Background
I started sports a little late for most kids nowadays. I got involved in Soccer by the 5th or 6th grade. Outside of that I did a little boxing at the YMCA when I was even younger but because of moving, I did not stay long. It wasn’t until High School that I started training in Combat Arts or sports. My nickname is high school was “TACO” and not by choice. At some point I decided to enroll in Karate, and I did. But I also moved on from traditional karate and Martial starts styles to sports styles for various reason.
Here is what happened.
The Story
Both of my parents are immigrants. I was the 1st in my immediate family, on the Greek side to be born in the USA. My last name is Kontakos. I am sure you can see where “Taco” came into play.
Born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens,my brothers and I, got into a fair share of fist fights. I am the oldest of four boys by the way.
I cannot say that I was not relieved when my parents decided to move down to Florida.
Even though I and some of my siblings had to defend ourselves from time to time I thought a slower pace would be better for us. Boy was I wrong.
Protecting yourself as a child
As I said, me and the second oldest son had to defend ourselves in New York. Coming to Florida, especially a small rural community seemed like a better thing for all of us.
Looking back, now I realize how naive we were. Some folks, with a funny last name, that looked different, moving into a small rural community in the south?
And I thought we would do better?
WRONG!
I recall several situations where I had to fight or just get my butt kicked.
Once, for no reason some boy kept messing with me. After school he decided to try to attack me. After about five minutes of fisticuffs, my younger brother James, was let out. Seeing the situation, he smacked the kid in the back of the head with his Dukes of Hazard lunch box…. Fight over….
Another time, that same brother and I joined a soccer game behind an apartment complex. Friendly game, and it was boys and girls. Just the neighborhood kids.
My brother, accidentally knocked a girl down as she tripped over his feet while he was going for the ball. Next thing I know, the brother of the girl (who was older than my brother by a few years) decided to walk up and kick James as hard as he could, for no reason and certainly not in the middle of a scramble for the ball.
Being the new kids, the ones with the funny names and the parents that spoke funny, I knew there was something to this. Many boys and girls fell that day. Only one of those situations started a fight.
Seeing my brother down, I went after that kid. He surely did not want to talk peace.
Within seconds it became a boxing match, until his older sister came out.
We were both young and not very tall. For some reason I still remember her as some giant. The fight was over and she actually broke it up. But she threatened me and protected her brother.
Then we Moved to Ruskin Florida
Where do I begin?
Ruskin Florida, back when we lived there was a really good old boy and migrant community.
So, the general population, as I saw it was either Charlie Daniels or George Lopez. I was going into the 7th grade back then, so perhaps I was 11 or 12? I graduated High School at the age of 17.
In Junior HS I did not make many friends. I was new, I had a funny last name and funny hair. My father just bought a restaurant as well. So I am not sure what the other kids knew what to make of me.
To make matter worse, I was born in New York and most of the kids were either Mexican, many from immigrant families coming in to work at the Tomato plant or they were good old corn fed country boys and girls.
In many ways, my parents being small business owners saved my ass. Because the kids at the bus stop were not only nice to me, several became friendly to me and I still call them friends today even though we don’t communicate much.
On the other hand, once I got to school. Things changed.
Back in NY, I used to have amazing grades. When I got to 7th grade in Ruskin, every ONE of my classes were advanced classes. ALL OF THEM.
I failed every single class in 7th grade. If I am not mistaken, I failed LUNCH!
Was it because I suddenly went brain dead? No, I was distracted.
Bullies
See, I got messed with a lot for all the reasons I mentioned already. But I did not have to interact with these people much. I would go to the bus stop, school, back on the bus then to work for my family and finally home.
P.E. was hell though. Not because I did not like sports, not because I did not like to play but because I used to get messed with every day and unfortunately, because I did not have a lot of support IN the school it took me a while to do something.
My P.E. teachers name was Mr. Williams. The only JR HS teachers name I remember off the top off my head. If I heard others, I’m sure I would recall them but he sticks out like a sore thumb.
I remember Mr. Williams because he called roll out loud. I even remember his damn blue coaches shorts he would wear.
When it came to me he would call out “Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky….” and I would have to check in which always got a nice little laugh from the rest of the kids.
A couple kids would either call me Kentucky or Taco during that period. The coach empowered then to do so.
One boy in particular took great pleasure in nudging me, hitting me and calling me names. It was PE after all right?
Being the new kid, with the weird name, it wasn’t almost until the end that I did something,
Turning Point
The end of they year was coming. I was failing every damn class but I HAD to go to school. My parents would not allow me to sit on my ass.
