Andrew Passero 2 Dan It all began one day when I was 16 years old hanging out on the corner in my hometown of Bayonne N.J. I was standing on Broadway and 26th street. It was the wintertime and I was very cold. My brother Master Ralph Passero was passing by in his car and said why don't you come with me tonight and watch me work out at the karate school. I said, ok. It was better then standing on the corner and freezing. So we go in the school and my brother takes his shoes off, bows to a picture on the wall and walks to the back of the dojo to change into his karate gi. I sit down and watch. It reminded me of a gym or the PAL that was just a couple of blocks from my house. It was a place where karate students were sweating and getting a good workout. It was a place that was warm! The next thing I know, someone yells out an Asian word. Everyone on the floor stops what they are doing, stops talking and lines up against the wall, not touching the wall but very close to it. The black belts were on the opposite side and started the class. They stretched, punched, kicked and the time went fast. The black belts ran the school very regimental and there was no fooling around. Everything I saw that night reminded me of what my brother Ralph had told me of when he was in the U S Army, 82nd Airborne Division and a Viet Nam Veteran. I remember him saying so many times to me that if you don't pay attention to what's going on around you, you might die. You must pay attention. He must have heard a lot of that when he was in basic training. It was a miracle he made it home in one piece from the war so he must know what he is talking about. Ok, so I paid attention! I mean I was only 16 years old but I knew this karate school was serious business. I think that is what attracted me to it. I joined the karate school shortly after that night. I was employed in the same place my brother was employed. We worked for my dad. He owned a dress factory. Every day my brother Ralph would ask me, are you going to work out at the karate school tonight? I would say. I think so. You see, he loved karate and every aspect about it. He would compete in karate tournaments almost every weekend and most of the time he won a trophy. I on the other hand liked it. I would work out two maybe three times a week. He would work out every night during the week. I remember the first time I changed my clothes and put on Gi in the small back room of the karate school. I looked on the wall and on a piece of paper written by someone. It said, the more you sweat in here, the less you will bleed out there. I go, oh boy, what I am getting myself into. As time went by I realized how fortunate I was to be part of a school with so many talented fighters, like Dennis Wright, Mark Wzorek, Robert Doria, George Wanko. There was also a student there named Richie Perseghin ,who I came up in rank with, and his brother Dennis Perseghin who was so fast that a big guy named Tony Costa was sparring him one night and Dennis executed a technique where he spun around in blur, came back into his fighting position and Tony just looked at him and said you just hit very hard in my chest but what did you do, punch me or kick me. I was glad I was able to see that and thought maybe I could be fast like that some day if I keep working out. All the black belts would tell me keep coming down the school and you will be fast. They would fight with no equipment on and every time they fought it looked like it was for real. I remember saying to myself. I hope I never have to fight any of them at this school. Little did I know I would fight all the black belts? I was lucky my brother Ralph new them well and introduced to them to me after class. Ralph would say. If you fight the black belts at this school, two or three times a week you will never have to worry about the common fighter in the street because you will know exactly how to handle them. It will be easy. I was still a white belt at this time and one night Don Nagle was on the floor working out with the rest of the students before the formal class started. I took off my shoes, bowed to the masters' picture on the wall. Tatsuo Shimabuku. I walked to the back of the school to change. My brother was there as usual and pointing to Don Nagle indiscriminately and whispered to me. He is the one who taught Mark Work. He is the real deal. We are going to get a great workout tonight. My eyes opened wide and I got focused. Ralph was right as usual. The next day every muscle in my body was aching. I knew I got a great workout. It got to the point where all I wanted to do at the school was fight but kata and terminology goes along with it, you must learn it all. These are my best memories of the old school. Needless to say I made it to black belt but it was not easy. It may have taken me a little longer to get it but I earned it. I remember the day I tested was for Sho Dan. I was ready. I knew all my upper body exercises, my kicks, my kata and terminology. Don Nagle was there and when it came to test the brown belts who were being tested for black belt, he said, there are so many to be tested today I am going to do something different. I want all the brown belts to pair off with each other and fight. This would be conducted on a point system like at a real tournament. The black belt one wins the match gets promoted. I said to myself, if I was ever ready for a fight, today is the day. I was matched up with a brown belt from a school out of town. When the fight began, I kicked him as hard as I could in the mid section. He dropped down to one knee. The referee told me to go to my corner and get on one knee and face the other way. When my opponent finally got up, we continued the match. When he got close enough to me I kicked in the same place, the mid section. He dropped to the floor. Again I was sent to my corner. This time my opponent had to go outside for air. I waited five minutes or more before he came back in the place. The head referee had both of us bow to each other to him and he awarded me the match. My opponent had the wind knocked out of him and could not continue the match. I was a black belt and very proud. I could have never have accomplished it without proper training and determination. It was one of the proudest days of my life. It is not like today in some karate schools I have heard of where as long as you pay you dues, you get promoted. This never would have happened in our school. It may have taken you longer to get your degree but so what. Why would anyone what a degree without respect? Like I said earlier I earned it. No one gave it to me! All the bumps, bruises and clashes I had down the karate school over the years were worth it. I guess this was my 15 minutes of fame. I think that is the same way most of the students at the school thought back then. They would all love to fight. I also learned how to chest box from one of my brothers friends. His name was Tony Costa. We became good friends and would hang out together. We are still friends today. He was my brothers' trainer for some of his fights so I thought he could train me as well. He was a big opponent, 6'4" and about 248. He through thunderous punches and had impeccable timing. Just ask anyone else who sparred with him back then. If they sparred with him once, believe me. They remember. He said he liked sparing me because I had the best footwork down the school, like a boxer. I also went to the local PAL for a while and would like to watch the boxers hit the heavy bag; listen to the speed bag and fighters jumping rope. There was a boxing trainer there named Joe Barisi. I asked if it would be ok to work out with his fighters a little to learn their style. Joe was a great guy and said sure. This training helped me with my timing and with hitting the heavy bag. I am glad to say I was only in two street fights my whole life. I tried to keep the fighting in the karate school or a boxing ring, where it belonged. I would like to thank every one of those black belts who helped me achieve my rank. Especially, my brother Ralph who pulled me off the corner that cold night in Bayonne, New Jersey. Who always tried to keep me line and out of trouble and did somehow. Without his guidance I never would have made it me through this karate challenge or life! Thanks brother! I hope the karate school will never change the way it teaches a class. The upper basic exercises, kicks, kata and some sparing is a complete class. I am glad I was a part of that karate school and proud of my black belt certificate I have hanging on my wall. The same one Don Nagle signed and handed to me November 11, 1975. I have to add a few things to this, my brother Andrew left out, you see I have a great memory, and I like to tell things the way I saw them.

