In Search of Bigfoot

The scene of the Bigfoot attack:

September 20th, 2007, my father Lloyd Holmes and I, Josiah Holmes, decided to take a camping trip in the wonderful hills of Yosemite National Park. In what was supposed to be a lovely week of father and son bonding, it quickly turned into a true quest of survival. Two days after Bigfoot murdered my father and left me bloodied and beaten in a nearby ditch, park rangers finally arrive to the scene of the crime to rescue me. It’s been over one year since this heinous attack took place. Now left with a missing pinky on my left hand, one testicle, a crooked pinky toe, and a severe drug addiction, I will now head back west and seek my vengeance. I will endure many adventures, conflicts, and obstacles along the way, but nothing will stop me from conquering this beast. Bigfoot took the life of my father, my best friend, and my hero, and I will have no mercy on his soul. I dedicate this search to all who have been hurt by this beast, and I will not rest until vengeance is served.

In Search of Bigfoot: The Josiah Holmes Story

By: RW Casto

Authors Note:

The story you are about to read is a work of fiction, the names are not real and most of the events are fabricated and made from my imagination. Some of the storylines are inspired by true events, but everything is over-exaggerated to make for an entertaining read. I hope you enjoy the search!

Early Years

Before the heinous Bigfoot attack of 2006, I was on a fast-track to something special. I’m often times not sure what it was, but I still remember having a feeling of striving to be someone, but it seems life’s struggles are often times hurled at you not with a moment’s notice, and thus creating another path that changes your destiny forever. You see I was going to be a teacher, a coach, a family man. Alcohol and drugs stood as no roadblock. I was Josiah “mother frick’n” Holmes and I was to be The King. Well that was until that Hairy Bastard Bigfoot took my father’s life and changed my fate forever.

Growing up with the name Josiah Bigfoot Holmes definitely came with some struggles, much like the man in the hit song, “ A Boy Named Sue”. It made me tough as I had to fight a lot on the playgrounds when being made fun of by the school bullies. Luckily for me my father wasn’t just an avid Bigfoot chaser/believer (Ironically enough, Bigfoot was the beast who sealed his fate), but also a high school wrestling coach. At the age of 5 my father had already snuck me out one morning to bring me to a local wrestling tournament where I not only showed my surprising skill for the sport, but also my knack for winning. I finished the day with a 3rd place showing, a bronze medal, and my first lesson in lying to my mother, Louise Holmes. You see my mother had thought we were out shopping the whole day as she had already lain the law down, that I was too young to wrestle competitively. That perspective quickly changed when we showed up to the house with that medal, and she put that big smile on her green-eyed face. Now she was a believer that I may be something special at a sport that was thought to many as barbaric. We had convinced her that I was good and wouldn’t get hurt, and that’s all my dad needed from her to make me into a champion. Becoming a champion actually came surprisingly quick, as I ran through 5 kids on my way to the Cherokee wrestling tournament, claiming 1st place and a chart that was the size of the 55lbs me. Needless to say, that was the start of my life and what was going to be of my life growing up, wrestling tournaments, motels, traveling, meeting great Olympic wrestlers, and the dreaded making weight day (cutting weight for a week). I loved the sport and the people surrounding it, but I never enjoyed going on a 2-mile run with trash bags taped around my body at the age of 8, just to lose 2lbs. Nor did I ever love the days of just eating two lemons and chewing gum, so I could spit in a bottle to try and lose that extra 2oz. These are the things your fathers don’t mention to you before putting you in a sport and making you love it so much that you’d do anything to be successful. Looking back and knowing that my uncles all wrestled and my mother Louise saw them cut weight, makes more sense to the fact that she wasn’t thrilled about me starting the sport at age 5, then the reasoning of her not wanting me to get hurt.

