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."
Original link to article:
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061011/SPORTS/610110304