These longtime friends, who wrestled at rival high schools, are training MMA at ATT
Young MMA fighters Josh DaSilveira and Sal Guerriero are longtime friends -- from their elementary school years to their time at rival high schools in South Florida to now.
They currently train in South Florida in Coconut Creek at the award winning American Top Team, a place where their family members became integral to the growth and success of ATT and MMA in South Florida.
It’s a Who’s Who at American Top Team. The G.O.A.T. Amanda Nunes, Dustin Poirier, Kayla Harrison, Jorge Masvidal, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Yaroslav Amosov, Pedro Munhoz, King Mo, and more.
DaSilveira and Guerriero want to join those ranks.
Here is my video interview with DaSilveira and Guerriero.
DaSilveira and Guerriero excelled in amateur wrestling on the AAU and high school levels. DaSilveira competed for Barron Collier High School in Naples on the Southwest coast of Florida, before traveling across Alligator Alley to attend Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale.
Guerriero wrestled for rival St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale.
DaSilveira graduated in 2011 and Guerriero in 2014. DaSilveira lived in South Florida (Miami, Naples, Fort Lauderdale). DaSilveira wrestled for Coach Joe Blasucci at Baron Collier and Coach Frank Pettineo at Cardinal Gibbons.
Guerriero is from South Florida (Plantation). He wrestled for Coach Robert Wimberley (and the Band of Brothers) at St. Thomas Aquinas.
Wimberley said: “Aquinas wrestlers really are part of a brotherhood, always supportive of each other, Sal was and still is one of the hardest working wrestlers to come out of the program. He is a wrestling gym rat. Aquinas wrestling is very proud of Sal s success and thinks the sky is the limit. He is such an inner-driven athlete, always the guy that stepped up for the toughest matches. Outsiders thought he was pulling upsets throughout his career, but not us. It was always an inside joke to chant, ‘LOOK AT SAL!’ We expected him to win. I’m sure he will do the same now with his fight career.”
As for Josh DaSilveira.
Somerset Academy (Pembroke Pines) Wrestling Coach Joe Blasucci, who coached Josh at Barron Collier in Naples, said: “My oldest son, Richie, was walking the hallways and saw a kid with a St. Thomas Aquinas shirt on, and he saw my son had a black eye. Josh asked him, ‘How did you get that?’ My son said, ‘Wrestling. Do you ever wrestle?’ Josh answered, ‘No. I do jiu-jitsu.’
Richie introduced DaSilveira to his dad in the wrestling room.
Blasucci said: “I asked Josh, ‘How old are you?’ He said, ‘15.’ He looked like a man. I told him, ‘There’s a group in the back in the upper weights. Why don’t you watch them?’ About 20 minutes later, Josh said, ‘Do you mind, if I mix it up with them, once or twice.’ Next thing I know Josh is tossing these kids. I quickly ran over there.”
DaSilveira was on the team.
His first tournament, a JV tournament as a sophomore, he was DQ’d for locking his hands five times. New to wrestling, he adapted, adjusted.
A few weeks later, DaSilveira was in the finals of the Captain Archer varsity tournament at Charlotte High School in Port Charlotte. No DQ this time. He made the finals, after wrestling just three weeks.
In a few months, he qualified for state and missed placing by a match. His junior year he was a state runner-up, losing by one point to nationally ranked Shane Taylor. Three weeks later, he won the NHSCA Junior National Championship.
Blasucci said: “Josh is so coachable. He always wanted to be better. Even when he won, I pushed him to do better. I called him ‘Warrior.’ The kid is a warrior.”
Blasucci moved to Fort Lauderdale in DaSilveira’s senior year. DaSilveira transferred to Cardinal Gibbons High School under the direction of Coach Frank Pettineo. He won a state title, while helping the Chiefs win the state team title.
Two of his standout teammates, the Morris twins (Jamal and Jamel), are now coaching the Cardinal Gibbons wrestling team.
Jamel said: “When I was a freshman in high school, Josh was a senior. I looked up to him. I wanted to be as aggressive as him.”
The twins also knew Sal Guerriero very well. Jamal and Sal wrestled each other many times.
Jamel said: “Every time they wrestled each other, I knew it was going to be a battle. I respected [Sal] as a competitor.”
DaSilveira earned an AA degree in liberal arts from Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa, before wrestling for Arizona State University, where he studied Earth and Environmental Studies. A Florida high school state wrestling champion, he was an NJCAA National Champion and a Pac-12 Champion at 197 pounds. He qualified for 2016 NCAA Championships at Madison Square Garden in NYC.
A light heavyweight, the 28-year-old is 5-0 as a pro in MMA, including wins in Titan FC and LFA.
His father is the well respected “Conan” Marcus Silveira, a founder, co-owner and coach of American Top Team. “Conan” is also an MMA pioneer, competing against the likes of Kazushi Sakuraba, Patrick Smith, Maurice Smith and Dan “The Beast” Severn.
Guerriero, 25, is 4-1 in the bantamweight division as an MMA pro with his past four fights for Titan FC (three consecutive wins and a split decision loss). Guerriero, a state finalist in high school wrestling for St. Thomas Aquinas, is a former No Gi Jiu-Jitsu World Champion and World medalist. He also won the Pan Am Championships and took bronze in the ADCC Submission Grappling World Trials.
Guerriero studied business at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. His uncle, Richie, is the general manager at American Top Team. Richie and Sal’s dad, Ben, trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu at Conan’s training center in a small corner of a South Beach plaza, prior to the formation of American Top Team in Coconut Creek. A family tradition, Conan, Richie and Ben have been friends a long time, too.
ATT started in a warehouse in a business sect on Johnson Road in Coconut Creek. As ATT grew with top coaches and top fighters from throughout the world, more space was needed to fit the increase in fighters. That’s when ATT evolved into a larger stand-alone training center off 441/State Road 7 in Coconut Creek.
Seahorse wrestling
Seahorse Wrestling in Weston continues this summer.
The Bad Bay Wrestling Club summer practice schedule: Advanced practice starts at 4:15 p.m. New wrestlers starts at 5 p.m.
Must have a USA Wrestling card. It can be purchased at:
FLORIDAAMATEURWRESTLING.ORG.
July practice dates: July 22, 27.
Questions text Cypress Bay wrestling coach Allen Held at 954-854-1124.
New coaches and award winners
For high schools in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, if you have new hires, or coaches and athletes who won special awards (local, state, regional, nationals), email hssports@miamiherald.com.
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Roundup compiled by Jim Varsallone
jvarsallone@miamiherald.com