Growing up as wrestler in a house full of woman wasn’t the easiest of tasks. I had three sister’s and a mother, which left little old Lloyd and me to fend for ourselves and find practice partners any way possible. For a while I had to practice with my sister Lula, in the living room, but then one day I met a practice partner on the bus ride home from school. His name was Blade “short for Chris.” He was about the same size as me and from day one we were a team. It didn’t matter what sport it was, boxing, football, wrestling, pro-wrestling, anything we could do as a tandem, we did. Blade was a unique individual to say the least. He grew up in downtown Jackson, in a house that was crooked from right, to the left. When walking into the home you’d be standing almost sideways. He lived with his grandmother and aunt, as his mother had just died in a car accident, leaving the young Blade, to vie for himself as a child. Fortunately, his grandmother rescued him and raised him up to the age of 6, and then the Holmes family took over from there. Blade became another brother to me. He was at the house every day and every night, you may as well have called him Blade Holmes. He was a ball of energy, never getting tired. I could barely keep up with him. Lloyd showed his coaching expertise as he coached Blade to the finals of almost every tournament for three years straight. Blade was on his way to a great wrestling future until the tragic day Blade went bike riding and was ran over by a Semi, breaking both of his legs. We desperately tried to rescue Blade from Jackson, as we were moving to Hedge-water, but to no avail. The money from the lawsuit had changed his grandmother and family, and we grew apart. Blade would no longer be apart of the Holmes life after I turned 10. Move to Hedge-water

My father packed up his family of 6 and took on a job running a factory in the town of Hedge-water. It was new up and coming town of sorts, nearly 50 miles west of Jackson. They had a booming industrial scene which was the Holmes family forte. Big papa Lloyd was so proud of that home he bought in the country area of Hedge-water. It was 10acre land with a gravel drive leading from the road about 100yds back. The house wasn’t the best looking place but the land is what made it stand out. The House overlooked a football-size pond, which included a little island with two old fisherman mannequins on a wooden bench. This would be the Holmes family home for the foreseeable future.

Now living in Hedge-water, a wrestling team was next on Lloyd’s agenda. Lloyd went to the local school and was baffled when it came to his attention that there was no club wrestling team. So Like the entrepreneur, Lloyd was, he set up the first club in Hedge-water. The name was Hedge county freestyle. The first year was a success too, gaining a total of 25 wrestlers. One of which would become Lloyds first statement as a wrestling force in this town. Hedge-water had never seen a state champion wrestler in all its years, but with the help of Lloyd and his charming oldest daughter Jenna, the 152lb Jake Evans was a sure-fire shot.

Each Monday night during that miracle winter Jake would come on over to the Holmes house and study his videos from the weekend meets, studying and discussing with my father ways to improve for his next match. With all that extra work Jake would go from a state qualifier the year before, to Hedgwaters First State Champion, and in a little over a year Lloyd had made a splash in the town.

The following year after a disagreement about how much money the kids should pay for being part of the team, Lloyd was back at it looking to start up another club. In Lloyd's mind, people should pay what they could afford. It was much like what the YMCA clubs do now. Lloyd was only involved in the coaching because of his love for the sport. He always hated the greedy who loved to get their pockets fuller. It really was a great quality of his, but also one that would wind up leaving him holding the bill at the end of the day.

Well a contact of Lloyds had mentioned that an opening for 2 nights at the local gymnastics building was available as space. It only took a quick peek at the place for Lloyd to know he found a new home for a new wrestling team. Wrestling mats were hard to come by at the time, so after wrestling for a second with his 8yr old son on the carpeted mats, Lloyd looked down at young Josiah and said, “Yes this is it, this is where the Mat Invaders will start.”

Unfortunately, I’m sitting out on the first day of practice as I had faked sick and missed school. I still went and sat to the side as the practice was about to start. The doors opened with familiar faces. Yes, It was a success, the invaders were about to begin with over 20 little wrestlers ready to shake up the wrestling scene, building the beginning levels of a wrestling dynasty for the years to come.

As first Practice began, moments later, a late arrival appeared. This would be my new best friend, Landon. Landon was a pure athlete for a 10-year-old. He excelled at baseball and football in the pony leagues around town however he’d never really wrestled. Yet there he was ready to get out there and see what type of ability he had.

