🥋 Sundays with Cain – Episode 22 A ROLL & RUMBLE Fight Co. Exclusive

🥋 Sundays with Cain – Episode 22

A ROLL & RUMBLE Fight Co. Exclusive
Interview by “D-Man,” CTF Inmate Correspondent

Fall’s Storms and Reflections

Fall’s storms roll in off the ocean. Another year is coming to an end. The holidays are upon us, and the men of CTF continue to serve their time. We were again blessed with another healing workshop. I wrote extensively about this a few weeks ago, if you’re curious about what that is.

The women from Empathy in Action came again, and this time they brought sound therapy. Varina played drums, singing bowls, and wind chimes. The vibrations from the bowls and drums hit you at a certain frequency that aligns with healing. We were in a meditative state, and it left quite a powerful impression on me.

Cain said he has singing bowls at home and has used them before. He told me, “We’re trying to incorporate the singing bowls into our weekly breath class.”

“What’s that going to take?” I asked.

“Some authorization from prison administration,” he said. “So we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

We spent all of Tuesday with Megan and the other ladies from Empathy in Action. Remember, they are a nonprofit and can always use donations. We set up a GoFundMe for them at https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-empathy-in-action-transform-lives-through-compassion, so go check it out. Our next healing seminar will be on December 16th, and we’re hoping to get some more pictures.

Football and Fierce Competition

I switched topics and asked Cain about his football game that week. They had a rematch against the team that beat them earlier in the season. Before the game, I saw Cain warming up with no shoes on. He had worked up a sweat and looked very serious.

“How did the game go?” I asked.

“We won,” he said.

I told him I had talked to Corey—the guy who had to block Cain all day. Corey said he felt like he had wrestled Cain for ten rounds. Cain lifted his shirt sleeves, showing scratches and bruises. “It was a good battle,” he said with a grin.

“So you guys won?”

“Yeah. This game was kind of the old me. I played a little rough and was looking to put some of those guys on the ground. The guys from other teams always want to test themselves against me. So I gave them what they wanted.”

It sounded like he had a lot of fun. Corey was bummed they lost, but said he had a blast battling him.

“It was a good game,” Cain said. “He played his heart out. We all had fun.”

Back to the College Years

Last week, we talked about junior college. I asked Cain to pick up where we left off. “You were redshirting your sophomore year. Did you stay in Iowa the whole year?”

“No,” he said. “Actually, I came back to Arizona halfway through the season. It was the winter of 2002 going into 2003. I finished that year at Mesa Community College, getting my associate’s degree in general studies.”

“Did they have a wrestling program there?”

“No, I was going there for classes and then driving to Arizona State for practice every day.”

“So Thom Ortiz was coaching and invited you to come?”

“Yeah. That was kind of the plan the whole time. Tom had recruited me in my senior year of high school. He saw me win the Flowing Wells Tournament in Tucson and talked to me afterward. At the time, he was an assistant coach at Iowa State.”

“But when you finally got to wrestle for him, he was at Arizona?”

“Yeah. My grades weren’t good enough. I had a really hard time with grades. It was Thom who actually helped me the most when I started at Arizona State. He told me there are three things in college—social life, sports, and grades. He always said, ‘You can only be great at two of them.’ That stuck with me. I knew I had to make better choices.”

The Redshirt Year and Northeast Elite

“So during your redshirt year, did you wrestle at all?” I asked.

“Okay, so when I was still up at Iowa, Paul Collum, Willie Parks, and I all got offers to wrestle for Northeast Elite, a club on the East Coast. There was this guy from the Iowa Central team whose dad owned it. He supplied singlets and warmups with his club logos, paid for our airfare, hotel, and entry fees, and gave us a per diem.”

“During your redshirt year?”

“Yes. I got to compete in three tournaments—the U.S. Open, where I placed third or fourth; the Sunkist Open, where I didn’t place but beat Kellan Fluckiger, whom I practiced with at ASU; and the University Nationals, a tournament for freshmen and sophomores. Winners usually go on to represent Team USA at the Worlds. I won that year, but for some reason, they didn’t have Worlds. I’m not sure why—you’d have to look it up.”

“So those were freestyle tournaments as part of the USA club?”

“That’s right.”

“You said you beat your training partner. What did that mean to you?”

“It just proved what I already knew.”

“What’s that?”

“That I was ready.”

Life at Mesa and the Road Back

“So you only wrestled in three tournaments that year, all for Northeast Elite. You were at Mesa Community College—who were you living with?”

Cain laughed. “Coach Rustad.”

“Your high school coach?”

