MEDIA, Pa. -- When Bobbi Caprice walked into the Penn State Brandywine gym in 2009, she never dreamed that she and her future husband would meet there.
Caprice was putting her bag in the gym for an upcoming volleyball game when she met Vinny Gallo, a student worker setting up sports equipment. Gallo noticed Caprice’s Marple Newtown High School gym bag and identified himself as an alumnus of Marple’s rival school, Springfield High School.
“When I told him I was from Marple, he said, ‘Sorry to hear!’” Caprice said. “He told me he went to Springfield and I said, ‘That is the worst.’ And he walked away.”
Gallo’s first memory of Caprice stretches back a little farther than that volleyball game. He first saw Caprice while sitting with the baseball team in the gym, waiting to hand in his uniform from the fall season.
“Women’s basketball was there too, getting uniforms for their upcoming season,” he said. “I asked my teammate, ‘That girl in the Marple shirt — do you know her?’ I just remember her having this glow about her. I still can’t explain what it is, but she makes me smile.”
Gallo, a junior playing on the baseball team, and Caprice, a freshman on the volleyball, basketball and cross country teams, found that they had many mutual friends on and off campus. More importantly, they quickly learned that there was something special about their own friendship.
“We met in October, our first date was Nov. 21, and he asked me to be his girlfriend on Dec. 10 that year,” said Caprice.
The Nittany Lion made a special appearance at Bobbi Caprice and Vinny Gallo's wedding reception on June 3.
The two dated through many of life’s big milestones, including graduation and finding their career paths — a journey that, ironically, led both of them back to Brandywine Athletics.
“Vinny has been working with the department since 2008,” said Caprice, “and he got me involved in 2010. Our roles within Brandywine Athletics have evolved over the last decade, but together we’ve really dedicated our lives to it.”
Today, Gallo is the head baseball coach and Caprice is the assistant athletic director. The two work hard to support Brandywine’s current student-athletes, recruit new students and stay engaged with alumni.
“We both have a passion for Penn State, for Brandywine and for Penn State football,” Gallo said. “It’s good knowing that when Penn State has a game on Saturday, I always have someone to watch it with.”
In 2015, after nearly seven years of being each other’s biggest fans, Caprice and Gallo decided to take their teamwork to a new level — Gallo proposed.
The couple became husband and wife on June 3.
“We got married at St. Pius X in Broomall—the church I grew up in, but also the church Vinny’s parents got married in,” said Caprice.
“Over 350 people came together to celebrate with us,” Gallo said. “That was an extremely humbling experience. We are blessed.”
Although Caprice and Gallo have only been married for a few weeks, they are back on campus doing what they do best — making Brandywine Athletics a stronger department and operating as a team.
“We’re each other’s biggest fans,” said Gallo. “And sometimes that means constructive criticism. I actually enjoy those conversations. It’s a blessing to have someone who can disagree with you sometimes and tell you when you’re wrong. That’s how we grow together and make each other better people.”
