NEWS

As I/I tournament manager, I organize all of the USPA middle school, high school and collegiate tournaments throughout the year, including host sites, horses and on-site personnel. The best part of my job is traveling to I/I tournaments throughout the season, and getting to watch our teams play.

I grew up in a soccer family. My dad and both of my older sisters played, and our family had deep ties to the soccer community in my hometown of Muskegon, Michigan.

No one in my family rode horses, but I worked at a barn down the road from our house in exchange for western riding lessons. Went I went to college at Michigan State University, I found the polo club, which seemed like a great fit and was more relaxed than the other equestrian teams.

I worked my way up from exercising polo ponies for fun to being a member of the varsity team. While we were never the best team in the arena, it was an incredible way to learn about the sport, travel and meet some of my best friends. Through MSU polo, I found summer polo jobs grooming for some incredible people, including Curtis Mahon, Merle Jenkins and Les Johnson.

I majored in animal science, and in my last semester of school an assistant polo coach position opened up at Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, Maryland. I spent seven years coaching high school teams alongside Cindy Halle at Garrison and teaching science classes in the upper school before coming to the USPA eight years ago. I still really enjoy being able to teach clinics for our I/I clubs, or hop in to give a lesson.

My husband, Brian, and I have three Brian and Emily Dewey with their three kids children that keep us running around, and their interests are currently ours as well. Outside of ice hockey and fishing with the kids, we love spending time at the beach. We are only a 30-minute drive to Lake Michigan. We are also huge Michigan State fans and spend as many Saturdays as we can in the fall tailgating with friends and family.

While I was still in college, my mom once told me that polo wasn’t going to pay the bills. We still laugh about it now since I’ve only held positions in polo since graduating from college 15 years ago!

Looking forward, I would love to go on an African horseback safari. Brian is a high-school Spanish teacher, and one of our family goals is to spend a month in an upcoming summer living in Spain to immerse our kids in the language and culture.