Interview by “D-Man,” CTF Inmate Correspondent
Cain was coming out of the church and planned to go back to his cell.
This Sunday was different. The "Relay For Life" fundraising events were taking place. This is for cancer patients and survivors. People who donated and purchased food were walking laps around the prison track. There was a car show and live music.
Cain said, "I really wanted just to go back to the cell and relax, but the universe had different plans."
What do you mean by that?
"Just being in tune with my pathless path and noticing that my wants don't always align with my path. I can tell when the universe wants me to do something different. Call it a voice or a feeling. I usually give in and follow that feeling. Once again, I was glad I did. Some really great people came to this event. We took some pictures and talked. I'm really glad I went. It turned out to be just what I needed. Seeing all these people come into prison and give their time. It's a reminder of what I can do when I'm released."
These are important events here at CTF or any prison, as they allow the men to participate in pro-social activities while allowing people from outside to play a role in our rehabilitation.
What else did you have going on this week that you would like to talk about?
"Tuesday at the sweat lodge. I felt so close to seeing visions. My body heated up so much that I was almost at my breaking point. I'm starting to find where my limit is. Feeling comfort in that limit zone."
Can you describe how the sweat lodge works here?
"Usually, around 16 people sit shoulder to shoulder in a circle in a lodge that has a wood frame like an igloo and has been covered with 30–40 blankets. No light comes in except from the flap that opens as an entrance.
A fire has been heating big stones until glowing hot. The stones are placed in the middle of the lodge, and we all sit in a circle around them. There are usually four rounds. Everyone comes in and out of the lodge for each round. The intensity of the heat seems to double between each round.
The first round is 15–20 minutes. We bring in a five-gallon bucket of water and slowly pour water onto the stones. The steam is what causes the heat. This week, four people stopped after the first round. The second round is only about five minutes, but it feels twice as hot. The third round is only three minutes. I start to lay my head down in the dirt to breathe. The heat is so intense it feels like your lungs are burning."
You learn to let go. Learn about being uncomfortable. Learn the heat and find your maximum tolerance for sitting in it. The fourth round is where you are rubbing mud on your face—it's so HOT! The round only lasts for three minutes, but it's the most intense round. The only way to breathe is to put your lips down on the dirt. We have a joke for new people who sweat for the first time: “If it gets too hot, just raise your hand and we'll get you out.” It's so dark inside, nobody can see a raised hand. (Cain thought this was extremely funny and told me this while laughing really hard.)
There is a ceremony process that accompanies the sweat lodge—how they enter, how they pray, how the stones are heated and placed inside. Cain says that visitors are welcome and invited me. The regular members would have to vote, and I would have to come with the right intentions. So we will see.
Let's go back to something I'm curious about.
What was your first car?
"One that I owned? Cause we had a lot of cars, I drove in high school. They just weren't mine."
What was the first car that you owned with a title?
"My dad bought it for me. It was a light blue 1987 Nissan Stanza hatchback. I spray-painted the hubcaps a satin black."
When was this?
"My second year of Jr. College at Central Iowa."
In your first year, you walked around campus and what, rode a bike?
"I walked. It's Fort Dodge, Iowa. So small you can walk anywhere you need to go."
OK, let's talk about your first year. You stayed in the dorms?
"Ya, but I got kicked out of the nice dorms my first semester."
What happened?
Cain really didn't want to explain. I reminded him that this is his life story, and not everything is always rainbows and sunshine. He conceded.
"I punched my roommate."
You guys got into a fight?
"No, I punched him. We were drinking. I felt so little in that moment. His name is Stan. If you're reading this, Stan, I have been extremely sorry for that for a long time."
Did you guys not make up after that?
"No, we never spoke again. I felt very bad at the time, but didn't know how to apologize. I do now, and I'm sorry it happened."
OK, so the school puts you on probation or something?
"No, it's worse. I get kicked out of the nice new apartment dorms for good. The next two years, I'm in the old dorms that look like this." (Cain swings his arms around, implying they were like our prison cells.)
Then, who was your best friend while you were going to Central Iowa? Who did you hang out with?
"Steve Sommers. He actually went on to wrestle for Ohio State. Still to this day, we are friends. I have to text and call him. He's not good at communication. But we talk when I call. Picture a guy who looks and talks like Joe Dirt. That's Steve."
So he was on the team. Who was the coach for Central Iowa? What's the mascot?
"We were the Tridents. Had a three-pronged trident logo just like Arizona State. Our head coach was Mark Ostrander, and the assistant coach was Troy Bennett. They were good coaches."
Is this where you started to get your famous cardio?
"No, I kind of always had a natural motor. Coach Rustad in high school trained us like we wrestled for Iowa State. That's where he wrestled. So if anyone is to credit for my cardio, it's him."
Let's get back to the Nissan Stanza.
We already talked about how you won a national championship your freshman year. Then you come back to Ft. Dodge with your new ride, your sophomore year?
"Actually, I wasn't the only one on the team to win a national championship that year. Willie Parks was a freshman the same year. Willie helped us with our team championship by winning 174 lbs."
(Cain starts to laugh so hard, I have to wait for him to catch his breath before we can continue, and he doesn't stop until the story is over.)
What's so funny?
"Willie."
What about Willie?
"He flew out to Yuma from Los Angeles to help me drive the Stanza to Iowa."
Why is that so funny?
(More crying laughing.)
