Coach Mendez lets no one tell him what he can’t do
Less determined people might be consumed by self-pity. Not Rob Mendez. He was born with a congenital disorder that robbed him of arms and legs, yet he always has tackled adversity with a glass-is-half-full attitude.
Not only did Mendez learn to manage what he calls his “different abilities,” he went on to become a football coach. Not basketball, where he could have maneuvered his wheelchair inside on a flat surface; instead, he chose to subject himself to uncertain weather and uneven terrain.
Hazards are everywhere. One day in 2018, when his wheelchair safety strap wasn’t buckled, he hurtled head-first from the seat onto the concrete floor of his parents’ garage.
He wrote of the incident: “I can do nothing to stop the impending catastrophe. I have no arms to break the fall, no legs to absorb some of the impact. I turn my head to the side. And close my eyes.”
His face took the brunt of the impact. He gashed his forehead, smashed his eye orbital bone, fractured his cheekbone and suffered a concussion. His medical team instructed him to recuperate from his injuries for at least two weeks.
“Within two days, I was out on the football field with a half-broken face,” Mendez recalls.
He recites that experience in the prologue of his autobiography, “Who Says I Can’t?,” which was published Sept. 7. So married is he to this mantra that he has trademarked the phrase: “Who Says I Can’t? Nobody!”
This fall was his first season as offensive coordinator at Francis Parker School. He had started announcing games as a high school student in Gilroy. At practice one day, he was asked to be team manager. Shortly after graduating, he became an assistant coach. For the next 12 years, he was involved in school football coaching in the Bay Area, primarily as a high school junior varsity coach.
Mendez relates that he loves the chess strategy element of the sport, and he learned a lot from John Madden through the coach’s NFL football video games. He also loves the locker room camaraderie.
Mendez fell in love with San Diego a couple of years ago when he was giving a motivational speech at an event overlooking San Diego Bay and became determined to move here. He did just that in June 2020 and now lives with his girlfriend, Janell Karimoto, in Little Italy.
The primary motivation of Mendez is inspiring others. “I really want to motivate people to chase their dreams and appreciate who they are and their relationships in life.”
Instead of viewing the physical challenges he faces daily as a disadvantage, he says, “I’m blessed . ... I appreciate what I do have rather than being bitter for what I don’t have.”
Now, at age 33, Mendez has been a warrior on the speaking circuit. He has been interviewed on radio and TV, including the “Rachael Ray Show” and profiled in an ESPN short documentary, “Who Says I Can’t?,” nominated for an Emmy in 2019.