From Fighting to the Hall of Fame: My Journey to the Florida Wrestling Hall of Fame
From Fighting to the Hall of Fame
And I’ll be real with you… I didn’t see this coming when I was younger. Not even close.
I didn’t grow up in a wrestling family. Honestly, if anything, I just grew up fighting. And yeah… that’s probably not the kind that gets you inducted into anything.
As a kid, I didn’t have much direction. I remember wanting to play football, asking kids in the neighborhood how they got on the team. They told me all I needed was about a hundred dollars for pads. A hundred dollars might as well have been a million back then.
So instead of organized sports, I played football on the side of an apartment building. And I was good too—I could run, couldn’t be caught, scored all the time. People would tell me I needed to play for real. But I already knew… that wasn’t happening.
Then came middle school. And that’s where things really went sideways.
I fought—a lot. Suspensions stacked up. It started on the first day of sixth grade and didn’t slow down. Looking back now, working in a middle school myself, I understand that behavior a lot better. But back then? I wore it like a badge of honor.
— Coach Carrier, Pompano Beach Middle
I said, “Yeah.” Proud.
He said, “You might be good at wrestling.”
That moment right there? That was the first turning point of my life.
Now don’t get it twisted—I didn’t fall in love with wrestling right away. I didn’t understand it. I definitely didn’t like the uniforms. But I did like the idea of picking somebody up and slamming them. Problem was… I wasn’t actually winning.
Illegal slams. Locking hands. Losing match after match. I wasn’t taking it seriously.
But wrestling showed me something I hadn’t seen before—that there might be something out there I could actually be good at. Then high school hit. And reality hit harder.
I started something like 0–9. I was getting dragged back to the center of the mat, trying to crawl out of bounds just to survive. It was embarrassing. I knew my friends were watching. And trust me, getting clowned for losing felt just as bad as losing a fight in the cafeteria.
That’s when my pride cracked.
Wrestling will do that to you. There’s a verse in James 1:23–24 that talks about looking in the mirror, seeing who you really are, and then walking away and forgetting. That used to be me.
For the first time, I saw myself clearly—and I didn’t like what I saw. I wasn’t as tough as I thought. Not as strong. Not as disciplined. So I had a choice: Stay the same… or change.
That summer, I chose change. I trained. I practiced. I worked out every single day. And slowly… I started winning.
Then came another major turning point—new coaches. Coach Jon, Coach Steve, Coach Rollie, and Coach Milton. They didn’t just teach me wrestling. They taught me discipline. Technique. Accountability. They also gave me some of the toughest beatings I’ve ever had—but those lessons stuck.
More importantly, they showed me that wrestling could take me somewhere. College. Opportunity. A future.
My first coach pulled me off a bad path. These coaches put me on a straight road. And when I got to college, I met Coach Wilder. He showed me what’s on the other side of wrestling—family, character, and pouring into other people.
When I look back now, I realize something powerful: Every major turning point in my life came from a coach who stepped in and nudged me in the right direction. Without them...
I might’ve just been another kid with talent… who never figured it out. But because people invested in me—now my purpose is to invest in others.
That’s why this Hall of Fame induction means so much to me. It’s not just about wins, titles, or accomplishments. It’s about the journey. It’s about the people who saw something in me before I saw it in myself. And it’s about making sure I do the same for the next generation.
So to my coaches… thank you. And to anybody reading this who feels like they don’t have direction right now—sometimes all it takes is one person… one moment… one decision to change everything.
This honor belongs to all of us.
Comments
Post a Comment