…and became one of the best players in the U.S.
A young Peixoto (right). Courtesy the Olympic Club
January 22, 2016, Wendy Thurm, Vice Sports (Read the full article, HERE)
If you didn’t know better, you might mistake Emmett Peixoto for a celebrity, with his chiseled good looks and mop of jet-black hair. If you did you know better, you’d be right.
Peixoto is a star on the professional handball tour. He’s also a recovering alcoholic who hasn’t had a drink in 10 years, and a singer-songwriter with three CDs of rock ballads on iTunes. When he’s not training for or playing in professional handball tournaments, the 33-year-old teaches handball at the Olympic Club in San Francisco to anyone willing to learn, no matter their age. In his spare time, he reads Nietzsche. Next year, he plans to apply for PhD programs in Philosophy. Not bad for a guy who was expelled from two different high schools.
Like most professional handball players in the U.S., Peixoto learned the game from his father, Jim, who dragged him to the YMCA in Watsonville, California, when Emmett was ten. That experiment didn’t last long, as Emmett didn’t have the strength to hit a ball to the front wall. Two years later, Emmett returned to the Y bigger and stronger, able to easily hit the front wall with his shots. He was hooked. Within a few months, he was entering and winning junior handball tournaments. So was his younger sister, Courtney. It was a family affair: Emmett, Courtney, and their parents drove around the country to play handball, often returning home with a few more trophies in the trunk.
Read the full article, HERE>