Amazingly this Landon would pick up the sport quick. I couldn’t believe my eyes when in the second day of practice he hit a double leg takedown on one of the better wrestlers on the team. Landon was it, the real deal, and Lloyd’s new prodigy. (I know I was his son, but growing up he never thought I’d be the state champion I was). Lloyd had always been looking for others to wrestle with me, usually, it was kids I could beat on, but this Landon was different. He didn’t just wrestle with me, after a few weeks he was beating me and beating me bad. He was a gifted kid, this Landon, so I just had to sit back and watch the greatness bloom. That greatness of Landon, in the end, made me tougher and better. As we grew up together over the next five years, he would become not only my practice partner but my childhood best friend, honestly, he was almost like the brother I never had.

We would go on to wrestle for many of the state’s elite teams from the ages of 10 to 15. The state would pick its best 2-3 guys at each weight and then divide them up to an A team and a B team that would travel and wrestle against other States' best teams. Minus all the weight cutting and Lemon eating, those days really were fun. Usually, Landon would be on the 1st team and me on the 2nd team, but we would still travel together, along with the coach in crime, Lloyd. Our last Team Michigan together was the year before we started High school. Landon and I had qualified for The Fargo Nationals in North Dakota. This is where Landon and I got our first tastes in a real wrestling training camp.

We made our way to Olivet College, Lloyd, who always was one of the coaches for the teams, wasn’t able to accompany us on this trip. His work schedule would not allow it. So there is where Landon and I would be left to survive this grueling week of training.

We would be awoken every morning at 7am to go off on a 3 mile run around the college campus. From there we would get breakfast and then hit the 1st of 3, 90-minute sessions of wrestling practice. This went on for five days. Then at the end camp, we packed up in an Indian Trail bus and departed for Fargo. Even though neither of us placed, me going 5-2 and Landon finishing 4-2, the trip also got Lloyd in touch with some high-level coaches at The NCAA level.

Lloyd being a savvy businessman, well he liked to portray he was to the public, saw an open opportunity to use his charm and ra-ra-attitude to convince some coaches to run a 1-week wrestling camp at his house where all the campers would stay in tents on Lloyds huge lakeside land. They called it the Last Camp of the century. It would take place in the summer of 1999 in his farm home in Hedgewater and also at the recreation center in downtown.

The Last Camp of The Century

The camp was set, it was to take place between the Last week of July and the first week of August. The Clinicians were nothing but spectacular, the lead clinician was the head assistant at the local University, along with his assistant, and 4 members of their team, 2 of which were D1 All Americans. The Camp would also consist of a 1-day session with a Russian national Champion, who defected to the states, Rolan Sabanatov. The Camp would draw numbers that Lloyd never even imagined.

Day 1:

The first day began at 9 am for signups and the 1st session would start at 10 am. There were 52 campers already pre-registered, but Lloyd didn’t foresee tagalongs who would pay the day of camp. The tagalong crew ended up fueling 72 participants 49 of which were camping and 23 which were commuting. The level of talent at the camp ranged from High school state champions to grade school beginners, which if using my hindsight I would have made the camp only for advanced wrestlers as it was rather intense. Kids would hide in the woods and miss beta bus Lloyd rented just to get out of the 8-hour hell that was being provided uptown at the rec hall. Hell doesn’t even resemble the torturous day that Rolan Sabanatov endured upon the campers during his 1-day session. He was out there doing backflips then hitting double legs. He was throwing his partner in throws that we in the states would use a blue bean bag mat just to soften the hit. Not Rolan though, he said those mats are for the weak and only the strong can survive in wrestling. One time he even grabbed the D3 High school state champion Nived Wynn and chose to toss him in two headlocks, 1 lateral drop, and then collar tied him and dragged him around with the tie explaining to the rest of the campers in his thick Russian accent, that “The USA is garbage at wrestling, look what I can do to the Mr. State Champion,” then Rolan proceeded to foot sweep Nived so hard his head would bounce off the mat like a basketball. Nived was only 17 at the time and this angered many of the other clinicians, campers, and spectators. Rolan would leave in a rage throwing his camp shirt in the streets as he drove on by Lloyd who was trying to salvage whatever relationship they had left. It only became clear to me years later on what in fact happened. Rolan, who after he arrived at the house the night before by doing a summersault dive off a 20ft high tree limb while screaming I'm not afraid to die, had impressed Lloyds Oldest daughter Victoria so much that she went out to the local pub with him. So needless to say Lloyd found out and confronted Roland that night, thus leading to a day of hell for the campers.

