By BOB BAIRD

(Original publication: March 11, 2004)

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Scott Wright's two worlds will collide tomorrow night at the Suffern High School gym.

During the week, he's Mr. Wright, teaching history at Suffern Middle School, writing lesson plans, giving exams and grading papers.

Tomorrow night, many of his students will be among the expected crowd of 1,500 who will see him step into a wrestling ring in the gym where he played basketball for the Suffern Mounties.

As part of a benefit for the football team, he'll battle "Crowbar" Devon Storm. It's billed as the "Main Event" on a program featuring rising stars and veterans of big-time wrestling like Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Tito Santana. They wrestle for East Coast Professional Wrestling, which is promoting the event with the Suffern Football Touchdown Club.

A similar event last year raised about $5,000 for Suffern, says Wright, who is the football team's strength and conditioning coach. With about 90 ads sold for this year's program, Wright's hoping to top that figure.

His coaching role makes sense when you learn that Wright also participates in amateur bodybuilding competitions, like the one coming up at Clarkstown South High School on March 27.

"Wrestlers who succeed," Wright says, "look good enough for people to pay $12 just to see them perform."

So, the chiseled look of a bodybuilder translates into a positive for a pro wrestler, just as it does for a strength coach, he says.

It makes him a good role model when he's trying to get athletes into the gym from November to August. "That's the tough part — convincing players being in shape isn't just for the three months of the season," Wright says.

"I just love working with kids," he says, sitting in his empty classroom at Suffern Middle School. "You go through life trying to figure out what you're best at," he says. For him, the answer was working with young people. Teaching, just like coaching, was the natural extension of that.

After graduating from Suffern in 1990 and college at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, where he played basketball, Wright came home to Sloatsburg four years ago to teach in the Ramapo Central School District.

"Teaching in your hometown is a great thing," Wright says, "especially having colleagues who once were your teachers." Wright credits Rich Deibler, his middle school science teacher, with showing him the ropes. "We developed a tight relationship that's continued since he retired," Wright says. Deibler is now webmaster for Wright's internet site, Scottycharisma.com.

Phil Tisi, Ramapo Central district's history chairman, calls Wright "a tremendous role model," someone students really admire. "He's got an exemplary value system and work ethic," says Tisi. "I'm proud to have him a member of my department."

Wright says his career choice — the teaching, that is — grew out of his relationship with his father.

His dad, Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright, taught history at Tappan Zee High School before his retirement. "He's a teacher. He's a people person. I think a lot of Dad's values are instilled in me."

For Scotty Charisma, wrestling is just another way to connect with children, Wright says.

"This organization — the ECPW — is all about family oriented entertainment. Kids from kindergarten through high school are the target audience," he says. "If you're going to have these programs at schools around the tri-state area, it has to be good, clean, wholesome entertainment."

Even if the outcomes are choreographed, Wright says, pro wrestling takes a high degree of athleticism. Even for trained professionals, it's dangerous, like the time he took an unexpected kick to the side of his head. He was still unconscious when they got him to a hospital.

He's been talking about that danger in visits to local elementary schools to promote tomorrow's event, emphasizing that children shouldn't imitate what they see then or on TV.

"You can come to the match and say, 'That's fake,' but injuries do happen," Wright says, adding, "It's pure entertainment. It's not what you see. It would be irresponsible to visit schools and not talk about the danger."

Knowing that matches are scripted doesn't cut into the fun, he says. "Millions of people go to Universal Studios every year and they give away all the movie special effects secrets. It doesn't hurt their box office."

What spectators will see tomorrow night, Wright says, is "a combination of the movies, Hollywood stunt work, a Broadway play and a soap opera."

Wright works hard, training several times a week, and hopes someday to move up to World Wrestling Entertainment, pro wrestling's big time.

But for this weekend, his goal is to raise some money for Suffern football. "In an era of budget restraints," he says, "this gives the coaches and the Touchdown Club some help."