football throughout my early years and added wrestling in highschool.
my senior year was in France. we were the smallest team in Europe. we fielded only 21 players. I was captain and we went undefeated.
started wrestling my sophomore year. I started out pretty cocky as I was a football jock. got my ass kicked. I became challenged and started running to get into shape. seems like I had a total of 50 matches. lost the first 25 and won the last 25.
junior year was in California. we had no team, so they gave me permission to go to a nearby school and wrestle with them. I wrestled the coach, beat him and he quit. the team stayed together and we wrestled as a non league team. I Refed,wrestled and coached. I remember Oakland scared the dickens out of me.
my senior year was France, and again no team. a very cool, but very effeminate black English teacher volunteered to sponsor us. there were 4 I think. when
"all France" tourney happened we went with the Verdun guys. this was equivalent to all conference. winners thru 3rd place went to " all Europe" (all state)in Wiesbaden, Germany.
the all France was in Paris. whilst a totally basket case awaiting my first match one of the Verdun guys asked if I knew they wrestled Olympic style instead of collegiate style as in the States. nope,,new to me. he gave me about a 20 min intro and out I went. these are double eliminations and I was seeded last and wrestled the first place rated guy in the league, as I had had no matches.
long story short, I took 3rd and went on to take 3rd in all Europe.
all in all it was a great adventure, taught me more than I can say, and " what a hell of a way to start life!
what's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?