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MOJO · 07-11-2008, 10:45 AM

1. How old were you when you started wrestling? 14 (soph in H.S.)

2. Why did you start wrestling? Did you have a family member or someone else that was close to you who had wrestled and encouraged you to do so? Or did you start on your own?
I started wrestling on my own. I am the oldest of my siblings and while we loved WWF style "wrasslin", we had no idea what real wrestling was. My mom was very much against it, but I signed up for the team anyway.

My reason for joining the wrestling team was to get in better shape for the upcoming baseball season, at the advice of a baseball coach. I was terrible, but the team was so small that I was able to go varsity and wound up 1-15 that 1st season, with all 15 losses coming by fall! In spite of my lack of success, I fell in love with the sport that year and never played baseball again.

3. What city and state are you from originally? Did you live in an urban area when you started wrestling or was it more country/suburban? Tell me a little about the demographics of the area you lived in when you began wrestling.
I grew up in inner city Sacramento, CA. Sacramento is a very racially and economically diverse city, as was my high school (about 40% white, 20% black, 20% Latino, 15% Asian-American & 5% other). Wrestling was/is a popular sport in N.Cali, but primarily in the suburbs. The larger N.Cal cities (Sacramento, San Francisco) typically are less supportive of wrestling (San Jose was an exception to this rule) . I was the first person from my school to go to the state tournament and it was the 2nd oldest school west of the Rockies. Occasionally, we would develop a gem such as Adam Tirapelli, who won his 1st state title while attending Johnson HS, another inner city school in Sacramento (before his family moved to Clovis in the central valley) but this is a rarity.

07-11-2008, 10:45 AM	#10 (permalink)
MOJO AA Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 551 My Mood: Tournaments Joined: 0 Tournament Wins: 0	Re: Questions for anyone that has wrestled... 1. How old were you when you started wrestling? 14 (soph in H.S.) 2. Why did you start wrestling? Did you have a family member or someone else that was close to you who had wrestled and encouraged you to do so? Or did you start on your own? I started wrestling on my own. I am the oldest of my siblings and while we loved WWF style "wrasslin", we had no idea what real wrestling was. My mom was very much against it, but I signed up for the team anyway. My reason for joining the wrestling team was to get in better shape for the upcoming baseball season, at the advice of a baseball coach. I was terrible, but the team was so small that I was able to go varsity and wound up 1-15 that 1st season, with all 15 losses coming by fall! In spite of my lack of success, I fell in love with the sport that year and never played baseball again. 3. What city and state are you from originally? Did you live in an urban area when you started wrestling or was it more country/suburban? Tell me a little about the demographics of the area you lived in when you began wrestling. I grew up in inner city Sacramento, CA. Sacramento is a very racially and economically diverse city, as was my high school (about 40% white, 20% black, 20% Latino, 15% Asian-American & 5% other). Wrestling was/is a popular sport in N.Cali, but primarily in the suburbs. The larger N.Cal cities (Sacramento, San Francisco) typically are less supportive of wrestling (San Jose was an exception to this rule) . I was the first person from my school to go to the state tournament and it was the 2nd oldest school west of the Rockies. Occasionally, we would develop a gem such as Adam Tirapelli, who won his 1st state title while attending Johnson HS, another inner city school in Sacramento (before his family moved to Clovis in the central valley) but this is a rarity.