“When you’re on the mat, nothing else matters”: Veterans navigate civilian life through MMA

Samara Freemark
Reporter
Public Insight Network

MESA, ARIZ. -- The Spartan Academy is a gym in Mesa, Ariz. that specializes in the American Pankration style of mixed martial arts. Many of the men who train there are combat veterans, recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. At Spartan Academy, these men have found a community that understands them, and a training regimen that helps them work through what they've experienced. Here are some of their stories.

JUSTIN HAYES, 23: "When you're on the mat, nothing else matters."

Hayes was a sniper in the Marine Corps, and served two deployments -- first to Iraq and then to a ship in the Pacific Ocean. He says he ended up in the Spartan Academy gym because his roommate wanted to join. He tagged along -- and loved it.

"We're trained to fight," he says. "It's ingrained in us; we're used to constantly doing it."

(Photo by Brandon Quester for the PIN)
MATT COAST, 30: "You come back and people don't understand you"

Coast is a retired Navy SEAL who served in Iraq. He returned home in 2005. "It was a big shock to come home," he says. "You don't realize what you have until you experience what it's like not to have it."

In addition to his MMA training, Matt belongs to a Zen temple, meditates and practices yoga. He says all four -- however different they might be -- have helped him embrace mindfulness and peace in his everyday life.

(Photo by Brandon Quester for the PIN)
LUKE OCHSENFELD, 27: "A group of people you have a common interest with"

Ochsenfeld was a Marine sniper scout who served in Iraq. He returned home in 2011 and enrolled at Arizona State University, where he first heard about the Spartan Academy.

(Photo by Brandon Quester for the PIN)
JEFF FUNICELLO: "You find way to master the craft; put order to something that's disorderly"

Funicello (left), isn't a veteran. But he's been a mixed martial arts instructor since 1990 -- and his current gym, Spartan Academy in Mesa, Ariz., has become a second home to many combat veterans, many of whom have found camaraderie and release inside.

(Photo by Michel Duarte for the PIN)

[Audio recorded and produced by Samara Freemark | PIN]

After combat, a wait

Our ongoing look at the VA's backlog of veterans’ disability claims

Justin Hayes, left, and Matt Coast compete in a mixed martial arts bout during fight night at the Spartan Academy gym inMesa, Ariz. Both men are combat veterans who spent time deployed in Iraq. (Photo by Brandon Quester for PIN)