fb-pixelHandywoman nearly wins ‘Handyman’ title - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Handywoman nearly wins ‘Handyman’ title

Globe Staff

Busting stereotypes is nothing new for Allison Oropallo. She grew up playing hockey on boys’ teams until she was 14, and the boys grew a lot bigger than she was. But Oropallo didn’t stop playing hockey, and she didn’t stop trying to break stereotypes.

“I am definitely not the norm,’’ Oropallo said. “I’ve never met another woman who does what I do. And I think it’s important because I think women would be great [in nontraditional roles]. They look at things differently.’’

Oropallo, who lives in Stoneham, is a technology engineering teacher at Ottoson Middle School in Arlington, where she is also the Legos robotics coach. She recently finished as the runner-up on HGTV’s “All-American Handyman,’’ one of 20 contestants and the only woman in the final four.

Advertisement



“It was a great experience,’’ she said. “It was certainly hard work, really long hours, but it was the most satisfying thing I’ve done. It was hard and the fact that I made it all the way through felt really good.’’

Oropallo happened to be browsing online the day auditions in Philadelphia were announced.

“I called my mother and I’m like, ‘Let’s go on a road trip,’ ’’ she said. “So we went and I did it, and then I got a call like three days before [filming began].’’

Conveniently, shooting the show in Brooklyn coincided with the April school vacation, so Oropallo only had to take a few extra days off. But they were long days.

“A lot of times we had 22-hour workdays,’’ she said. “It’s high, high stress. You’ve got cameras on you at all times. You’re going against all these other really talented people. You’ve got Mike Holmes and Scott McGillivray, who are judging your projects. People watch every day.’’

Oropallo, 28, was well prepared for the challenge. The jobs included building a shed and constructing a kitchen in the finale after finishing a living room, an obstacle course with standard handy-person tasks, and several other trials. The contestants were judged on their overall knowledge, the quality of their work, how well they managed a crew, and their ability to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Advertisement



Jared Polston of Pottsville, Pa., won the grand prize, a $10,000 Sears shopping spree and an HGTV talent development deal, but Oropallo was voted the viewers’ fan favorite and received a $1,500 gift certificate to Sears.

Known as “Score’’ to her friends, Oropallo, a native of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., studied civil engineering and played hockey at the University of Connecticut. She also studied applied technology at the College of Saint Rose in Albany and has a master’s degree in education from SUNY-Plattsburgh.

She taught architecture, engineering, wood shop, and construction at a high school in the San Francisco area before coming to Arlington. In addition to teaching, she has a side business doing handywoman jobs. Many of her clients are women, who appreciate that Oropallo will take the time to show them how a project is done, enabling them to do it themselves in the future.

Oropallo is the first woman in the show’s first two seasons to make it to the finals.

“I think she had a different perspective and a different approach,’’ said Margherite Ottaviano, the show’s spokeswoman. “I’m not surprised that a woman made it that far. I think having a woman in the mix made for a more healthy competition, a more interesting competition. It doesn’t surprise me that she was able to keep up and had an advantage sometimes. She’s a smart gal.’’

Advertisement



And if Oropallo had won, would they have changed the name of the show?

“Ah, that’s a producer question,’’ Ottaviano said.

Oropallo hopes she can be an example to her own students at the Ottoson in Arlington.

“My students and their parents will say, ‘We can’t believe the things we see you doing on TV,’ ’’ she said. “I know my female students love the fact that they have a woman as a teacher in this particular trade. I think that I’m kind of just trying to show that anyone can do anything, no matter how big you are or what sex you are, and everybody should respect that.’’

She’s already helping to accomplish that at the Ottoson.

“We had hired Allison primarily because she was extremely qualified,’’ said Timothy Ruggere, the school’s principal. “We have a male tech teacher and I wanted somebody that would be a role model for girls, for women in engineering, because that’s a really big push that I personally wanted to make, for girls to know that they can be engineers, that they can be good at technology and math. . . . So we hired Allison because she was vivacious, she’s very bright, and the program really took off when she got here. She and the other tech teacher just took to each other and they started doing really wonderful things.’’

Advertisement



It’s a lesson for the boys as well as the girls, Ruggere said.

“This show came up and the kids got really excited about it, and really got into it,’’ he said. “They love the fact that they would be able to see her on television on Sunday nights. It really made a great impression for them to see that this woman is beating these men and doing these great things and doing a great job.’’

One of the show’s judges - McGillivray - had a message for Oropallo just before the winner was announced.

He said, “You came in here the smallest contestant with probably the biggest heart.’’