Well now with Rolan gone the camp got hit with another bombardment. Poor Louise and Landon’s mother Retta-Jean were stuck on meal duty every day 3 times a day for the campers. Retta-Jean wasn’t as kitchen savvy Louise and happened to accidentally sour the macaroni salad she made. The next day campers and clinicians were suffering the stomach pains eating it had brought. The worse thing was that night it was now midway through camp, 50% of campers and staff are sick. So what possibly could make this worse? Well, it just so happened to be the worst rainstorm the county had seen in 20years would be next in line.

The rainstorm from hell was what came next. Turning tents over, leaving the 2 stories and 3 bedroom house of the Holmes family as the sleeping grounds for nearly 30 campers. The ones who brought a camper were the lone survivors outside. The next morning the clinicians went around in big trucks and loaded up the camper's clothes that got wet in the storm and brought them into town to a wash and dry. Those quarters came out their wages so I’m guessing smiles were not present during the laundry stop. Well, the camp finally came to its conclusion with the Friday night war games where the campers who had survived the week, which was now down to about 24, would play capture the flag. This is was the lone bright spot from the camp, and Lloyd would only do one 1more while I was in High school, but I ran 1 for him while in college, but it was commute only. The actual last camp came when West Virginia University's assistant, Taloc Cary, also considered one of the greatest American wrestlers and was an Olympic bronze medalist who came into town for a week, basically to recruit Landon and see what else our area had. He got Landon to commit, but only for week or two, as college wrestling wasn’t Landon's passion even though to this day I say he's the 2nd best I ever rolled with. The best I ever went with was the 3x New Mexico State Champ who was supposed to be Blair's new 133 when I went in as the 141. Guy Lleyba sure was a beast, he was like flash lightning on his feet. However his career was derailed at 19 after he suffered career-ending knee injuries, but I’m getting way ahead of myself.

High School

Hedgewater would have to say good bye to the Holmes dynasty. It started when one of Lloyd’s better wrestlers was held out of districts during his freshmen year by the overweight, lazy ass, Coach Sweeny. This caused Lloyd to fume with rage. The two already did not like one another, after Sweeny took full credit for Jake Evans becoming the school’s first state champion. So Lloyd, doing what he does best, talked 7 of his club team’s wrestlers into transferring to the nearby small school, of Fancy, MI.

The crew consisted of Chadwick, Big Will, Landon, J-hop, Red, Me, and the mat invader from nearby Homer Mikey P, who had recently got expelled from his school and needed to find a place where he could graduate, all headed to the Farmer school, Fancy. First day of School came, and Big Will thought he would make his debut, by screeching into the school late, in his Jeep wrangler, with his Hip-hop music blaring and his base bumping. This didn’t go over well with the schools Carhardt Gang. Basically it was a bunch of muscle headed, Farm boys. They didn’t welcome Will into the school, as the crew jumped him after the 1st day of school, and tore his doors off of his Jeep. But of course in time things watered down. Once Wrestling season came the school would see what all the fuss was about.

Wrestling Season

Lloyd made it through the first day of practice, along with his Hedgewater transfer’s. Fancy’s wrestling room was basically just a small shack with a wrestling mat and a heater. The Head Coach, MK Wrap, had the radio beaming with a heavy metal soundtrack, which shook the little shack. The room was very hot, when you opened the door the steam would exit and cloud the parking lot. The kids on the team were dog tired, but yet still very enthusiastic. Yes, after all the years, Lloyd had found his heaven. This is what a wrestling team should be. It was a bunch of hardworking farm boys that didn’t know the meaning of the word “quit”.

