James along with his dad Jim Medeiros at the Road Runner open in Cal State Bakersfield.

Is Hollywood his next stop?

Lake Balboa, California-
“Grab your competitor around the upper chest area and use one leg to sweep their leg out from under them. With forward movement of your body, they will go down to the mat, scoring you points”. Those words are heard in the gym of Birmingham High as Coach James Medeiros explains the move Leg Sweep to his wrestlers.

Coach James is a soft spoken individual who’s love of wrestling goes beyond teaching his wrestlers about wrestling moves inside the gym. A former California state champion and sixth time Fargo Freestyle and Greco-Roman All-American while in High School, James, Breaths, dreams and lives wrestling. From Monday to Friday, he’s busy teaching wrestling at Mulholland Middle School as well as Birmingham High School, from 4:00 PM all the way until 8:30 PM. On Saturdays, he is dedicated taking his Freestyle and Greco Roman wrestlers to tournaments all around California and Nevada.

But besides wrestling, Medeiros other passion is acting and directing. “Acting was a dream of mine growing up in Northern California” -James Medeiros.

By the age of five even before he started wrestling, he told his mom (Sherrill Solis) he wanted to act. Without thinking it twice, Sherrill, enrolled James in acting school in Fremont. California.

Acting was the only thing he ever wanted to do and did it until his senior year of High School when he started doing Musicals. He’s acting career came into an end when he started college and wrestled for Fresno State. As a Fresno State wrestler, he was a three-time national qualifier and three-time western region place winner. In 2000 while taking his redshirt year, he was in a Pulitzer nominated played called “Sun yet son”.

2000 was also the year he also started his coaching career. “I started coaching at Clovis High School along with Stephen Tirapelle.  I coached there while I was redshirting at Fresno State. I learned a lot from Coach Tirapelle and the Clovis Staff.”-Medeiros

James, study English while at Fresno State with an emphasis on creative writing. After graduating from College, James, was a graduate assistant at Fresno State from 2005 until they cancelled the program in 2007. After the program was cut, James, pursuit his Masters Degree and also obtain another degree on Theater Arts. “While I was obtaining my Masters, I needed to take classes during the day, so I took all the acting classes Fresno State had to offer. The next three years I was auditioning in every play I could, and playing all kinds of role”-Medeiros

After finishing his Master Degree, he decided to move to Los Angeles and tried his luck in the capital where dreams are made and also destroyed, Hollywood. When he got to Los Angeles in 2010, to keep in shape he started looking at wrestling programs near his home. Birmingham High School was the closest and was in need of a head wrestling coach. Medeiros took the job and has been the head coach since then.  During his three years at the helm of Birmingham High, he has produce 19 City place winners, four state qualifiers and Birmingham’s first ever section championship team title this past season.

“It was a dream of mine and my wrestlers to win City. Now, our goal is to have state placers and have kids attending college and wrestling”-Medeiros

“I’ve been directing for about eight years now. In college I started my own theatre company and directed many plays. When I moved to Los Angeles I started another theatre company where I directed again. Now, I am a part of Theater 68 in Hollywood, it’s a really awesome company where I can do great work and express my work. The plays I have directed include; Closer, A lie of the mind, Psychopathia sexualis, Italian american reconciliation, Den of thieves, and a many of one acts and original plays.”-Medeiros

The plays James has acted are; The laramie project, Reckless, Macbeth, Taiming of the shrew, Italian American Reconcilation, Orange flower water, The adventures of dash riprock and the tentacles of doom, Single black female, Pandora, Bad dates, Lost in radioland, cupidity, passing proper, just to name a few.

He has also done a lot of extra work on shows like Heros, Chuck, Big love, Sons of anarchy, Glee, etc. He was also in a movie called Hot Rod Horror. “I have a really good movie coming to stores, Red box, Netflix, full domestic release called Showboys. I was one of the main guys and I associate produced the film. It is being release in July.

James, will make his first full length play that he has directed and writing. It is called “The Perfect Crime”. “It’s a buddy comedy about how friends will do almost anything to help a buddy in need. It runs for three weeks. It’s going to be a blast!”-Medeiros.

The Perfect Crime will be shown in Theater 68 Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8pm, From June 7th through June 23rd. If you’re in the greater Los Angeles come and enjoy this play. For tickets and address: www.theatre68.com