Sun Bowl Matchup Special For Notre Dame, Miami Alums At ABC-7

The Hyundai Sun Bowl has special meaning for two competitive and vivacious ABC-7 reporters.

Marissa Monroy is a 2006 Notre Dame graduate. Gaby Loria earned her degree from Miami in May.

Now both are sporting their team?s colors as they menacingly glare at one another from their connecting cubicles in the KVIA newsroom.

During her senior year at El Paso?s Silva Magnet High School, Marissa and her mother visited the Notre Dame campus. They put the school to the ?bench test.? They sat and waited. Sure enough, within moments someone warmly greeted them.

Notre Dame is highly selective, but amazingly Marissa and three of her high school classmates moved on to South Bend. Forever prideful of her experience, Marissa tells me the worst thing about Notre Dame is that ?you?re only there four years.?

Gaby grew up all over the western hemisphere – moving from Brazil to Guatemala to Mexico to Michigan before settling with her family in south Florida.

Gaby?s immediate response to my inquiry about Miami, ?It?s paradise.?

She adds the ?U? (as Miami is commonly called) is ?very international.? Gaby says that her college was journalistically an amazing place. As an example, she cited being permitted to cover a Bill Clinton news conference.

It?s apparent that Marissa drank the Kool Aid more than Gaby. She never missed a football game while Gaby only attended a couple. In all fairness, neither program has been up to its typically high gridiron standards in recent years.

That won?t matter come Friday. Marissa and Gaby will be on hand as their alma maters participate in the most highly anticipated football game in Sun Bowl game history.

May the best team win and may my newsroom get back to being a more sane place!

Watch two videos below of Monroy and Loria talking about their schools and showing off places in El Paso tourists should visit.

Related Link:Link:KVIA Sun Bowl Section