"Willie doesn't know how to drive a stick. It's a manual, and he only shows up with 100 dollars. Add that to my $40, and that's what we left with.”
You walked everywhere your first year and won a national championship. So the second year, you bring the Stanza?
“Actually, I almost lost my second match at nationals that year. I was ranked #2 and was losing to this guy with time running out. I had him in a headlock somehow, where my hand was over his jaw. He bit my finger. Not really hard, but I was losing, so I yelled and shook my hand saying, ‘He bit me!’
The ref stops the match and looks at my hand. I told him it was not that hard, and I was surprised when I could see teeth marks. The ref takes away like three points, and I end up winning by one. I wasn’t the only one. In my freshman year, Willie Parks won Nationals that year, too. He was also a freshman. He drove the Stanza from Yuma to Ft. Dodge with me for our sophomore year.”
Cain begins to slap the table we are sitting at. He starts laughing so hard he is crying, and I have to wait a minute before we can continue.
“What’s so funny?”
(Cain can barely speak between fits of laughter for this next story.)
“Dude, Willie flies out to Yuma from L.A. He shows up and is going to take turns driving to Iowa with me. But Willie doesn’t know how to drive a stick. He has $100, and I have $40. My parents are in California, in the Salinas area, working. So we leave town with $140.”
(Cry laughing)
“When it’s Willie’s turn to drive, we just manage to get him out of first gear and onto the highway. Once he’s on the highway, I’m so scared I can’t sleep. So now I’m up the whole way, driving and praying when Willie is driving. After 24 hours of this, I’m so tired that I start to fall asleep while driving. We don’t have any money for food, let alone any coffee. We could only buy gas, and we still might not make it.
We broke down in Oklahoma somewhere. This mechanic charges us $60 to put electrical tape around a wire connected to the starter. Now we’re really screwed.”
(Cain is drawing a lot of attention with how animated he is telling this story. In our 20 episodes, this is the most laughing I’ve gotten from the big guy. He loves this story and probably hasn’t told it in a long time.)
“We finally find ourselves with $10. Willie tells me to pump the gas and goes inside. I fill it up. Willie comes out yelling, ‘I told you to only put in ten dollars!’
I said, ‘No, you told me to pump the gas, so I thought it would stop at ten.’
Willie says, ‘Well, you went over by seven dollars, and they want us to come inside and explain ourselves.’
So we had to go and reassure these two ladies that we were college students trying to get to school. We told them we would send them the money. They took our info and let us go on our way.”
Did you have enough gas to make it to Ft. Dodge? “We almost died on that last stretch.” (Cain is still laughing, even harder if that was possible.)
“Like three hours away from campus, I fell asleep at the wheel. I only woke up at the last second as we were driving off the shoulder of the highway and into a ditch. I saved it just in time, and that woke me up enough to coast into town on fumes. We were out of gas.”
“That’s a great story. Did Willie get rides everywhere in the Stanza that semester?” “No, as soon as we got there, it died, and I could never start it with a key again. I pushed it for the next year. Besides, the town was so small it was usually easier to just walk.”
Was moving to Iowa a culture shock for you? “In a lot of ways, it was like home. Agriculture was always a part of my life, growing up with parents who immigrated as farm workers. Iowa was a culture shock in the cultural sense, but like home in the rural aspect.”
So then, why Iowa? Why not some junior college in Arizona? “I wanted to be trained by the best coaches. They were in Iowa. I visited Colby, Kansas, as well. That’s where DC got his start in 2001 before he went to Oklahoma State. He wrestled Cael Sanderson (Olympic Gold Medalist and now head coach of Penn State) from there, and I wanted to follow his path.”
Did DC beat Cael? “No, he got his ass kicked. But everyone got their ass kicked by Cael.” (Editor's Note: Cael Sanderson is famous for completing his college career with a perfect 159-0 record, winning four NCAA championships, and becoming the only undefeated four-time Division I champion in history).
So why did you go to Central Iowa and not Colby? “When I visited Colby, they didn’t have what I wanted. Iowa had a designated heavyweight coach — Iowa-bred and Iowa-trained. That’s what I wanted. Colby wasn’t offering anything like that.”
So, two years at Iowa Central then, with elite coaching. Was it everything you hoped it would be? “Coach Ostrander made all incoming freshmen a deal: if they win an individual national championship, then the next year they can redshirt. So Willie and I won, and we both redshirted our sophomore year.”
For people who don’t know, what does redshirt mean? “The year of your redshirt, you can’t compete as part of the team. There are some individual matches, but mostly just training for recruitment. The redshirt year doesn’t count against your eligibility. So, bigger schools will be more interested in recruiting someone who has three years left of eligibility. That was my plan the whole time, and Coach made that offer — another part of why I chose Iowa.”
So when schools came calling, why Arizona State? “Spending my time in Iowa made me realize I wanted to go back home to wrestle. I thought I wanted to go to a big school far away, but when I was little, my whole dream growing up was to go to Arizona State. So I came home.”
That’s going to be it, man. What a great way to end this week.
Next week, we will take a deeper look at coming home and what that means. If you’re reading this and you want the JDS 3 story—well, we’ll get there. I’m making sure we tie up some loose threads of Cain’s journey on his road to becoming the baddest man on the planet.
Until next week: please share the story, follow ROLL & RUMBLE to stay updated, and thank you for reading.
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