Two Merced County coaches honored by Sac-Joaquin Section with Model Coach awards
Golden Valley High School coaches Chopper Mello and Jacqueline Wooding were among six coaches in the Sac-Joaquin Section named Model Coaches for the 2020-21 school year.
Mello and Wooding become just the ninth and 10th coaches from Merced County schools to receive the honor since the section started handing out the Model Coach awards in 2001-02.
“I know it’s a cliche but both of them have the kids’ best interest in mind and they truly follow it every day,” said Golden Valley principal Kevin Swartwood.
“They both push kids pretty hard, to get better and to work hard. The results are clear with their competitive success. What people don’t see is the kids who go on to be productive members in our community. They play a big part with what they do with the kids every day.”
Long list of accomplishments
Mello has been the wrestling coach at Golden Valley since 1997. He’s also coached at different levels for the Cougars football program.
Under Mello, the Cougars wrestling program has won four Central California Conference championships and three section divisional titles.
Mello has also played a big role with youth wrestling in the community. “I’ve been coaching a long time and I know a lot of good coaches that aren’t on the list,” Mello said. “To be recognized is a cool deal.”
He said it’s nice to be honored in the same year as Wooding. “Not too many schools even have one coach on the list and now we have three with (Matt) Thissen and us two,” Mello said. “It’s really cool to be honored as the same time as Jacque.”
Wooding has coached cross country for 10 years and track & field for eight years. Her track and field teams have won two CCC titles and one section title.
She’s helped organize the Merced County Junior Olympics for 11 years and the Livingston Youth Track Meet for three years.
“Honestly it’s a great honor,” she said. “I love Golden Valley and any positivity during this pandemic is just refreshing..”
Wooding says she shares the honor with her husband John Wooding who has helped her coach both track and cross country.
“A lot of this has to do with John,” Wooding said. “Without him we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
Wooding is also happy to receive the award at the same time as Mello.
“Absolutely, Chopper and I share a lot of the same athletes. A lot of my cross country runners go on to be wrestlers and he loves it because they are already conditioned to run miles and miles. It’s nice to share the honor with a coach who has been coaching for so long.”
The other Model Coach award winners this year are Marysville’s Barranon, Rodriguez’s Tracy Cordes, Franklin of Elk Grove’s Brian Kilby and Merrill West’s Christine Toon.
The other Merced County coaches who’ve received the Model Coach award in past years include Golden Valley’s Matt Thissen, Livingston’s Angelo Naldi, Atwater’s Roddy Svendesn and Mary McCullick, Merced’s Rob Scheidt, Hilmar’s Cathy Mendes and Patti Harris and Los Banos’ Lynn Barcellos.
