Football First?

For many prep wrestlers, participating in the sport at the high school level begins when they are 5- or 6-years-old.

Training in any particular sport normally does not begin when they enter high school.

And for most of the people who come to dominate the sport, their wrestling careers can last seven or eight years before they graduate.

But for Central junior Danny May, that isn't the case.

Take May, who this past weekend finished in fourth place at 189 pounds in the 24th annual Tony Ippolito Memorial Wrestling Tournament at Brandon High School.

"He's an unassuming kid," said second-year CHS Head Coach Roy Reyes. "When he first came out last year, it was almost like playing a video game. Anything you said from the sidelines he did right away."

The junior began last year on the football team and then midway through the wrestling season, he came out for the team.

"One day I decided I was going to check it out," May said Saturday at the Ippolito Wrestling Tournament in Brandon. "Then this year I played football again, but this time instead of waiting until December to go out for wrestling, I've been out since the start of the year."

First love

An offensive lineman and middle linebacker for the Bear football team, May wrestles at 189 pounds and is beginning to see some success.

This past weekend in the Brandon tournament, May lost his first-round match to No. 1 seeded Andrew Fulk of Bradenton-Manatee when he was pinned at 1:23.

From the lethal loser's bracket, May then won four straight matches.

He pinned Gabe Zohar of Tampa Prep, Joel Hanson of Venice and Aaron Little of Gaither before winning on a forfeit in the consolation semifinal round.

But in the match for third place, May was beaten by Chris Kavouklis of Tampa Jesuit, 5-2.

"May came out halfway through the season last year and now it's nice to see him knock off some of the kids he has along the way," Reyes said.

With a 23-15 record this year with 11 pins, May said that football or wrestling in college is not one of his main goals now.

"I didn't start out thinking about playing college football, but I hope I get good enough to play it," he said. "I want to be a mechanical engineer so I'm probably going to go to South Florida because they have a good program and it's nearby."

"He was a good pickup for us," added Reyes. "He's worked hard in practice and never complained. He's done a phenomenal job, he takes the losses personally and he's always asking questions in practice."

May's other likes besides football and wrestling are the martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

"I've focused a lot on my academics. I used to practice the martial arts, but it's been awhile since I've done it," said May.

The Central grappler also believes he can improve on what he did last year in wrestling when he qualified for the region tournament.

"I made the regional but I went 0-2 and was out right away," he recalled. "I know I train very hard and we run a lot, so I think I've improved a lot. This year, I want to improve a lot more and make it to the state tournament."