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BY THE TIME you read this, Mike Moon will have battled an angry Ugandan in Courtland High School's gym.
And the social studies teacher's students may have rooted for the painted-up giant of a man, not for the guy who decides their grades.
The 34-year-old Moon, the head JV football coach at Courtland, has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was about
But his first visit to a live grappling event was Saturday--and Moon got a better-than-ringside view of the action.
He was in a tag-team match in which his team tangled with one led by wrestling legend Kamala, The Ugandan Giant, a sometimes bug-eyed character who wears a leopard-skin-print loincloth.
Why on Earth would a professional educator choose to step into the squared circle with a terror of an individual whose face is festooned with freaky white paint, and who has a yellow half-moon painted above his navel and two sloppily crafted stars on his chest?
"I blame this purely on my A.D.," Moon said when I reached him last week.
See, Moon is the assistant athletic director. By "A.D.," he meant Athletic Director Ronnie Lowman.
Courtland struck a deal with Stuarts Draft-based TNT Pro Wrestling for a fundraiser to benefit school athletics and scholarship funds in memory of former students Justin Armitage and Baron P. Braswell.
Armitage, a 2005 Courtland grad and James Madison University freshman, was killed in a car crash in March. Braswell, a Courtland junior, was killed at a party in January.
Part of the agreement included a coach or teacher joining the action.
Moon was that victim, er, person--all 5 feet 10 inches and 155 pounds of him.
"I think they want to see me get beat up," he said last week about his students.
But Moon wasn't hurt too badly. TNT Pro Wrestling eschews the extreme violence on which other wrestling federations have made a living.
And it doesn't allow profanity in the show, or storylines with sexual innuendo.
The idea is to present entertainment that's suitable for mixed company.
"This is for everybody," said Marvin Ward, TNT's head man.
Ward has been involved with wrestling for more than a decade. He was a wrestler before tearing the rotator cuff in his left shoulder and deciding to start his own company.
The fundraising idea began when both of Ward's children were born premature and had to undergo extensive treatment at University of Virginia Children's Hospital.
Daughters Brittany and Hannah fortunately ended up being fine, and Ward and his wife, Stacie, wanted to return the goodwill they received at the hospital.
So they began holding annual "Night of the Superstars" events with ticket proceeds going to the children's hospital. With four of these endeavors, the Wards have raised more than $50,000.
Seeing that success, high school athletic directors asked Marvin Ward if TNT could hold fundraisers for scholastic athletics.
He came up with a plan in which $5 from each ticket sold--tickets at Courtland were 20 bucks--and 100 percent of concession sales would go to a participating school. If the schools seek business sponsorship of the event, they can also keep 100 percent of that revenue.
And though Ward books big-name performers such as the Steiner brothers, the Barbarian and Jerry "The King" Lawler, the schools don't have to spend any money upfront. They simply must guarantee that 750 tickets will be sold.
If sales reach 2,000 tickets, Ward's promotions company, Ward Family Promotions LLC, agrees to donate two additional $1,000 scholarships to the school.
That means that though the world of wrestling usually turns on wins and losses, Ward has come up with a real "win-win."
To reach JONATHAN HUNLEY:
Email: jhunley@freelancestar.com
