“In the Clinch”
By Coach Woodward
Welcome to ‘In the Clinch’ Vol.11, an up close, behind the scenes look at the Elite Fighting Team (E.F.T.) of Team Intense Martial Arts (TIMA). With Master Catalasan’s permission and support we will bring you inside the inner workings of the E.F.T. As we have touched down, and are now fighting at the Jr. Olympics in Orlando, Florida.
Now that we’re here in sunny, sticky Florida, it’s time to show Orlando what TIMA is made of. For those who’ve been following along thus far we thank you for your encouragement. As I write this particular blog I’m sitting ringside in the Orange County Convention Center. Marisa and Jake are in the holding area with Guro and Coach K. Like this one, all of the remaining interviews will be posted from Florida, mixed in with our daily updates.
We hope you enjoy this blog as we attempt to make you feel like part of our family. Without your support and encouragement none of this would be possible. Today we continue with our 11th of 12 interviews of the amazing kids who comprise the E.F.T. We encourage you to share this blog with family, friends, co-workers and anyone else who might benefit or partner with us in doing what we can to give these dedicated athletes the support they need to accomplish all they’ve set out to do.
Please sit back, relax and enjoy being ‘In the Clinch’ with Sarina Marie Oropeza.
Sarina is 16 years old and a junior at Kennedy High School. She has been with TIMA for three and a half years. This is her 2nd year on the E.F.T. She is a green stripe (7th gup) in Tae Kwon Do.
Though she’s only been the Elite team for two years, they’ve been a long two years. In the beginning she couldn’t seem to do anything right or really anything at all. Every drill, every exercise, every new technique was just too difficult for her. Well, in her mind that is. Sarina was one of the strongest females on the team from the waist down. Unfortunately, she was also one of the weakest from the neck up. Everything we asked her to do was met with “I can’t.” So much so we nicknamed her ‘No Puedo’. For our non-Spanish speaking readers please allow me to translate. Sarina ‘No Puedo’ (I can’t) Oropeza. She hated the nickname, but, on TIMA you get the nickname you earn.
I’m happy to report that nickname is no longer in use today, but we definitely got some mileage out of it. So much so that now if anyone on the Elite team, Coaches included, ever utter the phrase ‘I can’t’, the rest of us immediately jump on them. *(Side Note: We’re back at the resort now. Guro and the kids are doing their best British accent, saying ‘Hello Guvnor’. My British accent sucks. Guro said, “Try it Sir”. I said, “I can’t”. Guro responds, “Sir. You said can’t”. See how that works? Thanks Mija.)The attitude that accompanied the ‘I can’t’ is not one that goes away easily, and it was something that permeated more than just her Tae Kwon Do. Seeing her work her way out of that mentality has been a long, but very rewarding process. Sarina’s default response to adversity used to be searching for excuses before even trying. Now she seeks out answers to a situation first.
I asked her what has been the biggest change she’s experienced while training with TIMA. Without hesitation she simply said, “No Puedo!” You can tell she recognizes how that attitude had handcuffed her in other areas of her life.
It reminds me of the look of accomplishment and pride you see in every TIMA member after they complete their first belt test. They just know they can do anything they set their minds too and now so does Sarina.
As Sarina was trying to shake off her unwanted moniker, she earned yet another. Crutches! Sarina suffered a continuous rash of injuries. Some were legitimate; others were questionable and perhaps related to the ongoing ‘No Puedo’ battle raging in her head. That nickname didn’t go away so quickly. One day we just looked up and realized she wasn’t missing practice or making excuses for injuries. In fact, she’s not making excuses nearly as often as she used to for anything.
In addition to Tae Kwon Do, Sarina also trains in Muay Thai and Kali with TIMA. “I do Muay Thai more than Kali though. Muay Thai is the hardest you have to have a lot of endurance.”
Sarina’s favorite tournament memory was a no brainer for her. “States! I was 6 points down after the 1st round. Then I came back and won by one point. I was so scared. Then she head kicked me and I fell to the ground. When I got up I was mad. I totally thought I was going to lose but it was the greatest comeback.” I was in the chair for that fight. We had actually seen her opponent the evening before at weigh in. I told Sarina we had it in the bag. The girl was kind of clumsy and not very athletic. All Sarina noticed was the fact that the girl was 3 inches taller and Way bigger. When the fight started Sarina fell behind largely because she didn’t do anything. She was frozen with fear. In between rounds I asked her if she was done being scared. She said, “No!” So I smacked her upside her helmet to get her attention. I gave her some simple directions and sent her back in there wondering if No Puedo was going to reemerge and ruin this fight. That didn’t happen. Sarina went off on this girl, tying the score with 10 seconds left in the fight and taking the lead with 3 seconds to go. Like she said, ‘It was the greatest comeback.’
