A Road Less Traveled: My Journey to Now, Part I

**This is Part I in a series of posts titled “A Road Less Traveled: My Journey to Now. Please read all of this as I lay it all out there and take you on the journey; my own personal story to say, that has made me the coach and person I am today..

I wasn’t always interested in running fast, jumping high, lifting heavy stuff, etc… In fact, I once thought that I wasn’t much of an athlete. Let me take you way back as far as I can remember to my earliest memories of athletics, the choices I made, and some of the obstacles I’ve had to overcome to understand my own purpose as an athlete, coach, mentor, friend, and overall the contribution that I owe to this world. Keep in mind, I’m a little embarrased to be sharing this information with you, but I hope you read and enjoy/appreciate these stories that have molded the “John Cortese” you know today.

Back in elementary school and growing up, I was involved in many sports. It felt like I was trying to “find my place” in the exciting world of athletics. I loved watching sports at a very young age and can remember being OBSESSED with professional wrestling. I vividly remember taping nearly every WWF (now WWE) event at night because my parents made us get to bed early. Some of my favorites included the Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Shawn Michaels, and many more. These were the “glory days” of pro wrestling, not the soap-opera, entertainment, money hungry-based industry we all have come to grow and love (or hate) now.

Since this (pro-wrestling) really was not an option for me at a young age (and the fact that my parents really did not like us watching such violence on TV; after all, it was “FAKE” and nothing going on was REALLY real- I now know that pro wrestling is scripted and pre-planned, but that did not occur to me at the time. I did not want to believe that something I LOVED so much could possibly be fake!) I had to find a sport that I could excel in; or so I thought..With this being said, any sport that had a *hint* of violence in it (football, wrestling, boxing, etc) were simply out of the question for me and my brothers/sister because of the fear of us getting hurt.. (I didn’t suit up in football gear for the first time until I was 13 years old, more on that later..)

I was always a naturally “artistic” type of person; I can remember sitting down and drawing “Free-hand” some of my favorite cartoon characters like Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes. I also picked up piano at the age of 8 years old because it really appealed to me and was actually pretty easy to me. I never learned how to read music but learned how to play all of the songs I learned (I still remember a few of them today) by breaking them up into mini-songs or chunks, practicing, and listening to how it’s supposed to sound. In the world of music, this is called “playing by Ear”. This way of learning I associate with practical/applied knowledge, while reading music I can associate more with “textbook/learning”. I still learn the best this way and associate most of what I have learned today with applying knowledge; it would be a complete waste of time and energy if I learned all these cool tricks and methods of getting stronger and faster for your sports if I had no desire or want to APPLY this knowledge to the world.

Back to athletics- some of the sports I grew up playing (age 6-11) included: T-ball, baseball, soccer, golf, roller-hockey, roller-blading, skateboarding, and basketball. These were fun, but looking back these sports or activities didn’t give me the sense of fulfillment I was looking for. Many of my friends at the time were excelling at SOMETHING; I was looking for that too. I could draw (very well) and play the piano (got pretty good at that too) but quit both of these pretty quickly as I approached adolescence because it wasn’t “COOL” or what my friends were doing.

I soon found out one day, one day that I can still remember like it was YESTERDAY, that I was supposed to be doing something to HELP people. It hit me like a ton of bricks and even made me hide, cry, and sit in sorrow because of such embarrassment that I couldn’t even face my friends or family (yes, this being at the age of 11).  But I knew that this revelation meant something, especially looking back at this today. I can almost call this day as one of THE defining moments that changed me for the better, as an athlete and a person.

Stay tuned for Part II, where I explain the day the changed me, my journey into athletics and where I started to REALLY excel, and some more obstacles I had to overcome…

Speaking of obstacles, leave me your thoughts below. I’d love to hear what obstacles, fears, challenges, etc that you’ve had to overcome!

See ya soon,

John Cortese BS, YFS