43
Youngstown K-9 cop to appear on ‘The Amazing Race’
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
Jessica Shields likes to set goals and then turn them into reality.
Or, in this case, reality TV.
The Youngstown police officer has always wanted to appear on “The Amazing Race,” and she will do just that beginning March 30, when the new season of the CBS competition show begins. The weekly show airs at 10 p.m.
The Howland High School graduate is the Youngstown Police Department’s first female police dog handler. In May, she will compete in her first bodybuilding competition.
Shields, 27, said her police training will serve her well on “The Amazing Race,” which pits 11 two-person teams against each other in a race across the globe. They overcome specific challenges in each locale in an effort to get to the next stop first and avoid elimination.
Shields said her police training provides an edge that goes well beyond physical conditioning.
“Being a police officer will give you a different approach to viewing other people,” she said. “You have to quickly be able to analyze a situation and make decisions based on what happened. And the social aspect will also help me, because [police] have to be able to deal with different types of people.”
Shields earned a master’s degree from Youngstown State University, where she graduated from the police academy.
She said she was drawn to police work. “I feel like you are making a difference, and I like the adrenalin and the excitement, and being out in the community, and the responsibility,” she said. “It’s also just plain fun.”
Before going to YSU, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the main campus of Kent State University, where she was on the women’s basketball team. That’s what put her on the path to strength conditioning.
“I couldn’t curl 5 pounds when I started,” she said. “But [the coach] said I had to be strong to play center.”
Shields said she lifts almost every day, piling on the maximum weight and doing a high number of repetitions. She is taking classes to become an athletic trainer, and May 27, in Kent, she will enter her first bodybuilding competition.
The contestants on the upcoming season of “The Amazing Race” were revealed Wednesday, so Shields had to keep her involvement a secret. But her fellow officers were “super excited” for her when she told them.
“The camaraderie in the police department is a positive of the job, and they were all so supportive,” she said.
In this season, “Amazing Race” contestants will be teamed up with strangers, instead of coming in as teams, as has been the norm.
Shields said she applied to be on the show several times before finally being selected.
Shields is the fourth Mahoning Valley native to appear on “The Amazing Race.” In 2005, the team of Ray Housteau of Canfield and Deana Shane of Youngstown were contestants, while Niles native Haley Keel, of Florida, appeared on the show in 2015.