I asked Sarina to tell me who her friends were on the team. She responded, “Oh God! The elite team, Berenice, Ivan, Ryan, there’s a lot. I can’t name everybody. It’s everyone.” Congratulations reader, whoever you are. You made the list.
Sarina’s least favorite punishment is “The plank and plank push-ups. I hate core. I suck at it.” Not exactly what you want to hear from an elite athlete, but it sure beats, ‘I can’t do the plank.’
Sarina’s most memorable moment with TIMA was, “Boost. I think everyone connected more and understood each other more.” An answer you’d expect from someone who claims to be friends with everyone on the team. Then again, she really is.
I asked Sarina about her worst injury with TIMA, “Does my hyperventilation count?” Sarina suffers from ‘Bronchial Spasms’ which she sometimes needs an inhaler to treat. One night during Elite training at Peak Park she suffered an attack that required a trip to the hospital. I asked about her treatment and she told me, “They gave me an oxygen mask and they gave me volume. It made me feel really happy.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of a drug named ‘Volume’. I asked her to clarify, she said, ‘Valume. That’s what it was. Not volume.” I teased her about her pronunciation of ‘Valium’. She shot back with,” They gave me a small, little white pill.
Here are some fun facts about Sarina you may not have known:
Favorite Fighter: ”Seth. Cuz he’s fast and he’s strong and mighty. He has amazing angles too. I always strive to be like Seth.”
Favorite Movie: ”I think about this a lot. I can name you a bunch of movies that I really extremely like. A Walk to Remember, Valentine’s Day, The Last Song and my favorite comedy would have to be Zoolander.”
Favorite Sparring Partner:”Brooke, cuz she’s awesome. Brooke! Has nice butt.” This last statement confused me so I asked her to explain her comment about Brooke and her backside. Sarina told me,” You know how we say Team Intense at the end of class?” Whenever someone say’s Brooke, I say ‘Has nice butt’. And she likes it too.” Then Sarina realized her answer was getting away from her. So she tried to clear things up with, “Wait, but that’s not why I like sparring her.” I gave her one last try to straighten out the mess she made of this question so this is how she explained it. ”Because she’s really good, with great power and has good angles. But I think she could be faster.” Nice save Sarina. Why not just make fun of her hair. Sarina concluded what was supposed to be a simple question with this. “She kicks like a mule. I can’t even reach her for a headshot.” Why not? I asked. “Because I’m poquito. My legs are too short.”
Favorite Game: ”I love Monopoly. I’m very competitive when it comes to board games. I’ll act like I don’t care, but I really do. I want to win.”
Favorite TV Show: ”16 and Pregnant, That 70’s Show, My Name is Earl, Ghost Whisperer and Pretty Little Liars. “Oh no Tyra! I forgot Tyra. I knew I forgot somebody. Tyra’s my idol.”
Favorite Food: “Snickers”
Biggest fear: “My biggest fear is being alone, being abandoned.”
I asked Sarina to tell me something about herself that most people don’t know. “I played the piano for 7 years.” She added, “Everyone knows I have pimple popping fetishes right?” She concluded with, “I don’t think anyone knows I like to read. I like to read a lot.”
When asked who her hero was she said, “My mommy. Did you put a heart at the end?” Sarina said the three most influential people in her life are “You, Guro, my mom.” Score! I got first place. Alas, my celebration was premature. She revised her answer to, “My Mom, You and Guro.” Second place is respectable. I’m just glad to make the list.
I wondered what her favorite thing was about Team Intense. She responded with a one word answer, “Family.” A great answer to be sure, but I just couldn’t help myself so I asked her, “Don’t you already have a family?” She said, “Not that I like.” She laughed jokingly but then noticed I was writing down her response word for word. Again she tried to cover herself but it only got worse. ”I can’t say that about my family. No! Stop typing. Stop talking. My Facebook status is ‘I love my family’. I’m doing that right now.” If you’re wondering if she really did update her Facebook status in anticipation of this blog, she did.
I asked her when was the last time she was suspended from school. She said, “I got in a fight with this girl during P.E. in 7th grade. We were playing basketball and she pushed me down and I fell on my face. I let it go and then she did it again. Then she pulled my hair. So I pulled her hair and threw her on the ground.” I guess the moral of this story is don’t mess with Sarina’s hair.
I asked Sarina what is the worst thing she’s ever done that she got away with. “I broke one of my mom’s plates she bought in another country. I glued it back together and she’s never known about it.” Um, I hope mom doesn’t read this.
Here’s Sarina’s list if she had three wishes. “I wish I had a gajillion dollars. I wish I had naturally straight teeth so I wouldn’t have to get braces and I wish my mom liked to shop as much as I do.”
At this time I turned to Sarina’s family, friends and coaches to learn a little bit more about one of TIMA’s most stubborn and definitely girliest members.
