Alumni Report: Poway High grad to be inducted into Miami University Hall of Fame

By Michael Bower

When Karin Sherr was just 2-years-old, a doctor suggested she take up ice skating to correct her pigeon-toed feet.

Karin Sherr, a 1996 graduate of Poway High, will become the first synchronized skater to be inducted into the Miami University Hall of Fame in the winter.

Little did anyone know the suggestion would lead the 1996 Poway High graduate down a path directed right toward the Miami University Hall of Fame.

Sherr will become the first synchronized skater in the school’s history to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the winter.

She was a four-year member of the Miami senior synchronized skating team (1997-2000). She helped lead Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, to its first national title in 1999.

“I have always wanted there to be a synchronized skater in the hall of fame,” said Sherr, who in 2000 served as team captain and was named the Thomas J. Fisher Outstanding Skater, Miami skating’s highest honor. “I remember going and seeing all those athletes on the wall and there was always a hole where I thought an ice skater would fit.”

Sherr was twice a member of Miami teams that represented the United States at the World Challenge Cup. In 2000, Sherr was named the Miami Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the first Miami skater to earn the honor.

“It was a tremendous experience to represent the school and the country,” said Sherr, who earned her bachelor’s degree in political science in three years and then earned a master’s degree in family and child studies a year later. She is now a practicing labor and employment attorney in San Diego. “Not all athletes get to do that.”

Sherr learned the ends and outs of synchronized skating — a sport with several athletes on the ice moving in unison at high speeds — at the age of 8.

She joined Team Del Sol in San Diego at 8 and by the time she was a senior in high school she had hunted down Miami University, the lone college with a NCAA-sanctioned synchronized ice skating program.

“I think my parents thought I was crazy when I said I wanted to go to school in Ohio,” said Sherr, now 34. “But at that time it was the only school in the country to have a program.”

Sherr continues to stay involved with the sport as a national- and international-level judge. She also is serving as the chair of U.S. Synchronized Skating.

“I am the youngest international judge that we have,” Sherr said. “It has been great for me to stay involved and be active in the sport and do it in a way I can make a difference.”

Five others will also be inducted into the Miami University Hall of Fame in the winter, including Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

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Posted by Michael Bower on Jun 20 2012. Filed under Community, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry