In 1976, Mastro was the first blind person to become an alternate to the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team. Mastro later switched his sports focus to judo, a martial art. At Bemidji State, Mastro teaches classes in education methods, human relations and adaptive physical education. There are parts of the campus they can't get to. There are places that the only way you can get to them is to use an elevator in the kitchen.
Students learn something about empathy.
To finance his trip to the Paralympics in October, Mastro has been doing some fund- raising. In one event, people pledged a certain amount of money for every bench press he could do. With his colleagues in the education department acting as cheerleaders, Mastro managed 1,300 bench presses in 15 minutes.