Luis D. Gutierrez/ Contributing Writer
Alexio Rodriguez is no stranger to heartbreak.
As a 14 year old, he suffered a broken left femur as a result of a jet-ski accident and was given the worst possible diagnosis.
“You will never be able to play sports again,” his doctor said.
“Never” is a strong word. It carries a tremendous amount of weight, especially at the age of 14 when the rest of your life is still ahead of you. But it didn’t mean that Rodriguez, the seventh-grade wrestler, was prepared to accept it.
“Watch me,” he responded to his doctor. “There is nothing stopping me.”
Rodriguez went on to recover from the broken femur in due time and ultimately returned to the mats once again. He acknowledges wrestling as the source of determination, motivation and strength that allowed him to back his promise.
“Those who’ve done wrestling, there is nothing you cannot accomplish,” he says. “If you can do wrestling and maintain that level of discipline, there is nothing that you cannot overcome.”
Now the head coach of FIU’s wrestling club, Rodriguez preaches the same ethics to his own wrestlers. It’s this discipline that separates wrestling from all other forms of combat.
“Wrestling is one of the hardest sports out there when it comes to combat,” Rodriguez states. “It’s you and your opponent, there is no team, and it’s all technique.”
The club practices three times a week, where Rodriguez utilizes two of the practices to master proper technique on the mats at FIU’s recreation center. The third practice is used to polish conditioning and is held off-campus under the direction of assistant coach Peter Aleman, a fitness expert. Rodriguez emphasizes the importance of Aleman’s conditioning program, depicting wrestling as a “balanced sport,” a survival of the fittest and smartest.
The team also competes annually in such tournaments like the Seahorse open, held during Thanksgiving weekend and recently competed in the 2012 Florida Amateur Wrestling Championships last February. In addition, the squad will begin competing in select NCAA tournaments later this year, facing the likes of Florida Gulf Coast, Florida, and Penn State.
Rodriguez believes it is essential to have the right team captain in place, one who shows heart and demonstrates a strong desire to win, but one who also has the knowledge and discipline to properly guide his team to victory. He placed that responsibility in the hands of former U.S. Army Soldier Adrian Arcentales.
“My teammates can talk to me both on the mat and off the mat,” Arcentales said. “A lot of them surpass me in strength and weight. But, I strive to work just as hard or even harder than my teammates, in order for them to develop a feeling of respect and confidence in their captain.”
“His army background, where he has all this discipline helps out a lot” Rodriguez says. “His teammates see him working hard and they become equally motivated to work just as hard.”
One of those teammates is Kevin Trujillo, who enjoys the challenges brought upon by the sport.
“Wrestling challenges you when it comes to integrity, determination and diligence,” Trujillo said. “It requires the discipline that will lead you towards the path in the right direction of life and I look at my life as a mission to accomplish the impossible.”
But, wrestling and its challenges aren’t fit for everyone.
“When we begin practicing, we always start out with big crowds of people,” Rodriguez said. “But, as soon as me and Coach Aleman start working the wrestlers, a lot of them begin dropping. It doesn’t make them less of a man, the fact remains the sport is not for everybody.”
Rodriguez continues to guide the squad through each practice and match, with the words of his doctor firmly in mind.
“Never” continues to be a strong word now as it was during the diagnosis. It still carries the same weight. It can still leave you shattered emotionally. It is still devastating to the athlete’s ear.
But for Rodriguez and the Panthers’ wrestling squad, “never” is just that, a word.
luis.gutierrez@fiusm.com
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