their involvement in being an athlete is just as important as it is for a male to be an athlete. We still aren’t where we need to be but we are making progress in that area. At one time there was no WNBA but at least now a female in college can feel as though they can play in the WNBA if they are good enough. Growth for women and sports is getting better, but there are still things that need to be worked on like equal pay for men and women athletes. Women should be able to get just as much publicity as males for their accomplishments.”