One day after the checking in as “Kentucky” again we had to do our mandatory lap around the football field.
So I ran, I ran as fast as I could. Anyone that went to Eisenhower JR High remembers that big tree by the HS football field.
That is where I ran.
So I ran there and ducked behind the tree…. Then I waited.
I waited for that boy that made fun of me and called me names and got physical with me.
When he got to that tree, I cracked him right in the face.
I don’t remember much after that, but I DO remember he never messed with me again. By sheer coincidence no one else in P.E. did either, well except for the coach.
Fast Forward
On to high school and a whole new set of issues. Cliques, popular kids, unpopular kids and MUCH older kids.
By now I was doing a bit better in school but as a 9th grader all the anxiety came back.
When I graduated at the age of 17 I was 145lbs at a height of close to 5’10”. So imagine me, with my JR HS experience walking into a school with some kids that were well over 6 feet tall, some and being 6″3″ plus. Weight? some of these kids were a good 220lbs easily. I am sure there were a few guys every bit of 260lbs on the football team.
I did my best to keep a low profile here and I did, for a while.
Karate
I still went to the bus stop, then school, then work, then home by this time. We also had moved to Apollo Beach, where my dad had bought another restaurant after selling the previous one, well actually two. We owned two restaurants in Ruskin but he sold them both to move on to Apollo Beach.
Around that time, is when I 1st got into Karate. There was a school in Brandon Florida that taught a style called Uechi Ryu.
I would call it a “semi” hard core style for your average weekend warrior. There was not a ton of sparring but they did body conditioning, self defense techniques etc…
It wasn’t much of a sport style. Meaning that while there were competitions, the focus was more on tradition and Kata (Forms) and practicing certain situational drills.
More on that later…..
Anyway, for those reading, the school I went to was way more “Mr. Miyagi” than “Cobra Kai”. A karate kid reference for those that don’t know.
My Brother Started Wrestling
While I continued with karate, perhaps it was 6 months later that my brother started wrestling. At that time, even though he was two years younger than me, he was close to my weight. I believe he wrestled at 140lbs on JV for the high school.
Remember, when I graduated I was 145lbs soaking wet. But I had height on him.
Then one day I asked him to spar with me in the backyard. No mat, just grass, no refs, just us.
We put on boxing gloves and we started kickboxing. Within a few moments, I can tell he felt uncomfortable.
Next thing I now I am moving in, he bends at the knees to duck a punch coming at him and he shoots a double leg take-down.
All of a sudden my kid brother had me on butt, pinned. Barely able to move or breath. My punches from underneath had no effect and there was no way to kick him.
Welcome to wrestling!
I took me ONE more incident before I really was convinced though.
The Night I Got Jumped
One night I am driving my car, with a handful of friends. I believe we had just come back to Apollo Beach from a teen night club. Those used to be a thing back in the day.
We stopped at my dads restaurant because I had a key.
We drank a beer or two from the keg and then we grabbed some sodas and headed outside so we could go home.
While we were inside another car had pulled up. I couldn’t tell how many boys were in the car but a few of them were already outside.
Let me set the stage.
I had a pair of twin brothers with me, maybe they were 110lbs back then. I had another buddy with me but if I recall correctly, he had a broken arm that was still in a cast. Had another friend with me who was not only just 140lbs or so, I believe he was on crutches still from an injury. There was one more boy with us, who was a decent sized athlete and ran track.
So, the “new” kids that pulled up asked us for directions. We spoke to them for a second and gave them directions then I turned to get into my car.
Suddenly I hear one of my friends soda cups hit the ground as he was trying to get into the back seat of my car.
I turned my head to see what happened and felt a blinding pain.
We were getting JUMPED!
When I turned my head the kid behind me took the opportunity, from behind, to punch me right where my ear and jaw connects.
Instead of falling down or getting knocked out, I was filled with rage.
I turned to the kid and squared up, I hit him with a punch and then a leg kick and he retreated to his car.
I followed. BIG mistake. There was one more person in the car on standby, who got out to help his friend.
Meanwhile the twins were fighting, the kid with the broken arm was fighting and the kid with the broken leg was fighting. My track athlete friend, ran home, so we were down one person, unfortunately for me.
Now I have two guys. The guy that came out of the car, name was Shawn B, found out later he had a reputation for jumping people.
Anyway, he came towards me and I threw a punch which connected so he grabbed me. Then he lowered himself a little and had me around the waist.
