Michael Estrada

Soft Songs of Rough Upbringings

MMA Fighter The Life of a Local MMA Fighter

By Michael Estrada

Envision yourself at the start of your day. Ignoring your phone, brushing your teeth, washing your face. Making your way to the yoga mat you laid out the night before to spend the fi rst 10 minutes of your day connecting your mind and body, being in tune with your emotions, with yourself. You might be surprised to fi nd that such a peaceful start to the day is how someone prepares for the demanding world of mixed martial arts (MMA).

This is the routine of a Cal Poly Humboldt student Paige Marie Cato.

Growing up in Yuba City, California, her life wasn’t easy. She was confronted with hardships at a very young age. Both of her biological parents were alcoholics and her father left the family following her mother’s drug use. At just seven years old, Cato was fi guring out how to raise herself in an environment where she was neglected.

“I had a really unhealthy lifestyle,” Cato said. “I wasn’t going to school, I was taking care of my mom. Between seven and 10, it was just really bad years that I pushed away because they were pretty painful to go through.”

At the age of 10, her grandparents, Steve and Jackie Cato, obtained guardianship of her. Both of her grandparents were involved in the education system. Steve was a professor of Mass Communications and a Dean at Yuba City College. Jackie was a high school AP Spanish teacher at Yuba City High School.

They attempted to stay in Yuba City, but after multiple instances of her mother attempting to retrieve Cato and having social services involved, they made the decision to retire to their vacation home in Dillon Beach, which Cato describes as an off -thegrid beach town.

“It was a very hippie household, they’re all about the yoga and the meditation, and that’s a huge part of me and my life,” Cato said.

She found it diffi cult at fi rst, living with grandparents from a much older generation, but was able to connect with them in unique ways. With her grandpa it was sports, specifi cally basketball. She enjoyed it, and later impressed her high school coach enough to earn herself a spot on the varsity team as a freshman. Cato saw how happy it made him and found it was a way for them to connect.

“I remember having to shoot 100 free throws every night before dinner,” Cato said. “I got good, and that was really cool for me.”

In contrast to sports, she connected with her nana through the arts, and through a love of music. She describes her grandmother as the most beautiful pianist she has ever seen.

Cato fi rst jumped on the keys herself at just three, and at age six her grandparents gave her a keyboard of her own, which she remembers as the only thing that made her happy when only thing that made her happy when living with her biological mother. “I had a little keyboard in my room, in our janky ass apartment in the ghetto of Yuba City. People would be coming in and out and I would just lock myself in my room so people couldn’t come in and I would just be playing music. I didn’t know how to read music, I didn’t know chords, I just heard. I heard everything and I felt what sounded right. I love to write, and I would just write out what I was feeling and then I would hum and start putting it all together,” said Cato.

Paige Cato working on her striking with her Muay Thai coach Schlomo Guetta.

While MMA is something that she shares with the world, her music has become something that is truly hers. Something that she creates or changes at her own desire.

While life in Dillon Beach was an improvement, it still wasn’t without its problems. It was a very small town where everyone grew up together, and being the new kid in an environment like that presented its own challenges.

She still has some good friends from the town, but she was also bullied by other girls in school. After middle school, both Cato and her grandparents weren’t too keen on her going to high school in Dillon Beach. That’s when she got an off er to stay with someone who would become one of her biggest infl uences in MMA, her Uncle Jeff Cato. Jeff , who she considers more of an older brother, was living in Orange County. She had visited before during summers and had a fondness for Southern California.

“I felt instantly at home... I remember I looked to the left and women were kickboxing and sparring.”

Jeff would be watching UFC and it was around this time that Ronda Rousey and women’s role in MMA were really taking off , and Cato thought her jiu-jitsu and judo were really cool. When Jeff off ered to take her to the local UFC gym, she went. As soon as she walked in, she got chills. “I felt instantly at home,” Cato recalled. “I remember I looked to the left and women were kickboxing and sparring. On the other side, there was a kid’s jiu-jitsu class and I just thought, ‘this is so cool.’” “ She fell so in love with jiu-jitsu that she ended up quitting the basketball team to train and compete, which wasn’t the easiest thing to explain to her grandparents. That led to her meeting Jane Teixeira, who Cato considers her adopted mother.

