Wrestling pedigree:
Rotunda chooses gridiron instead of squared circle

visaliatimesdelta.com

 

College of the Sequoias football player Windham Rotunda has long blonde hair that might make pro wrestler Hulk Hogan jealous.

But for Halloween Rotunda plans to shave a bald spot on his head so he could dress up as his second favorite wrestler.

"Everybody has a little Hulkamania in them," Rotunda said, but his favorite wrestler is actually his father, Mike Rotunda.

Mike Rotunda probably is better known as Irwin R. Schyster — an evil I.R.S. agent he portrayed as a wrestler for the World Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s. He and "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase formed the tag team of Money Inc. They won the WWF tag team title on three different occasions.

College of the Sequoias offensive lineman Windham Rotunda gets some instruction

from assistant head coach Irv Pankey on Tuesday at COS.  (Johanna Coyne/Times-Delta)

In the mid-1980s one of Mike Rotunda's gimmicks was playing Mike Rotundo — half of the tag team the U.S. Express. His tag team partner was his brother-in-law Barry Windham, and they also held tag team championships with two different organizations.

And Windham Rotunda's grandfather, "Blackjack" Mulligan, was also a professional wrestler who won various championships with several wrestling organizations in the 1970s.

"I'm really proud of my father," Windham Rotunda said. "It puts a heavy burden on me and my [younger] brother [Taylor Rotunda] to step up. So far, we've done all we could do."

"Irwin R. Schyster" actually made a one-night appearance on the Monday Night Raw episode that aired for the WWE on Monday night.

Considering Rotunda's wrestling pedrigee, one might think it would have been easy for him to follow in his father's footsteps, but Rotunda's favorite sport was football. But wrestling always took a back seat to his dream — playing football for the University of Georgia.

As a senior at Hernando High School in 2005, Rotunda won the Florida state heavyweight title.

"I've always wanted to play [Division I football]," Rotunda said. "I needed to get bigger to play football, and if I wrestled I would need to maintain my weight."

Rotunda is getting a lot of interest from Division I programs such as Georgia, Houston, Utah, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Iowa State.

"It's been my dream to play for Georgia since I was a little kid," he said. "If they offer me a scholarship, I'm there."

Rotunda stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 322 pounds. Last season, he started six games for COS. This season he is the full-time starter at left guard.

"I played behind the best offensive lineman [Ofa Moheatu] in the country last year and I learned a lot," Rotunda said. "I see a lot of what he does in what I do."

COS coach Irv Pankey said Rotunda was wild and that his hair style suited his personality, but, Pankey added, Rotunda is a prototypical football player.

"He is mentally tough and physically tough," Pankey said. "He's a great kid and a great team leader."

Rotunda says that he gets a lot of that toughness from his father. He recalled what he had to go through to win the state heavyweight wrestling championship during his senior year in high school.

During that season, Rotunda suffered a severe ankle injury and was supposed to sit out the rest of the year. Instead he came back prematurely and out of shape, which led to him losing a match. After his loss he promised the local newspaper he woud win the state title, and that's what he did a week later.

At Tuesday's practice, Rotunda suffered a shoulder injury that put him in a sling, but he says it's no big deal. He'll be ready for Saturday's game against Valley Conference rival Reedley.

"It would take for me to be paralyzed to miss that game," he said. "I'll be ready to go."

He's got some added motivation. His father is going to be at the game.

Mike Rotunda is an agent for World Wrestling Entertainment and will be in Visalia to promote Smackdown Live at the Visalia Convention Center on Monday.

Windham Rotunda's immediate goals are to play Division I football and to get an education, but he says he could picture himself doing some professional wrestling sometime in the future.

He just found out Tuesday that a childhood friend broke through with the WWE.

"I can see myself doing some wrestling," Rotunda said. "But I'm counting on my brains and education to help me support a family."

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