By the Liberal Arts Department
Thirty years ago Mollie Busam and Tricia Reisman were competitors on the college basketball court. Today they are good friends and “team mates” in the School of Arts & Sciences, Mollie as Coordinator, Tricia as Coordinator and Project Manager.
As soon as March rolls around, both look forward to immersing themselves in March Madness with its close games, wins and upsets. Tricia played for Georgetown University from 1992 to 1996, overlapping one year with Mollie, who played at Notre Dame from 1994 to 1998.
The only time that they met on the court was in the 1995-96 season when Georgetown traveled to South Bend to take on Notre Dame. They had no idea that someday their lives would intertwine on the West Side of Cincinnati.
Tricia is a lifelong Cincinnati West Sider. Mollie grew up in Eureka, Mo. (near St. Louis). She landed in Cincinnati when she married her husband, who wanted to return to his roots there. (That was only after they had fallen in love on Notre Dame’s basketball court; Matt was a “practice player who helped the women’s team play better,” says Mollie.)
Mollie’s and Tricia’s paths crossed again when both families brought their small children to the Oak Hills Swim Club.
Soon after that, Mollie was trying to start a local basketball academy, and enlisted Tricia, her former sports rival, to help. They agree that it was only when they both coached their daughters’ grade school teams for three years that they really grew close.
As stay-at-home moms raising small children, they deepened their friendship by confiding in each other about child rearing and other struggles.
“Most of our peers were pursuing careers. We had degrees from prestigious universities (Tricia in English, Mollie in Business Administration Marketing),” says Mollie. “We helped one another grapple with our identities.”
Tricia adds, “We were fortunate to have found each other to lean on during long dark days of winter, and Covid.”
Neither regrets their choice not to enter the work force when their children were young. In coaching their daughters, they “found a way to give back to a sport that had given us so much,” says Tricia.
They agree that Tricia’s husband Eric and Mollie’s husband Matt “were our biggest fans at the girls’ games, always smiling and looking proud from the stands.”
Although Mollie and Tricia got together often as their children grew, they had no idea they had both applied for an open staff position at the Mount. At a father-daughter dance, Matt shared with Mollie, Eric was excited that Tricia would be working at the Mount.
At a Seton High School game soon after, Mollie made her way down the bleachers to Tricia, who had come to watch a game. True to her competitive spirit, Mollie was able to greet her friend with a playful “Congratulations, you’re the winner!”
But Tricia knew hiring was not over and shared with her Dean, Mike Sontag, about Mollie, “I think we can get her.”
The sell was easy: 30 hours a week with June and July off, months that involved travel for Mollie’s daughter’s traveling club basketball team.
They realized that a deep friendship was not a guarantee that they would work well together.
“We were unsure how tasks and expectations would be defined and evolve, but we were certain we would work well together,” says Tricia. By now they have settled comfortably into their roles in the newly-merged School of Arts & Sciences.
“We’ve got the sweetest gig on campus,” says Tricia. “We love our team in Arts & Sciences.”
Mollie adds that taking this job “has been an opportunity, after 18 years of raising children, to get out of my comfort zone. I feel welcomed and valued.”
Their children, several of them in college, are having a hard time believing that their mothers, who love to have a good time and can playfully challenge each other, are now working side-by-side.
One put it succinctly: “Who allowed this to happen!”