People of the Year 2016

A special bond, on and off the mat

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“Clap once if you can hear me!” Miguel Rodriguez shouted during a recent wrestling practice at Lido Elementary School.

A thunderous clap resonated through the room.

“Clap twice if you can hear me!”

Two claps followed. The room fell quiet, and the wrestlers gathered in a loose circle on the floor around Rodriguez. He grappled with one of them in the center, demonstrating a move.

Rodriguez coaches 72 wrestlers for the Long Beach Gladiators, a competitive travel team that is part of the city’s wrestling club for children and teenagers.

But his involvement in the community doesn’t stop there. A second-grade teacher’s assistant and one of the high school and middle school wrestling coaches, Rodriguez, 36, also works as a one-on-one aide with 9-year-old Isaiah Bird — a wrestler who was born without legs.

Isaiah, he said, has become more than a pupil to him — he’s like a son. “The relationship that I have with him is beyond just a normal relationship of a wrestling coach and a kid, or a student and a teacher,” said Rodriguez, who has a 16-year-old son. “I want to see him succeed. Now I see him as another one of my kids that I just want to see make it in life.”

Rodriguez and Isaiah, the Herald’s 2016 People of the Year, have been inseparable since they met five years ago, and Isaiah has overcome tremendous challenges on and off the mat. “Some of the challenges Isaiah has faced off the mat is, of course, dealing with the fact that he’s different from every other kid,” Rodriguez said.

The pair served as this year’s grand marshals of the Electric Light Parade on Dec. 10, an event that attracts hundreds of spectators to the West End. Their story has made international headlines over the past several years, and they have been featured on ESPN and the BBC. Now they’re part of each other’s daily routines — Rodriguez is with Isaiah in his classroom at Lido Elementary every day.

“I’m the one guy that wakes up in the morning with a smile going to work,” he said.

“It’s not just a short-term thing,” added Joe Brand, head coach of the high school’s hockey team. “It wasn’t like he just took him on for a school year — he gets him up every morning, gets him to school every morning, gets him where he has to go. Miguel has taught not only his own family and his wrestling community, but the entire Long Beach community what service and doing the right thing is all about.”

Before he met Rodriguez, Isaiah faced many hardships. He was homeless for a time after Hurricane Sandy destroyed his house in 2012. He lived in two different shelters with his mother, Bernadette Hopton, and his younger brother, Elijah.

After the second shelter, Isaiah stayed with his mother and brother in Rodriguez’s home for about three months. With help from Rodriguez, they moved into an apartment in the West End in 2014, with the hope of giving Isaiah a more normal lifestyle.

Rodriguez “is a blessing to the community — without question, he’s a gift,” said Johanna Sofield, last year’s Person of the Year and a co-founder of the Long Beach Christmas Angel, which honored Rodriguez in 2014. “He has taught [Isaiah] that there is no such thing as ‘I can’t.’ He demonstrates that by exposing him to every available opportunity. Isaiah fully understands that he can do anything he wants as long as he sets his mind to it.”

Rodriguez met Isaiah when the boy was 4. The middle school’s special education coordinator, Vincent Russo — Rodriguez’s supervisor at the time — insisted that he meet Isaiah before he considered being his aide. The two immediately hit it off, Rodriguez said.

“I left my classroom and I walked next door and there he was, shuffling around from side to side, playing basketball in gym class,” Rodriguez recalled. “I approached him and he said, ‘Hey, dude, do you want to play basketball?’ And so we played, and I just fell in love with him.”

At first, Hopton hesitated to allow her son to wrestle, fearing that he would get hurt, but Rodriguez showed her a video of Rohan Murphy, a 33-year-old paralympian wrestler, and it sparked her interest. Now she is grateful that Rodriguez is part of her son’s life.

“Their bond is very thick,” Hopton said. “It’s become a bond that nobody can break, honestly. They’re good for each other.”

Isaiah is not just competing in wrestling, but also excelling, Rodriguez said. He recently finished third in a New York state youth tournament and sixth in a national event in Wildwood, N.J. So far this year, he has won 10 matches and lost four.

Besides upcoming local tournaments, Rodriguez and Isaiah said they look forward to competing in the Nassau County Qualifier, to be held in Long Beach this year, and, they hope, the state championships.

“Miguel does an outstanding job with Isaiah, and that’s just one example of many through the years of what our program does for kids,” said Ray Adams, head wrestling coach of the Long Beach Marines. “Coach Rodriguez has really taken Isaiah under his wing, trying to help him become successful in school and life in general, not just on the wrestling mat. I’m glad he’s giving back to the sport that gave him so much.”

Wrestling has also helped Isaiah find a group of supportive friends, as well as a sense of belonging. “I chose wrestling because it was my favorite sport,” he said. “I got myself pinned, but I got back up and I tried my best.”

His interests aren’t limited to wrestling — in the fall, he also tried football. “Football was a little difficult,” he said. “I got tackled. It wasn’t easy for me at first, but then I got used to it.”

He said he hopes to eventually attend college on an academic or athletic scholarship, and to continue to wrestle. “Coach said that I, one day, would be a successful man,” Isaiah said.