Before I could do anything else to counter this the 1st guy I was fighting started throwing punches.
So now I am trying to keep my balance, with little knowledge of how to, and fight off another guy.
It did not take long for me to lose my footing and be taken down by a kid probably 200lbs flat on the concrete. My friend, Todd, the one with the broken arm had managed to get away from who he was fighting and get into the drivers seat of my car.
I remember this, I remember being on the ground while two guys bigger than me were kicking me and headlights come on, an engine starts and a car jumps on the sidewalk of the plaza and heads my direction.
Luckily for me those two goons thought that Todd was willing to run me down to run them down because they both boogied back to their car and started the motor.
That is when our attackers took off and then is when I started going to wrestling practice.
Learning to Wrestle
It was close to graduation for me by that time.
But my brother was still a wrestler.
That summer my parents decided to get some new mattresses, so instead of letting them throw it out. We put the mattresses together in the back patio area.
I checked out a wrestling technique book from the library, probably from around 1950, old school.
While we could not practice much on our feet from a mattress, we certainly could work technique with resistance from top and bottom.
Since I was still young when I got out of HS I could compete against HS kids in the Junior division in off season tournaments. And I did.
I wrestled maybe three state champs that summer and no telling how many state placers. I got my ass handed to me!
But I got better.
I won some and I lost a bunch, but I got better.
Being Part of the Team (Unofficially)
The following year, just after graduation and when wrestling season started, I began going to practice.
Coach Lota, who is in the Florida High School Wrestling Hall of Fame now, welcomed people who would come in and work with his wrestlers.
So I came to practice and practiced.
I learned how much more intense and physical wrestling was over my karate training. I learned that even if the techniques may or may not be inferior that doing them with max effort vs. max resistance cut the learning curve in half.
You learn very quickly what does and what does not work for you when the opponent isn’t saying to you “punch me here”.
Don’t get me wrong, there is respect. But in a wrestling practice you don’t get to tell your opponent what to do, counter what you just told them to do, then reset.
You simply wrestle till the whistle blows or someone is pinned. You have to be ready for anything.
I wish I had known even basic wrestling the night that kid grabbed me around the waist. I would have known what to do to peel him off of me or better yet, been able to slam him full force onto the concrete, leaving me to deal with the same guy who ran from me in the 1st place.
Later
After that season of practicing with the team. I went from 145lbs at 17 to 175lbs at 18. My brother dropped from a 140lb JR Varsity wrestler to a 130lb Varsity wrestler on arguably the 2nd best team in the county.. Undefeated Brandon High was the 1st.
In the process my brother defeated the previous years varsity starter to secure his spot.
All we did was learn from a book on some mattresses and do off season tournaments.
That year at 18 I was still eligible for the Junior division and won more than I lost. Remember, I did not get to wrestle during the season, I had graduated. All I did was practice and spar with the team.
My best performance was a loss. I entered a Greco Roman competition that year. As luck would have it I got paired up with a kid from Brandon HS who I believe was at least a state qualifier BUT for some reason I think he got third in state at his weight.
I got pinned. But that is not the whole story, I got pinned, but I had the lead, after having had taken him down a few time with time running out. I feel that if I had some more competition experience I would have reacted better with a lead in the closing seconds of a match.
The fact that I could not compete in a dual meet season yet still “hang” with one of the three best wrestlers in the state gave me a huge boost of confidence.
I had two other brothers who also wrestled for the team later. I attended the majority of their practices as well. I even had the honor of leading of few practices for the team and got to sit in the coaches chair mat-side at some in season tournaments.
Finally, I got my certification from USA wrestling as a coach and when my son finally entered High School I was able to help coach the team and in fact led practice on several occasions when the coach had some health issues.
What happened in the middle?
While I am not an aggressive person I did find myself in a few situations between the time I took up Karate at 15 or 16 and then learned to wrestle as an adult, starting at 17 and 18 until now. I also expanded my knowledge by dabbling in Judo and Jiu Jitsu between then and now. While I am no master, I am certainly not the same person that got jumped that night or the boy that used to fear going to P.E. in 7th grade. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been able to address the bullying situation and had a much more productive middle and High School experience from the start. I also would have done a much better job when my friends and I were surprised by a group of kids for no reason.
While I feel Karate has value, especially if practiced diligently and correctly. Wrestling has saved my tail more than once when push comes to shove, literally…
What better style to know if someone pushes or shoves you?
What do you think? Do you have any stories of how a sport or martial art saved your rear end and made you more confident? Comment below!