My brother Andrew started karate, now he is in great shape, he always was, and still to this day manages to do 140-141 push ups in under 1 minute. Sounds unbelievable, we had to video this in July of 2005 at the AOKA School, with three witness's. That's a whole other story.

Andrew was a good student, he worked out hard and being he was my brother he caught his share of beatings with the rest of the black belts who had older brothers in the school, Sensei Mark Wzorek, his brother Joseph, Sensei Dennis Perseghin, his brother Richard, and Andrew, were our punching bags. We did abuse them physically, when it came to fighting, and we pushed them harder then the rest of the students, and they were not allowed to quit! So they had to make black belt, to survive, along with this crew came a younger, person George Wanko's sonChris,he also got his share. I am writing this now, its funny, there were a few problems along the way. But it all worked out fine.

My brother Andrew was a very good fighter, smart, and cautious, he was more of a hand person, his punching ability was very sharp, very good timing.

I had introduced him to Anthony Big Tony Costa, who started out to be a boxer the with Chuck Werner, Tony was 6 ft 3inches, a 32 inch waist, 220 lbs, and cut out. He was my boxing coach when I fought professionally in Full Contact Karate, he knocked me out at least 9 times that I can remember.

Andrew and Tony become good friends, and they would do what they called, Chest Boxing, boxing with no face contact, just body shots, the idea was not to hit to the face, and work on dropping your opponent, with hooks to the body, they worked the heavy bag, and Tony Taught me also how to hit the bag and make it cry.

Well, Andrew's fighting improved and on one particular night, after I had explained to my brother, I did not want him to hang around with a certain crew in Bayonne, we had a major argument, and that night he showed up down the DOJO, when it came time to sparr, George Wanko and myself were going to give Andrew a beating, should not happen in the DOJO, but things happen.

The sparring starts, and George is being hard on Andrew, and my brother who does not like to sparr much, is banging it out with Wanko, they bow out, and I say hey, its my turn, and we go at it, and more of the same. And then George steps in again, and then my turn, and we are both tgrying to knock him out! But its not happening, we trained him, along with Sensei Dennis Wright, and Sensei Mark Wzorek, He was younger and in great shape.

The night ends, we are all tired and glad class is over.

The next afternoon, Police Officer George Wanko, goes on a call man fell off a scaffold, two police officers arrive, George looks at the guy on the ground, does not recognize him, his face is flat as pancake, from the fall, the other cop goes thru the wallet, and says its Andrew Passero, George says, that is not Andrew, after looking at the tattoo on his arm he is shocked to see how disfigured he is, fortunately Andrew fell and his face landed on the only sand in the entire area by the house.

Emergency room, doctors say he has multiple concussions and is in a coma, he laid there for 10 days, before he woke up, and in one week after the fall, he was back at the DOJO.

That to me was a miracle, I was with him in the hospital, and knew I was going to lose my brother, I kept thinking about the night before when I was trying to knock him out, and I mean George and I were banging him around, and I was aggravated because he was getting the best of me, I was taking every shot available at him, my brother is not vicious, he was sparring, I was out to get him. The next time I fought Andrew, I had to watch my self, cause I knew, he was just waiting for the shot to drop me, Now I became the cautious fighter.

Andrew stayed and continued to train until he moved to Arizona, where he is now training one student, his son.