University of Massachusets Athletics
More Than a Softball Player
May 14, 2001 | Softball
by Nino Vanin
The Maroon & White
About three months before sitting down to chat with UMass softball player Cherra Wheeler, I found myself sitting on a couch in her coach, Elaine Sortino's, office. Coach Sortino was on the phone, and as I sat there my eyes began to focus on a picture on her desk no larger than a high school yearbook photo. The picture, which was propped up higher than most of the clutter on her desk, was of a person posing in a football uniform.
As I stood to leave coach Sortino's office, I took a closer look at the picture. It was Cherra Wheeler -- on one knee, complete with pads and a helmet. I left the office perplexed, but smiling. I knew there was more to know about the girl who is referred to by her teammates as `Scooter.'
"I've always loved football, and always played it," said Wheeler, a junior and native of Kingsburg, Calif. "My dad played, so I grew up playing catch with him in the yard."
After a year of playing Pop Warner football in seventh grade, however, Wheeler thought that she may have had enough of the sport. It was rough, and, as expected, the boys on the team didn't take too kindly to having to play with a girl. Although she didn't play in eighth or ninth grade, Wheeler was still drawn to the field.
"When I was a freshman in high school, I wasn't sure if I wanted to [go out for the team or not]," Wheeler said. "But in my sophomore year I said, `Forget it. I'm gonna do it. I want to.'"
So, after two years away from contact football, Wheeler was ready again to play with the boys.
"I tried out, and they didn't cut me," Wheeler said matter-of-factly. "I was bigger than most of the guys, so I was a lineman and a punter during my sophomore year." Wheeler played on the JV squad the entire year, but showed promise and was moved up to the varsity for her junior year. By this time, Wheeler was not only as big as some of the boys on the team, but as good or better talent-wise. She was finding her niche, but had to deal with the constant day-to-day grumblings from team members who simply did not want a girl lining up next to them in games, practices and drills. It was a bittersweet time for Wheeler.
"It was a lot of fun, but also very mentally tough," Wheeler recalls. "The guys didn't want me out there, so I always had to be watching my back to make sure they weren't taking cheap shots at me, which they did all the time."
Additional pressure was put on Wheeler when the coaches decided to play her at tight end on offense and linebacker on defense. While playing on both sides of the ball is quite common in high school football, Wheeler was playing two of the more important positions on the field, which certainly didn't assuage any of the already-tenuous relationships she had with her teammates.
"It was fun, and a good experience for me," Wheeler said. "I just had to stick it out [through the tough times]."
Sticking it out amid the harrassment from teammates, coaches and others in school became routine for Wheeler. There were those who made comments under their breath, and others who just asked why she continued to take the abuse and didn't opt to leave the team. Nothing, however, would deter Wheeler. She believed she belonged.
But then came a turning point -- a moment when Wheeler discovered just where she stood in the eyes of her peers.
It came at the beginning of her senior year during a school pep rally in which the entire football team was going to be announced to the school. Since Wheeler wore jersey number 80 she was near the end of the line to be introduced, and remembers hearing the screams for some of the more popular players who had gone out before her.
"It was going through my mind how quiet it was going to be when I walked out there," said Wheeler. "I thought that nobody was going to say anything."
She couldn't have been more wrong.
Wheeler was announced to her fellow classmates to a deafening chorus of screams and cheers.
"I couldn't hear anything when I walked out because everybody was cheering so loud," remembers Wheeler. "And everyone was standing up."
Wheeler had heard cheers before, but these were special.
"It was just the best feeling," said Wheeler, "because even my teammates were standing for me."
In all likelihood, even without football, Wheeler would still be the person, and athlete, she is today. The 5-10 slugger readily admits that she enjoys contact and the intense physicality that came with football, and appreciates the lessons she learned being part of a football team.
"I love physical sports," Wheeler said with a slight grin. "It's a good way to take out your aggression if you're having a bad day or something."
And although Wheeler can't truly duplicate or transfer over the physical play from the football field to the softball diamond, she does her best. One of the deadliest power hitters in the UMass line-up, Wheeler bats in the cleanup spot for Sortino and is the Minutewomen's vocal leader. Hardly a pitch goes by in a game that doesn't elicit some type of chatter from Scooter.
As a freshman she led the team in home runs with seven, which was good for the third-best single-season mark ever at UMass. She currently sits in a tie for first place on the all-time career list for homers with 15, and will surely be in first place all by herself shortly.
Wheeler does, however, point to one aspect that her two favorite sports have in common.
"Focus," she said unequivocally. "You have to be mentally focused and mentally tough to play football, and that carries over into softball. Of course in softball there isn't always that much action, but you can't let your mind wander -- you always have to be aware of what's going on around you."
These days, Wheeler is focused on leading UMass to its seventh straight Atlantic 10 title and 14th championship overall. Coming off a somewhat surprising year in 2000 in which UMass made a trip to NCAA Regionals but was promptly dismissed in two games, she is confident that the 2001 version of the Minutewomen have the talent and drive necessary to make it back, and perhaps further.
"I think we just need to push ourselves," Wheeler said in reference to getting another NCAA Tournament bid. "Hopefully my teammates will look to me as someone to push them, and to help them up their game."
