was born in Mãe Luzia, a small rural region in the interior of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 1956. He was the middle child of nine, and since his parents, Thelma Spritze and Horizonte Venzon, struggled to provide the best conditions for their family, he started working informally at 9 years old. By the age of 12, the family moved to Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul state, motivated by the possibilities discovered by his older sister. He was the first (of two) of his nuclear family to attend a university, and he graduated from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul with a degree in Physical Education in 1981. Pursuing his goal to work with professional soccer, he started as physical trainer at Sport Club Internacional; in his career, Hércules won regional and national championships, accumulating passages also as assistant coach in teams such as Cruzeiro Esporte Clube and Clube Atlético Mineiro, while conciliating a tenured position as a civilian physical teacher in a military school. His focus on promoting the idea that physical training exercises have to integrate at the same time technical, tactical and psychological values resulted in a book published in 1988. Years later, in 2013, he became a Master in Language, Discourse and Society from Unirriter with a dissertation that explored soccer matches as a non-verbal language, therefore demanding a reading and interpretation of its concepts, meanings and signifiers. Hércules retired from the fields in 2010 and from Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre in 2018, after 34 years teaching and competing in amateur juvenile championships. Although he spent a great time abroad, he always cherished the love for his family. Today, he lives in Porto Alegre with Ros Mari, his spouse and the mother of his two daughters, Graziela and Elisa.