“Yeah, he was at Mountain View High School at the time and let me stay there during the week. I’d drive home to Yuma on the weekends.”

“In the Stanza?”

“Yup, still push-starting it—but it ran good.”

“So Rustad gets a new job while you’re gone. What’s he doing now?”

“He’s the athletic director in Chandler at Hamilton, where Brian Stith is head coach and Anthony Robles is assistant.”

“Stith—your best friend and best man? What a small world. Who is Anthony Robles?”

“He’s from Mesa. He won a national championship for Arizona in high school. None of the big schools—Iowa, Penn State, etc.—wanted to give him a scholarship because he has only one leg. So he ended up wrestling at home for Arizona State and won a national championship in college, too. I remember coming back the year after I graduated and seeing him jumping up the stadium stairs as the team did drills. Dude’s a badass.”

Hard Lessons and Mentorship

“The wrestling community is interwoven in most places,” I said, “but it seems extra connected where you were.”

“Yeah,” Cain nodded. “That year was really hard for me. I was tutored by Anthony Robles’s old high school teammate, Anthony Salcedo, who also wrestled at ASU. I even had to go to summer school to finish. I just remember having to work so hard to get my degree and qualify for next year at the big campus.”

“What about that next year—how did it go?”

“I actually ended up becoming ineligible the next year.”

“Grades?”

“Yeah. That’s when Tom started telling me I could only be great at two of college’s three aspects. School had always been the hardest shit for me. They actually got me on ADHD medication that year, and it helped a lot. I got serious with my tutor and turned it around.”

“So you didn’t wrestle your first year at ASU?”

“I wasn’t able to go to regionals. I missed the biggest tournament, Midlands, and a dual against Nebraska. The hardest part was watching Clifford Starks take my spot.”

“Why was that?”

“Clifford was my high school nemesis. He was a year older and beat me in my freshman year. I would’ve placed that year if I hadn’t lost to him. In my sophomore year, I beat him by three. My junior year, I kicked his ass.”

“So he took your spot on the team in college while you were academically ineligible?”

“Yeah, and it tore me up.”

Turning the Corner

“This is when you started taking school more seriously, right? You could see that nothing was guaranteed?”

“I really did have a fork-in-the-road moment,” Cain said. “I’d seen a lot of guys lose everything from making bad decisions. I knew my path would turn out like theirs if I didn’t knuckle down and get serious.”

“So you owe a lot of thanks to Coach Ortiz for that?”

“Yeah. Thom had a rough way of talking to us, but I learned to filter out the tough-guy stuff. He wanted us to succeed, and I could feel that under everything else. It wasn’t just Thom, though—Aaron Simpson and Eric Larkin were our assistant coaches. It was a great team of mentors.

I knew Aaron—he grew up in Wellton, Arizona, a small town outside Yuma. He was a three-time All-American and eventually fought in the UFC. Eric Larkin grew up in Tucson and went to Sunnyside High, the best wrestling program in Arizona. That’s where Tom went, too. It’s in a rough part of town, and most guys from there don’t make it past high school—but Eric and Tom did. Eric was a four-time All-American and won a national title. He also fought in MMA and is now the head wrestling coach at a private high school. Without them, things might’ve turned out differently.”

Thom Ortiz and the Funniest Story Ever

“What about Thom?” I asked. “I remember you telling me he cornered one of your fights. So he fought, too?”

Cain burst out laughing. “Thom fought into his 50s. Dude—the best story ever.”

“About Tom?”

“Okay, so Thom is fighting this guy at an MMA event. I’m not sure where. Anyway, during the fight, they have this moment—” Cain started laughing so hard he wiped away a tear. “They kiss.”

“What?”

“By accident! Somehow, in the fight, Thom’s mouth and the other guy’s mouth touch. Just then, a camera flashes from the crowd. They both stop for a second, like, ‘Did that just happen?’” Cain was snorting through laughter now. “Now, Thom’s ex-wife sends memes of that picture on digital greeting cards for the holidays to all her social media followers from the World Fighting Federation—which she owns!”

Cain said Thom is always a good sport about it and laughs when anyone brings it up. “John Moraga showed me that picture for the first time in a parking lot,” Cain said. “I just remember rolling on the ground laughing. I couldn’t stop for hours.”

As Cain finished the story, he wiped away another tear and smiled. We both sat quietly for a moment, sharing that feeling. We’ve done this enough to know the week’s episode was over.

I hope you enjoyed it. I know Cain, and I did. It’s an honor and a privilege to document someone’s life. I hope you’ve read all the earlier episodes—and tell your friends.

Until next week.

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