Julie Mizraji might be one of the busiest people in the Brandeis Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation. She's the coordinator of intramural sports, a role in which she probably influences more Brandeis undergraduates than anyone in the Department.
She's also the event manager for four of the Judges' varsity teams, making sure that game-day events for those squads go off without a hitch.
As a long-time soccer player, if she's not at Gordon Field watching the Judges, she was probably (pre-pandemic) finding a match of her own. Since the pandemic, she's become an avid runner.
She's also been battling cancer since shortly after joining the Brandeis staff a few years ago.
Julie grew up in California and went to UC Davis, where she started out as an intramural player and quickly advanced to referee and supervisor status. Though she played soccer and basketball as a youth, she felt burnt out by competitive sports by the time she reached high school, but the IM experience reignited her passion in college. She had to try out to be a referee and found herself intimidated by the older seniors who were the IM Supervisors. That's when she learned that she could make a profession out of it, moving through the ranks of the program at UC Davis before continuing on to receive her Master's in Leisure Studies at Oklahoma State before learning about the intramural coordinator position at Brandeis six-and-a-half years ago.
"I didn't have any plans to come to the East Coast," she remembered. "But I saw the position, and I knew about Brandeis, so I gave it a shot, and I've been here ever since."
Intramurals have certainly had a long tradition at Brandeis, but Julie is the first person for whom oversight of the program is the top priority.
"I was excited by the opportunity," Julie said. "Tom had laid down a great foundation, but I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to bring to the table."
She took over a program that had been expanded under Senior Association Athletic Director Tom Rand over the previous decade and has nearly doubled the number of offerings that the department sponsors. The old standbys, like flag football, basketball and softball haven't gone anywhere, but now there's pickleball, cornhole, and even water battleship, where teams in canoes in the pool try to sink their opponents' canoes. Over the last year, with COVID limiting opportunities to compete in person, the program has expanded to online events, including chess, poker, and e-sports.
"Racquet sports have become big because of COVID," Julie says. "We used to have one badminton or pickleball tournament a year. Now we'll do them once every couple months."
Julie's varsity duties cover volleyball, swimming and diving, fencing and tennis, making sure the match or tournament is all set up, that officials and student workers are in place and ready to go, and ensuring that the streaming of events runs smoothly.
"Game management is something I really enjoy," Julie says. "At a volleyball tournament, it can seem like I'm always putting out fires, but I love it. It makes me feel more connected to the department."
Julie's work ethic and positive attitude are all the more remarkable when you learn that, almost since she started at Brandeis, she has been battling breast cancer. She was first diagnosed at the age of 24, just five months into her tenure here.
"It was shocking to me, being that young," she recalls. "Tom and everyone here were so supportive. Thankfully, it was just before summer, so life was a little less hectic. But if I needed anything, people were there for me. We talk about how Brandeis Athletics is a family, but this proved how true that really was."
Julie fought her breast cancer and was in remission. The hair she'd lost during chemotherapy had grown back, and she delivered the Survivor's Speech at Brandeis's annual Relay For Life. Then, in 2019, she received a call from her doctor during a department-wide staff meeting. After returning to the hospital for another scan, she learned the cancer had returned and spread to her lungs.
"It was devastating to learn that it had returned," Julie remembers. "When it comes back, you go from 'We can beat this.' to 'We can treat this.' There's no longer a cure."
She's been able to maintain some sense of normalcy since then. While she's lost some hair, it hasn't been as severe as the first time. She's able to take oral chemo pills that make her a little bit fatigued, but her workout routine - Crossfit workouts and a running regimen that has included a half-marathon on her last birthday along with a month of one-mile sprints - keeps her from noticing most of the time.
When people at Brandeis find out that Julie has been living with cancer, their first reaction is often one of surprise. Julie continues to do her job professionally and cheerfully, making sure to put the student experience first. But she doesn't necessarily see herself as an inspiration.
"Everyone has something that's hard in their life," she says. "We all just make the best of it. Cancer might ring a different bell because everyone has been affected by it in some way. I didn't choose to have this, I'm just making the best of it. That's all I can do."
Julie Mizraji
