This story is part of the IndyStar project “Only woman in the room:” How Indy became top city in nation for women sports execsINDIANAPOLIS — Mel Raines was in kindergarten when her mom sent her off to field day in a dress and Mary Jane buckled shoes. Never mind the ill-conceived outfit, she came home with her hands full of blue ribbons.Raines won just about everything, the 50-yard dash, longest softball throw, all the track events, and it was exhilarating.”I think my parents realized they had an athlete on their hands,” said Raines, president and CEO of Pacers Sports & Entertainment. “They wanted to put me in something, so I started softball and then I wanted to play everything because I was super competitive, loved everything about being on a team, of course I loved winning. I loved being active.”Raised in South Bend, Raines calls herself “a child of the 70s” who was outside first thing in the morning, playing sports, drinking from the garden hose, coming back when it was time to eat dinner, going out again for more sports and returning home when it was too dark to be outside, much to the chagrin of Raines.She played almost every sport. Softball was her best, but she played soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis and ran track. Once in high school, she had to whittle down the list, landing on basketball (small forward, shooting guard), soccer (sweeper), tennis (doubles) and softball (second base).What had started as a tomboy at field day in Mary Janes turned into a standout athlete who couldn’t get enough of playing and learning anything she could about any sport she played.Yet, early on, Raines never once thought about a career in sports. That wasn’t something young girls in those days really thought about. So Raines followed what became another passion of hers, politics.After graduating from IU with a degree in advertising, Raines spent 18 years working at the highest levels of Republican politics, including in the office of Sen. Dan Coats and organizing four Republican National Conventions.She became so successful and well-known in elite D.C. circles that the White House came calling in 2006. And Raines did what she says is “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done.”Raines said no thanks to the Vice President of the United States.”They had an opening in Dick Cheney’s office. and I literally turned down the interview,” said Raines. “I said, ‘I’m super flattered that you would call, but I really like my job. I just started a grad degree.’ I had bronchitis and I was renovating my kitchen and I literally was like, ‘Go sell crazy someplace else. I do not have time to change jobs right now.'”And then the White House did something Raines said she couldn’t believe. The Vice President’s office called her a few days later and asked again. “And I thought, ‘Well, it’s like 16 blocks away. I’m not a jerk.'”In 2006, Raines became Cheney’s political affairs director, a job that, at first, was overwhelming and surreal. “My first week, I was on Air Force Two thinking, ‘How did this possibly … how did this girl from South Bend get here?'” said Raines. ‘”This is crazy.'”Working for Cheney meant big picture tasks, such as coordinating with President George W. Bush’s political director and helping Cheney in his support of candidates and the party. It also involved things like recommending he give a speech at the Economic Club of Indiana or helping him roll out a new economic initiative that the administration was pushing.”We started a NASCAR race. We went to a space shuttle launch,” Raines said. “It was sort of a pretty wide portfolio.”When it was time to leave the White House in 2008, as President Barack Obama took over, Raines said she realized “I’m sort of done with this roller coaster of politics.” And she did something she hadn’t had to do in a long time: Apply for a job. One that would launch her back into the world of sports and bring her back to her home state of Indiana.’Her superpower is how even-keeled she is’Most people in Indy first heard the name Mel Raines when she landed that job as vice president of event operations and government affairs for the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee. She was in charge of seemingly everything, and she was everywhere.Under her umbrella, Raines had 14 committees, including transportation and parking, weather preparedness, permitting, the clean zone to deter ambush marketing, VIP ticketing and risk management.”There was not a lot of sleep,” said Raines, who estimates she worked 100 hours a week for much of those three years. That included doing a lot of media interviews, the best one being the time she was on the Weather Channel — because her dad really loved the Weather Channel. “And he’s never been prouder. Not that he didn’t care I worked in the White House, he thought that was cool,” she said. “But he was never prouder of me than when I was on the Weather Channel during the Super Bowl.”After the Super Bowl, Raines spent two years as chief of staff to Rep. Susan Brooks, but right around Election Day at the end of Brooks’ first term, Raines got a call from Pacers president and CEO Rick Fuson. He was looking for someone to run his NBA arena, then called Bankers Life Fieldhouse.”He wanted to diversify his senior team and, honestly, there were not a lot of women that ran NBA arenas at the time. I think there were two out of the 30 teams, and I was the third,” said Raines. “But he saw something in me that I did not see.”Raines became the Pacers’ senior vice president of facility operations and for the next decade climbed the ladder of the NBA franchise taking the top spot of CEO in July 2024 becoming the first woman to hold the position in franchise history.”To me, her superpower is how even keeled she is, how thoughtful she is when she’s making decisions and when she’s really trying to find the right road to lead and to take everybody on,” said Indiana Fever president Kelly Krauskopf. “But, she does it in a way that’s very humble and a lot of humility.”Through Raines’ tenure with the Pacers, she led a massive $400 million renovation of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which she kept on track despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The fieldhouse was ready for the 2022-23 season. The Bicentennial Unity Plaza outside opened in August 2023 and was ready when the Pacers hosted the 2024 NBA All-Star Game. Raines also oversaw the WNBA All-Star weekend in Indy in July.”I hope that the landscape of our company when I retire one day looks different, and that the people who are ready for the next position and to run the company and run the departments are a really diverse group of people who are really invested in what we’re trying to do here,” she said.Raines knows she is a pioneer in her role as a woman, but her advice on being successful comes with a simple guiding principle or her “mantra,” as she calls it.”Sometimes courage is just getting up tomorrow and coming back in. Courage doesn’t always roar,” she said. “It’s the grind. It’s not the jumping up on the table Norma Rae speeches that I’ve ever been. But it’s the everyday, steady as she goes, get the job done.”Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.   This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers CEO Mel Raines has worked in the White House and on Super Bowl