Carlos' posts with tag: reportagem
SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE
Eisenhower Junior High math teacher shares kickboxing knowledge
By Phoenix Roberts
Close-Up Correspondent |
|
FRIDAY
October 14, 2005
|
 |
| |
 |
|
| |
Carlos Silva, who started kickboxing programs at BYU, Granite Park Elementary and Eisenhower Junior High School, where he now teaches math, is a veteran of martial arts. (Paul Fraughton /The Salt Lake Tribune) |
|
| His name isn't well known in North America yet, but in his native Brazil, Carlos Silva ranks as high among his fans as Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal rank in the United States.
He began studying martial arts at age 8 in his hometown, Joao Pessoa (pronounced /zho-AH-o pe-SO-uh/), located at the eastern tip of South America. His training continued through college and after, when Silva became a salesman for Bristol-Meyers Squibb. He earned his first black belt in Shorey Ryu karate-do in 1987 and went on to earn additional black belts in such arts as Muay Thai boxing, ninjitsu and kickboxing, which became his favorite style.
As the
|
| |
 |
|
| |
Carlos Silva, kickboxing grandmaster, is especially proud of the Presidential Sports Award he received from President Bill Clinton. (Photo by Phoenix Roberts) |
|
| kickboxing craze grew in Brazil, Silva grew with it. Paraibo was a small, economically disadvantaged state with no facilities for the new sport, so Silva designed and built his own arena, a 6-by-6-meter ring that could be transported and set up almost anywhere.
"My life became totally consumed by martial arts," Silva admits. "It began as a hobby, but became an obsession."
He was soon demonstrating and teaching in an organization of 1,200 members in Joao Pessoa.
That organization soon expanded across Paraibo; it became the model for similar organizations countrywide and one of the foundation stones in the Brazilian Organization of Traditional Kickboxing, which sponsors the national championship that Silva won in 1996 and 1997.
His plans came to an abrupt halt when, after eight years, his employer let him go. Fate then took over - he was given a round-trip ticket to the United States in exchange for all the frequent flier miles he'd racked up traveling for the company. With the blessing of his wife and two sons, he arrived in California in 1998 and enrolled at the University of California at Riverside, where he set a record by scoring zero points on the English placement exam.
It wasn't a major surprise to him.
"I knew no English when I got to the U.S.,"
he said.
Applying the discipline that earned him 11 black belts, he retook that exam one month later, scoring 75 percent, and by the end of the third month was on the fourth of six levels. Moving to Utah, he found work teaching Portuguese at the Missionary Training Center and enrolled in Brigham Young University, where he completed a master's degree in public administration in one year.
He then worked for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before returning to Brazil to bring his family to the United States. That trip was funded partly by selling his arena to the Gracie family, the people who later created the UPN series "Ultimate Fighting Championship." In 2003, the family arrived in the United States, settling in Rose Park, and Silva took a job as a substitute teacher in the Granite District while working on a second master's in educational administration at the University of Utah, which he will complete next year.
As an LDS bishop in Brazil, Silva used kickboxing to keep his teenage members active and helped start kickboxing clubs at BYU, Granite Park Elementary and Eisenhower Junior High School, where he now teaches math. He's been featured in magazines in Brazil, Greece, the United States and the United Kingdom, still serves as the president of the Paraibo State Federation of Kickboxing and as Brazil's delegate to the U.S. Karate Association, and is a member of the Kickboxing Hall of Fame.
|
| |
