Harnessing horsepower: A coach’s journey to the Special Olympics
By VICTORIA CISNEROS, Student Writer
Sherri Mell’s (1980) life-long passion for rodeo goes beyond competition; she loves rodeo because of how it helps to change lives. Today, she runs her own therapeutic riding facility, Riding Opportunities Promoting Exceptional Riders (R.O.P.E.R.), and hopes to lead her athletes to victory in the 2019 Special Olympics World Games as Team USA’s Equestrian Head Coach.
Sherri learned to ride before she learned to walk and knew that rodeo would always be a part of her life. She sought out Fresno State not only for its rodeo team, but for the opportunity of a four-year degree.
She devoted herself to the rodeo team, putting in work with the horses, enduring out-of-state weekend drives to competitions, and eventually becoming team captain during her last two years of college.
Alongside her love for rodeo, Sherri took just as strong an interest in her academic studies. She originally wanted to be a history teacher, but after taking a physical education class with one of her teammates, she immediately changed majors.
“When I saw how they broke down every skill for every sport, I said to myself, ‘That’s what I do. I do that in rodeo. Oh wow!’ That was exciting, oh my god, that moment right there.”
As a senior, Sherri qualified for the All Girl Rodeo Finals held in Long Beach, Ca — a competition she had qualified for in previous years but never attended because it was always held in either Texas or Oklahoma.
After graduating in 1980 with a degree in Physical Education and a minor in Animal Science, Sherri realized she needed to be closer to the action.
“I was like wow this is where I need to be. I’m getting out of college and I need somewhere where I can do this stuff.”
A year later Sherri and her mother drove to the finals in Fort Worth, Texas where they placed first in team roping out of the top 30 teams. Soon after, following some discussion and a family meeting, Sherri moved to Baytown, Texas and later relocated to San Antonio in 1983.
Once she got settled, Sherri began her career as a full time physical education teacher and worked hard to make exercise available to all of her students.
“During regular PE, I also had my share of special needs students, and I developed a motor lab program so that the aids could work easily with them to improve their skills so that they could participate in the regular PE program… [and] I knew I probably should further that along because I really did enjoy it.”
Not too long after Sherri became certified in therapeutic riding and Special Olympics horseback riding, she applied for and received a position as an adaptive PE teacher in her same school district.
At the same time, she was also in charge of the Special Olympics equestrian and roller-skating area games, which made her the perfect candidate to become a coordinator for the state-level Special Olympics.
One day, Sherri received a call notifying her that she had made the short list for Team USA’s Special Olympics World Games Equestrian Head Coach. Surprised and humbled, Sherri agreed to go through the selection process.
“They said it was in Abu Dhabi and it just kind of went in one ear and out the other, like they’re really gonna choose me out of the whole United States.”
As the search committee narrowed it down to the final two candidates, Sherri’s excitement began to build.
“Now I’m thinking, okay wow. It could be me. So I thought hmmm, I need to look at a map. Where is Abu Dhabi? Wait, I think I need to look at a globe,” she laughed. “ Wow, it’s in the mid-east.”
Sherri accepted the position, chose her assistant coach, and met her athletes at a Delaware training camp in September 2018.
“So we coached them there, we got to see their skills, and we gave them pointers. We found out their disabilities and their capabilities and we’re gonna try and turn them into world champions.”
Sherri and the rest of Team USA will travel to Abu Dhabi to compete in the 2019 Special Olympics World Games beginning March 14th — 21st. She and her coaching staff will assist their six athletes through a few days of practice before competing in three events each.
For Sherri, the thrill of it all is “the smiles and the hugs, that’s the bottom line.”
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