I started with Sarina’s mom. She said TIMA “has been a positive influence as far as discipline, mind control, consideration and support of others.” Ms. Oropeza’s best memory of Sarina and TIMA came at, “Her first fight she had at Cal State University Dominquez Hills and she was sick and she wasn’t going to fight. First it was her foot, (This was in her ‘No Puedo/Crutches phase) and then she was sick. So she just went to support her teammates then she called me to bring her gear. Sarina wrote an essay for school about the experience. She closed it with this line, “I went in as an observer and came out a fighter.”
Ms. Oropeza gave me this cute little story that is sure to haunt Sarina the rest of her day’s with TIMA. “She was being potty trained and I used to fly a lot of trips so my mom (grandma) used to help train her. Sarina’s favorite movie was Lion King. Mom bought her Simba underwear and told Sarina don’t pee in your chonies or Simba will drown. It worked cuz she didn’t want to drown Simba with her pee.” Ms. Oropeza used to tell Sarina “Yay, good job” when she went pee in the toilet. She continued, “One time me and Sarina were running at the Cypress College track. The bathrooms are really bad there, so I raced home in the car to use our restroom. I ran in to go to the bathroom. Sarina said “Yay mom, good job. You didn’t pee in your chonies.”
She concluded with these words, “She was a blessing in disguise. I’m so blessed to have a daughter who’s so caring compassionate and so much fun to around.”
Guro said Sarina is “powerful and quick” in the ring. Sarina the person is “Super girly, funny and sweet. One of Guro’s fondest memories involving Sarina came very recently. She said, “Just a few weeks ago she invited me to do the ‘American Cancer Society's Relay for Life’ event. It was a great time for a good cause and I felt like that experience made us a little closer. You can't get any better than that!”
Sara Lee said,”I actually think she’s a pretty decent person but she makes it so easy to tease her. I can’t help but tease her. She’s actually a good person though. I like teasing her because she makes it so fun.” As a fighter Sara said,”She’s strong, she’s real strong and she listens to her coach.” I’ll have more to say about that later. Sara’s favorite memory of Sarina,”Was that time I said she was my ‘Frenemy’ and she got all sad and depressed.”
Daphne said she’s caring and funny and “she kicks hard.” Brooke said, “She’s hyper, funny and girly.” In the ring she described her as, “Fast and powerful.” I concur.
Austin and Sarina have a special relationship. Sarina sort of adopted me and I her, so she’s with our family quite a bit. Therefore, they’ve built a solid brother/sister type relationship that sometimes drives us crazy. That being said, there was no way he was going to miss this opportunity to get in some shots on her. He said, “She’s cocky, a smart aleck and girly.” Sarina who was sitting nearby, shot back, “Cocky? How am I cocky?” Just another typical day with these two. Oh, one last zinger. As a fighter Austin said, “She’s strong and she has a very convincing yell, that’s all I got.” That’s quite enough son.
Marisa said,”She’s really girly. She’s a great friend and a great husband and she has strong kicks.” Seth said, “She has an imaginary friend named Jasper.” I asked Seth about all her friends saying she was girly. He agreed declaring, “She’s girly. A lot.” Seth also agreed with all those who said she is a powerful fighter, “She can kick pretty hard.”
Nathan said she’s ”loud, very talkative, caring, loving” and yes, Girly.” Regarding her fighting he said, “She’s a powerful kicker, but thinks too much sometimes. She is not slow. She kicked me once and knocked the air out of me just like Mr. Garcia.” Nathans favorite memory of Sarina came at Boost. “She helped me recite my eulogy at camp. It was hard. I was crying. I was busting tears.”
Nicolette said, “She’s not even close to a tomboy. She’s the most girliest girl ever.” Nicolette had praise and advice for Sarina and her fighting. ”She’s too nice as a fighter. You here her say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry’.” Nicolette continued, “She’s not the same fighter she used to be. She learns. She’s improved a lot.”
Speaking as her coach and adopted dad I couldn’t have put it better. She’s improved a lot, as a fighter, leader, teammate, friend, daughter and person. A lot of credit goes to her mom. A lot of it goes to Guro. A lot goes to her teammates, friends and TIMA as a whole. We accept people for who they are and work them as hard as we can or as hard as they are willing to, to help them become better than when they walked in. Sarina personifies this. When I first started working with her she frustrated me to no end. It was a constant parade of excuses mixed in with the stubbornness of a mule. Now she’s taken that stubbornness and she uses it to slay her demons and shortcomings. No Puedo is long gone, replaced by confidence and commitment to growth. I’m proud of you Sarina. You be proud of you too.
I hope you enjoyed being ‘In the clinch’ with Sarina Mija Oropeza. Please check back in very soon when we get ‘In the Clinch’ with Austin Jacob Woodward.
For the Team,
Coach Woodward
