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06/04/2007 Archived Entry: "Peter Wood: Boxer, Teacher, Author"
Peter Wood: Boxer, Teacher, Author
By: Jean Bello
Courtesy of the White Plains Times
Published: May 31, 2007
White Plains High School English teacher Peter Wood describes his boxing career as a “poignant time of life.” A 1971 New York City Middleweight Golden Gloves Finalist who was also selected to represent America in the 1976 Maccabian Games in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wood competed from 12 through 20 years old, logged 34 wins, one loss and 20 knockouts—all chronicled in his personal coming of age tale, “Confessions of a Fighter: Battling Through the Golden Gloves.”
In a telephone interview Wood offered an observation: “Show me a boxer and I’ll show you one unhappy childhood,” adding, “the size of the talent equals the size of the pain.” He says the anger and pain an individual feels becomes fuel in the ring. Wood’s pain comes from the emotional turmoil he experienced after his parents divorced when he was eight years old and his mother remarried when he was nine, whereby he acquired a stepfather whom he did not like and four stepsiblings. He admits everybody was “suffering in silence,” but sublimating their negativity in art. Wood’s art was boxing, “my sick way of remaining healthy.” Calling boxing “the closest thing to assault and battery that society allows,” and saying he was never raised to be a fighter, Wood says he has to take a “positive look at a pretty lousy sport”; boxing provided him with an emotional outlet when he needed it most.
To read the rest of this story, click on the link below:
http://www.wptimes.com/city_people.php?viewspecific=1&storyid=1391
