Takedown Report

From homeless to the state tournament, Denver North heavyweight Max Tafoya has tunnel vision for success

“I had barely turned 13 and I lost my mother, and a couple days after that I lost my father,” the senior wrestler said.
By Kyle Newman | knewman@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
Max Tafoya sat in the empty Pepsi Center before Thursday’s state tournament with a glint in his eye. The Denver North heavyweight, his hair bleached and wearing his well-adorned purple and gold letterman jacket, took in the quiet and humbly explained everything he’d overcome to be in the arena. The loss of both his parents in middle school. The windy, bumpy and accelerated path to manhood that followed, when the 18-year-old was tested by homelessness and an overall instability that Vikings wrestling coach Gabe Aguilera said would have thrown most kids into a much different, darker situation. That Pepsi Center moment in itself was enough — an achievement in simply being there — even before Tafoya won his opening-round Class 4A match with a gritty third-period pin later that night.

“I had barely turned 13 and I lost my mother, and a couple days after that I lost my father, both to drugs and to gangs,” Tafoya said. “I had to live without parents in the most important parts of my life going into high school. I had to start understanding things about myself, and become my own man, while at the same time I was bouncing around from house to house.” After Tayofa’s mom died of cirrhosis when he was in seventh grade and his father was incarcerated shortly after that, the newly minted teenager found himself living in the homes of various relatives, never one for very long, without any constructive outlets for his emotion. Rest of the story at https://www.denverpost.com/2019/02/21/denver-north-wrestling-max-tafoya-state/?mc_cid=6ba4a3db8d&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

February 27, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized