Yahoo's Sarah Crennan on Lacrosse, Sports Betting, and the Healing Power of the Crowd

Sarah Crennan is VP and head of content for Yahoo Sports, where she is living her passions for both sports and digital content. She leads the video, editorial and social teams at Yahoo Sports in shaping the content strategy, and partners closely with teams across Verizon to realize that vision through partnerships, monetization and tech.

Prior to Yahoo Sports, Sarah was senior director of content partnerships and business development at AOL, where she oversaw the strategy and ongoing management for premium content partners.

Sarah is a passionate women’s lacrosse fan, having played at her alma mater, Georgetown University. She remains engaged with the sport as an on-air analyst for women’s lacrosse games. Sarah is an active member of the Hashtag Sports Diversity & Inclusion Committee and spends a lot of time advocating for gender equality and increasing visibility of diverse talent in sports media.

Born and raised in Maryland, Sarah now resides outside New York City with her husband Kyle, sons Ryan and James, and daughter Audrey.

We spoke with Sarah for our Time-Out series, where we chat with folks in the sports world about their favorite athletes, teams, sports movies and shows, and their love of sports generally.

Sarah, tell us…

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

Grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. Now living in Port Washington, New York.

Your earliest sports memory.

Going to the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, South Carolina, with my family. I remember being courtside watching Martina Navritalova and being completely captivated by her footwork and how she set her positioning on the court. 

Your favorite sports teams.

All Georgetown teams, especially (my alma mater) women’s lacrosse team. 

Being that I was raised in Annapolis in the ’80s/’90s, my fandom is split between D.C. and Baltimore. I’m a Washington Football Team fan, a Mystics, Wizards and Caps fan, and then all in on the Baltimore O’s for baseball. 

Your favorite athletes.

Right now I love Charlotte North. She plays lacrosse for Boston College and every goal is a highlight. She’s truly electric and I hope she wins the Tewaaraton Award.

All-time favorites are Mia Hamm, Patrick Ewing and Serena Williams. They each have changed their relative sports and have had influence beyond the sport and I love that transcendence.

Your favorite sports show or podcast.

The Yahoo Sports College Podcast with Dan Wetzel, Pete Thamel and Pat Forde. Every week I am guaranteed to learn something from their analysis and am guaranteed to laugh at least three times.

Your favorite sports movie.

Field of Dreams. I grew up watching it with my dad and I loved how magical it made the sports experience feel.

A recent project you’re proud of.

I’m really proud of how thoughtful our team has been in launching our YahooSportsbook betting content. We’ve tried to approach the category by starting with education and making sure we keep the trust we’ve built through our brand in mind for everything we do.

What are sports bettors made of?

(@MintyBets) pic.twitter.com/oJ4KfppLgv

— Yahoo Sportsbook (@YahooSportsbook) April 8, 2021

Someone else’s project that you admired recently.

I loved the Budweiser “Future Sponsor” campaign. As a part of the 2020 Clio Sports judging panel, that work unanimously impressed.g

What sports can do that nothing else can.

Heal. I can’t wait to be in a packed stadium once we’re through this pandemic. 

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in the sports world.

It’s very hard to imagine not being connected to the sports world in some way. If “coach” isn’t allowed as an answer, I think interior designer is next!