Joe SilvaThere is much to Joe Silva that one can’t see from a simple conversation. There is so much depth to the man, one tends to look beyond the athletic accomplishments to a life well-led.
Joe was a championship wrestler at Fruita, winning three state titles and compiling a 58-0-2 mark while doing it at 103, 112, and 120. In his 12 state wrestling matches, he had just 6 points scored against. He was also the Wildcats’ head boy.
Growing up in Fruita, times may have been tough, sports is what you did during school and Joe played football, wrestling and baseball, earning some all-conference honors in baseball and football along the way.
He remembers everything about working the summers bucking hay bales and in the orchards on the farms and ranches in the area. High School sports were important to Joe, maybe more important than he knew or his coaches knew. And he remembers what they taught him.
After high school, Joe became the first freshman wrestling champion at Colorado State College in 1966. But soon the Army came calling and Joe did his duty.
He saw a great deal of action in Vietnam and held his own as others crumbled around him, citing the lessons learned from athletic participation and staying in shape on the farms in the summers.
Long after he arrived home unceremoniously, he discovered that he had been awarded the Bronze Star for battlefield bravery under orders.
Joe became a teacher and taught for 29 years in Fruita at the middle schools. He coached a bit, but also developed recognition programs for his hometown and the school which is now Fruita Monument. He built the Fruita Vietnam Memorial and was instrumental in developing the FMHS Hall of Fame.