“She became a huge mother fi gure in my life, someone I really clicked with,” Cato said. Teixeira mentored other kids at the UFC gym and would later become a huge reason that Cato moved up to Humboldt County. After graduating from high school and while she was attending community college, Cato found herself wanting and needing to get out of Orange County. This led to a move to New Mexico on her own to study Ayurveda, a holistic form of alternative medicine with roots in the Indian subcontinent.

While living there, the COVID-19 pandemic started and she found herself unable to keep her apartment. At 20 years old she didn’t want to move back with her grandparents, but Teixeira was living in Humboldt and asked Cato to come live with her since her schooling had transitioned fully online. Once again, Paige packed up her things and moved her life to a new place. Now, Cato is a Cal Poly Humboldt student studying Kinesiology. While at the Club for Fitness in McKinleyville she was talking with Teixeira about how she wanted to check out the Institute of Combat, when someone happened to overhear

her. That person was Ross Lopez, a fi ghter from Lost Boys MMA in Arcata. He invited her to come train with them. That was the start of Cato becoming a member of their MMA team. After her most recent fi ght at the Bear River Casino, she owns a record of one win and one loss.

At the same time, she is pursuing her passion in education. Cato hopes to teach health and physical education after earning her bachelor’s degree. “Seeing that degree, having that teaching credential is huge and so important in my life. I want to empower young females,” Cato said. She recalls her fourth-grade teacher bringing her breakfast and lunch and helping her fi nish her homework after school as being a huge infl uence on her pursuit of that goal. “Just being a good infl uence on kids and showing them what they can become in their life, that’s something I had which I was so grateful for, and it didn’t come from my family life,” Cato said.

Pursuing either education or sports are tall enough tasks alone, and if you’re wondering why anyone would pursue the additional challenge of getting in the cage at the same time, Cato’s answer is well put. “It just makes me so happy,” Cato said, “There are things in your life that just make you a better person, and the journey of mixed martial arts is so fulfi lling.”

Seeing that degree, having that teaching credential is huge and so important in my life. I want to empower ”young females.

Paige Cato goes for an arm bar submission while training with various members at the Lost Boys Gym.

Coffee Spots for Caffeine Fiends

Top 5 cafes in Arcata that you should try. We compared the price of a regular coffee and a vanilla latte, the walking distance from Cal Poly Humboldt, and the overall atmosphere.

Regular Coffee Vanilla Latte

Northtown Coffee Northtown Coffee has a cozy yet lively atmosphere. The cafe itself was very quaint and had good music playing. Northtown Coffee is open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. all week.

$2.75 $6.00

It also has a wide array of food options like breakfast burritos. It is only a six minute walk or a two minute drive from campus.

Cafe Brio Cafe Mokka

$2.00 $4.00

In terms of food, the cafe has pastries and chocolates. It is about a 20-minute walk from campus or a four minute drive.

Familia Coffee Roasters

Cafe Brio is located in the Arcata Plaza. It offers indoor and outdoor seating and is open everyday from 8 a.m. - 3

p.m.

$3.00 $5.10

This cafe also has a wide variety of meal options and quite an impressive pastry selection. They also have a student discount. Cafe Brio is a 12-minute walk and five minute drive from campus. Not only does it serve coffee, Cafe Mokka is also a Finnishthemed cafe that has hot tubs and saunas. The cafe ’ s interior is a cozy Finnish style that has a warm ambiance. The cafe is conveniently open from 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Sun. Thurs. and 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Fri. Sat. They only accept cash.

Cafe Phoenix

Cafe Phoenix is a serene cafe that has a beautiful outdoor seating area with a garden that is tranquil. They ’ re open from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Tues. -Sat.

$2.50 $5.00

It is another conveniently located cafe, only a six minute walk from campus or a three minute drive. Familia Coffee is a great option if you are looking to get a drink to go because it

doesn 't have a dine-in option. It is bright, open and has a decent amount of meal options. It' s open from Mon. Sat. 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and Sun, from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

$3.00 $5.00

Familia Cafe is about a four minute drive from campus or an 18-minute walk.