Former Captain Gets Down to Business

“Angela, you are going to love it,” a fellow contestant on “The Apprentice” gushed to former Harvard women’s hockey captain Angela Ruggiero upon announcing the project idea for the tenth challenge on the hit reality television series— an idea that would send the three-time Olympian packing.

Already in its sixth season, “The Apprentice” brings together 18 business-minded contestants from a range of backgrounds to duke it out for a year-long $250,000 apprenticeship under millionaire Donald Trump.

During the 2006 Winter Olympics, NBC announced that Trump would spice up the sixth season of the show by adding an Olympian to the cast. A viewer’s poll was assembled and Ruggiero, who compiled a 109-13-5 record and an NCAA title while playing for the Crimson to go with her gold, silver, and bronze medals, beat out 11 other Olympic heavyweights to secure the six-week taping stint in Los Angeles.

And so Ruggiero began the world’s most intense interview, avoiding Trump’s wrath through the first nine episodes and securing the position of Project Manager of her team, Kinetic Corporation, for the tenth.

Challenged to sell more tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood than Arrow Corporation, Kinetic decided to take advantage of its assets—namely, a roster of cute young women. The team donned short skirts and roller skates along with the wearable ticket vest to turn the customers’ amusement into lucrative sales.

Ruggiero, pending a provision for roller blades instead of roller skates, said of the plan, “I would do it in a heartbeat.”

But Arrow’s total sales reached $31,366.65 to Kinetic’s $24,440.37, suggesting that Ruggiero should not have been so quick to jump on the idea. She was sent into the boardroom where a round of intense cross-firing would see her take the blame for the flawed design.

“Angela, as a great American, I am trying to keep you,” Trump said to arguably his favorite contestant—after all, she was the only one to get a hug from Trump in the opening episode. But pointing to the other team members, “I can’t fire her, I can’t fire her, and I can’t fire her.”

“So I’ll take the blame on this one,” Ruggiero responded.

“You have to. Angela, you are fired!”

Though genuine tears flowed during Ruggiero’s ride in the confessional car, U.S. National teammate and Harvard junior Caitlin Cahow said that the water works came on a bit of a lighter note when the episode aired on March 25th.

“As soon as we got to the boardroom scene, Angela became visibly irked and started to blush,” Cahow said. “Her eyes started to tear because she was trying not to laugh.”

Fittingly, Ruggiero’s final episode aired on the same day that the roster for the 2007 Women’s World Hockey Championships was finalized. About three-quarters of the national squad crammed into her hotel room to watch the episode together, and most were surprised by its ending.

“They didn’t know that I was going to be fired,” Ruggiero said during a teleconference with USA Hockey on March 27th, “but were supporting me as the famous last words were heard, and throwing pillows at the TV.”

Though Ruggiero’s energy and business acumen helped Kinetic to four victories during her span on the show, returning to the U.S. National squad may have come as a bit of a relief as it is a team free of back-stabbing members.

In fact, Cahow noted about Ruggiero’s performance that “She wasn’t there to make enemies and wasn’t willing to sell her soul,” which may be why she flew under the radar for much of the season. When producers urged her to go after a teammate in the final boardroom scene, Ruggiero couldn’t bring herself to do so without knowing who had sold the least—and so took the blame for a faulty concept.

While Ruggiero might not have been as conniving as her fellow contestants, and may also have seen an opportunity to showcase women’s hockey through the show, she always intended to treat the experience as a competitive job interview.

“I’m the third-oldest member of the U.S. [women’s hockey] team,” she continued during the teleconference. “I’m in the process of trying to figure out what I am going to do after hockey, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to transition into the business world.”

Ruggiero graduated cum laude from Harvard in 2004 with a B.A. in Government and released an autobiography last spring titled “Breaking the Ice.” She currently serves as the director of Project Hope, a non-profit organization run by the New York Islanders that aims to introduce children in China to hockey.

Returning from “The Apprentice” to work with the Islanders and to play hockey with the U.S. National team was a welcomed move for Ruggiero, but she may not have seen the last of the Trump Corporation.

She will head back to Los Angeles this weekend for the final episode of “The Apprentice,” which is set to air live this Sunday at 10 p.m. During the teleconference, Ruggiero noted that she is under contract not to contact Trump until the season ends but plans to bring a framed Olympic jersey to the reunion. And, by the way, earlier mention of an opening in Trump’s organization just may provide Ruggiero an apprentice opportunity after all.

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Compton can be reached at compton@fas.harvard.edu.