In all honesty, Scooter, it is a good bet that they already do.
The Maroon & White
About three months before sitting down to chat with UMass softball player Cherra Wheeler, I found myself sitting on a couch in her coach, Elaine Sortino's, office. Coach Sortino was on the phone, and as I sat there my eyes began to focus on a picture on her desk no larger than a high school yearbook photo. The picture, which was propped up higher than most of the clutter on her desk, was of a person posing in a football uniform.
As I stood to leave coach Sortino's office, I took a closer look at the picture. It was Cherra Wheeler -- on one knee, complete with pads and a helmet. I left the office perplexed, but smiling. I knew there was more to know about the girl who is referred to by her teammates as `Scooter.'
"I've always loved football, and always played it," said Wheeler, a junior and native of Kingsburg, Calif. "My dad played, so I grew up playing catch with him in the yard."
After a year of playing Pop Warner football in seventh grade, however, Wheeler thought that she may have had enough of the sport. It was rough, and, as expected, the boys on the team didn't take too kindly to having to play with a girl. Although she didn't play in eighth or ninth grade, Wheeler was still drawn to the field.
"When I was a freshman in high school, I wasn't sure if I wanted to [go out for the team or not]," Wheeler said. "But in my sophomore year I said, `Forget it. I'm gonna do it. I want to.'"
So, after two years away from contact football, Wheeler was ready again to play with the boys.
"I tried out, and they didn't cut me," Wheeler said matter-of-factly. "I was bigger than most of the guys, so I was a lineman and a punter during my sophomore year." Wheeler played on the JV squad the entire year, but showed promise and was moved up to the varsity for her junior year. By this time, Wheeler was not only as big as some of the boys on the team, but as good or better talent-wise. She was finding her niche, but had to deal with the constant day-to-day grumblings from team members who simply did not want a girl lining up next to them in games, practices and drills. It was a bittersweet time for Wheeler.
"It was a lot of fun, but also very mentally tough," Wheeler recalls. "The guys didn't want me out there, so I always had to be watching my back to make sure they weren't taking cheap shots at me, which they did all the time."
Additional pressure was put on Wheeler when the coaches decided to play her at tight end on offense and linebacker on defense. While playing on both sides of the ball is quite common in high school football, Wheeler was playing two of the more important positions on the field, which certainly didn't assuage any of the already-tenuous relationships she had with her teammates.
"It was fun, and a good experience for me," Wheeler said. "I just had to stick it out [through the tough times]."
Sticking it out amid the harrassment from teammates, coaches and others in school became routine for Wheeler. There were those who made comments under their breath, and others who just asked why she continued to take the abuse and didn't opt to leave the team. Nothing, however, would deter Wheeler. She believed she belonged.
But then came a turning point -- a moment when Wheeler discovered just where she stood in the eyes of her peers.
It came at the beginning of her senior year during a school pep rally in which the entire football team was going to be announced to the school. Since Wheeler wore jersey number 80 she was near the end of the line to be introduced, and remembers hearing the screams for some of the more popular players who had gone out before her.
"It was going through my mind how quiet it was going to be when I walked out there," said Wheeler. "I thought that nobody was going to say anything."
She couldn't have been more wrong.
Wheeler was announced to her fellow classmates to a deafening chorus of screams and cheers.
"I couldn't hear anything when I walked out because everybody was cheering so loud," remembers Wheeler. "And everyone was standing up."
Wheeler had heard cheers before, but these were special.
"It was just the best feeling," said Wheeler, "because even my teammates were standing for me."
In all likelihood, even without football, Wheeler would still be the person, and athlete, she is today. The 5-10 slugger readily admits that she enjoys contact and the intense physicality that came with football, and appreciates the lessons she learned being part of a football team.
"I love physical sports," Wheeler said with a slight grin. "It's a good way to take out your aggression if you're having a bad day or something."
And although Wheeler can't truly duplicate or transfer over the physical play from the football field to the softball diamond, she does her best. One of the deadliest power hitters in the UMass line-up, Wheeler bats in the cleanup spot for Sortino and is the Minutewomen's vocal leader. Hardly a pitch goes by in a game that doesn't elicit some type of chatter from Scooter.
As a freshman she led the team in home runs with seven, which was good for the third-best single-season mark ever at UMass. She currently sits in a tie for first place on the all-time career list for homers with 15, and will surely be in first place all by herself shortly.
Wheeler does, however, point to one aspect that her two favorite sports have in common.
"Focus," she said unequivocally. "You have to be mentally focused and mentally tough to play football, and that carries over into softball. Of course in softball there isn't always that much action, but you can't let your mind wander -- you always have to be aware of what's going on around you."
These days, Wheeler is focused on leading UMass to its seventh straight Atlantic 10 title and 14th championship overall. Coming off a somewhat surprising year in 2000 in which UMass made a trip to NCAA Regionals but was promptly dismissed in two games, she is confident that the 2001 version of the Minutewomen have the talent and drive necessary to make it back, and perhaps further.
"I think we just need to push ourselves," Wheeler said in reference to getting another NCAA Tournament bid. "Hopefully my teammates will look to me as someone to push them, and to help them up their game."
In all honesty, Scooter, it is a good bet that they already do.
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