Landon would coast in easy during his freshmen season, running through the mill at 112, going 37-0. Until the fateful day of regional’s, where Landon failed to make weight, thus ending his run for a state championship. He had stayed over at the house that night, and I don’t remember him drinking or eating a thing. Somehow, Landon, walks into regional’s weighing 117lbs. To this day it’s still a mystery, I don’t know, he must have slept walk, ate and drank, as no one at the Holmes house fed him. So it was anyone’s idea how it happened but it did!

As the next year approached I was finally on the team. With Lloyd, MK Wrap, and stat man “Muff” (who would take over as head coach my sr. season) as the coaches, this team was almost unbeatable. Who could ever forget the Duel when we finally did lose, between arch-rival Chargers, and us the Oriole’s. The gym was filled; no one could get a seat. It was the number #4 ranked Chargers and the #7 ranked Orioles, going toe-toe. It came down to the end; Orioles needed a pin to win, by the Muscle of the team, Will. Will was a great guy, he’d run to my father’s shop in the snow, for miles. He trained and looked just like Rocky Balboa. So, this was a feat that could be done. Will then goes out and begins to destroy the state ranked HWT, taking him down at will, and turning him to his back. As the second period approached Will was in control, after another takedown, Will would again turn the big opponent to his back, this was it Fancy was about to pull off the Big upset sending the Orioles to the team state meet. Then as the Charger HWT squealed very loudly the official blew his whistle not for a pin, but stopping the match to let the guy up due to injury. After 30 seconds, to a minute, pass by the match would continue with Will again placing the overmatched opponent to his back, but yet again the unbelievable, a blowing of the whistle halting the pin attempt as the ref noticed blood on the lip of beaten man. How could this be happening? At are home gym too. The Ref had to of been in the pocket by the swindlers over at Charger City. Anyway, after the two halted pin attempts, a whopping 2minutes of injury time used and the whole 5 minute of blood time used, Will ends up winning the match 16-3, no pin, and no duel win! Season over again. No State for the team, but the Individuals did do well that season.

Will would go onto win state and become Fancy’s first. He would go onto college to wrestle, and also become a pro MMA fighter, but tragically he would die at the age of 26.

Landon, whom is considered Fancys greatest would go on to a 157-9 record finishing 7th, 2nd, and 3rd at the big dance. His closest shot at the title came his junior year where he jumped out to a 7pt lead, but would falter it away and lose by 6.

The team would be beat out in the regional finals every year as well. Then there stood me, a replica of Will, mastering the front-headlock, which border-lined, as a choke the opponent out pinning combination (later named “The Flat-liner”). It may have been the greatest pinning, move in the world. They actually made it illegal for about 6-7 years after Will and I were long gone. I went onto break almost every record held at Fancy, I pulled a stunner my freshmen year knocking off the defending state champ in the 1st round of state, but would go onto lose my next 2, one of which being to the 1legged bully from Sterling. The next season I would finish 5th, then my junior year I would dominate the state tourney leading up to the finals, but after eating some rotten pizza after my semi- finals, I woke up the next day puking my guts out and feeling miserable. I would still go on to wrestle in the finals despite running a fever and not being able to hold any food or liquid down all day. I would lose 8-3 and finish 2nd. I would have my redemption song the next season though going 47-0 and becoming Fancy’s 2nd State Champion. My career concluded at 175-18. I did however have one last unsanctioned high school match in me.

Before heading out for graduation, a night full of drinking was mission number 1 to help close the door on my childhood in Hedgewater/Fancy. It was there where I was approached and what I felt disrespected by Oliver Pudge. OP went to Hedgewater and too was a state champion wrestler at HWT. I never was one to like OP, even though we had the same crew of friends. So at my buddy Turtle P’s house party, we decided to set up an epic fight. All it took was one punch from OP to set me off on a rage-filled tirade that became legendary. That night I would leave a busted up, bloodied OP, and the rest of Fancy to know that Josiah Holmes was a bad dude.

I would finish out that summer working out and preparing for my next quest in life.

COLLEGE!