Bradley Central’s Toribio Navarro, right, wrestles Soddy-Daisy’s Chase Payne, at Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, Tenn. in this Feb. 7, 2015, file photo.CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Toribio Navarro maintains solid grades at Bradley Central, and he’s a member of wrestling coach Ben Smith’s first senior class.
The two-time state champion with a 153-17 record will be going after state title No. 3 Friday and Saturday in Franklin, Tenn., at the Williamson County Agricultural Expo. After a long bus ride home Saturday night, he’ll go to work on Sunday boxing up orders at Kentucky Fried Chicken, turning a double shift (10 a.m.-9 p.m.) while earning $7.40 an hour.
It’s a busy schedule, one hard to maintain when mixed with study, training and helping his mother with six siblings.
It is a good life for an 18-year-old that spent his first eight years in an obscure village a few miles outside San Luis, Mexico.
“I remember where I used to live and the school, the stores. My dad was here so I stayed most of the time with my grandparents. My grandfather was a farmer, and I loved the animals. I liked to ride the horses,” he recalled.
The home in which he lives now has lights, electricity, even an X-box and a whole lot of love.
“I couldn’t do what he does,” Smith said. “In a society now where most kids are easily distracted, have so many other options and things they could do that are so much more fun, Toribio has developed the ability to play the hand he was dealt.
“It’s a lot more difficult for him than most, and he deals with all of it. He could have been distracted or feel sorry for himself or have a bad attitude. But he works quietly all the time. If I ever had a lead-by-example kid on and off the mat, he’s that kid.”
While his dad was dealing with work issues this past summer, Navarro picked up the slack, toiling as a laborer to help support the family. And in addition to helping out with the younger Navarros, he often drives his mom wherever she needs to go.
“He worked on top of work. He picked up and helped the family,” Smith said. “The job he had was roofing, construction and remodeling. Then he got the job at KFC later in the summer. He was working two, three nights per week and then on Sundays, all while training for the Super 32 (national tournament).
“He’s a bootstrap kid.”
For Navarro, now a U.S. citizen, all his efforts are simply for a shot at the brass ring — a better lifestyle, a chance to help his mother and his family.
“I want to wrestle in college — major in business — get a good degree and a good job and then help my mom with things she needs and help my sisters,” he said quietly but with resolve.
He will make an official visit to UTC in the spring and hopes to become the first in his family to graduate from college.
Affectionately called Tito by friends and family, Navarro has a sense of pride in his accomplishments yet has the drive to set his personal bar higher.
“I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished so far, but I know I have to do more in order to have a good lifestyle,” he said.
He knows too that he owes much to wrestling and to Bradley Central.
“I’m proud that I have family and family here in the wrestling team. We support each other,” Navarro said. “Since I moved here life has changed for me. Before, I would get in trouble. When I moved here I wanted to become a better person.”
That he has done. He maintains a 3.0 gpa, he’s a leader on a state championship-caliber wrestling team. He helps out around the house and he helps support himself and his loved ones.
“I couldn’t do what he does,” Smith declared. “And, yes, I’ll probably cry when he leaves.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.