Hollister’s Sinry Mendoza finished 11th at the State meet in the 1600 meter run just two seasons ago as a freshman. So it was time to study his opponents. “If you go back and look at the races he’d always just stay there until the last 100 [meters],” said Sinry, a junior on the team, when referring to his opponent who won the event.
After a year of grueling training, he came back last season and won the whole thing. It turns out that working hard to make things better runs in the Mendoza family. Sinry remembers what it was like when he was just ten years old. “If you’re familiar with the situation in Venezuela, it’s really bad,” Sinry said. “It was good for a little bit until about 2015 or 2016. That’s when it got really hard for my parents.”
That’s when his parents made the difficult decision to leave Venezuela and the thriving marketing business they had built. “We came here legally and we managed to get our Green Card, thanks to God,” Sinry said. “And then we had to wait a little bit and we became residents of the United States.”
Sinry’s parents, grandmother, and three siblings are all here. Up next: studying for the citizenship exam he’ll take next year. So not only is he training to defend his state title, but to take one incredibly difficult test.
“Like talking about congress and that stuff I’m like, ‘What the?'” Sinry said, with a laugh, talking about the things he needs to study. “It’s just confusing. The legislative branch, it’s too much.”
Sinry runs with his family in mind. “The first thing that comes to my mind is the sacrifices they’ve done for me,” Sinry said. “And I want to be able to give that to them. Return it to them. I want to set a good example for my little brother.”
His dad never misses a meet. And he’s hard to miss. “You know when he starts, especially around the back stretch and coming home he has a whistle,” said Nancy Coffelt, Hollister’s head track and field coach. “And that whistle you know is his dad.”
“It’s awesome whenever he goes to my meets,” Sinry said. “Home meets especially. At State I think you guys got a video of him whistling to me. He’s always pushing me.”
And Sinry likes to pay that forward to his teammates. “He does a lot with distance kids and will always make sure he checks on them,” Coffelt said. “Has them work out with him and encourages them to improve as well.”
They appreciate him and he appreciates all of them. “It’s a blessing that I get to come here to this country,” Sinry said. “They’ve received me with open arms. That way I can do what I love. I’ve been running since I was little. I feel like here is where I was able to develop and do what I like doing.”
From the worst times in Venezuela, to running the best times in the state of Missouri.
