Hicks is all grown up at Kumite Classic
Date: 11-06-2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamUnited States |
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Many people consider martial arts to be far more than a sport - it's a way of life, a choice made as to the type of person you want to be. For those who begin martial arts as children, the martial arts becomes so much a part of their life, that it is hard to differentiate between their martial arts family and their biological family. And because of this connection between the martial arts and a person's life choices, it is always incredible to watch people who started as young children in the martial arts grow up to become strong and successful adults. When SportMartialArts.com first started covering Willie Hicks of Michigan in 2000 at the website's inaugural event, the Cheesehead Nationals in Wisconsin, Hicks was tearing it up in the 14-15 boys' sparring division and was definitely chomping at the bit to get his chance in the adult divisions. As a youth competitor, Hicks was one of the most terrifying for most of his opponents due to his hard hits and willingness to throw just about anything (with much of it connecting). It would be a few more years before he would get his chance in the adult divisions and a few ups and downs as he disappeared from the circuit for a short while, appearing only sporadically, and then returning as a superlight weight adult in 2007.
The 2007 Kumite Internationals, held May 25-26, 2007 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, was Hicks' moment in the spotlight this year as he made the full transition from youth to adult by winning the men's sparring grand championship. With his proud instructor Richard Plowden in the coach's box, Hicks defeated the formidable Trevor Nash with a 6-4 score to win his first national title. In the earlier semi-final rounds, Nash had successfully defeated Jason Tankson-Bourelly in a nail biter match that ended 4-2. Hicks advanced after defeating another youthful competitor - Max Tcherner - and then put on a fantastic show with Robbie Lavoie in their first time ever fighting each other. When the dust finally settled, a proud Hicks bowed to the crowd and received his recognition - and grew up right before our very eyes!
The road to the finals included a lot of action besides Hicks' spectacular win. During the Friday night competition, the always creative Jeremy Elliott brought a new self-defense routine to the stage as he performed his routine solo - that's right, no uke's in sight. Dressed as a mime, Elliott proceeded to beat himself up on stage. However, it was the Wolverine impression of Dean Pyles that took the top honors. In the breaking competition, Doug Armstrong of North Carolina broke out of retirement to break a whole lot of boards and bricks and earned the win. Almost the entire K.I.C.K. Team made the trip from Georgia to put on some great performances. They were a bit wide-eyed and dumbfounded by the different rules found on the NBL circuit, but they soon adapted with Caitlin Mosley getting on stage for musical forms and a newly healed Johnny Liscar winning his creative form division.
You can always count on NBL continuous sparring to add some excitement to the day. CJ Corbin started out the evening as another example of youth becoming highly competitive adults with his win the men's middleweight division, defeating Eli Quenzel for the title. The antics of Zack Burns made the middleweight division quite interesting to watch with Burns taking a narrow 29-28 win for the third place position with his opponent Brett Shumway nearly winning just based on penalty points awarded to him for Burns' transgressions.
Seven teams showed up to fight for the team sparring title. Team GOP came with it's double line up of CJ Corbin, Chris Gallio and Bryan Young in one group and the new international arrangement of Luis Jimenez, Jonathan Garcia and Edgar Cordova. Only two teams could go to stage and this time it was the homegrown trio of Trevor Nash, Shane Baker and Richard Steckham from Team United of Canada facing the hodgepodge Straight Up team of Joey Greenhalgh, Jerrell Dawson and Robbie Lavoie.
Andre Parrott of Team Langley in Texas is a quiet and polite young man but put the boy in some sparring gear and he turns into a terror. Parrott started out the weekend by getting disqualified in his continuous sparring division when he drew blood from his opponent Connor Welsh. Parrott then moved over to the boys' team sparring ring where he landed a jump spinning kick on Frankie Fernandez that nearly knocked Fernandez out. Team Langley wasn't able to take the team title but Parrott was finally able to bring home one first place trophy when he defeated all challengers in the 14-15 boys point sparring division on Saturday.
Willie Hicks, CJ Corbin and Max Tcherner are all former kid karate stars who are now doing great in the adult divisions. From the forms and weapons side, add Daniel Pitlock, Lauren Ferguson and Cody Hackman to the list. All did quite well in their divisions and can be expected to continue to make the adult divisions exciting. The future of the sport was running hither and fro at the Kumite Classic as a lot of talented youngsters from South Carolina's Team Strike Force put on their performances. Seth Boyette, Jared Pressley, Gene Middleton and a new face, Alex Pye, all flipped and kicked through the creative forms and weapons divisions. There were Strike Force uniforms in nearly every awards line-up throughout the weekend of competition.
Finals
The Kumite Classic is more than just a martial arts tournament. It is part of a complete fitness show with fitness and bodybuilding pagents, fitness contests, boxing, grappling and tons of extra events. The event arena was teeming with action throughout both days of the event. But, when the Saturday eliminations were over, the place was cleared out and it was all karate action for the rest of the evening. The night started out with a live performance by a band on stage accompanied by martial arts performances by Nick Bateman, Johnny Liscar, Cody Hackman and Rommel Gargoles of Shawked. The crowd was pretty riled up at this point and it was time to get them cheering for the contemporary forms performances.
For the juniors, Joseph Pruiett, Caitlin Mosley, Alex Pye and Sage Northcutt got their chance to entertain the crowd with their choreographed musical performances. After her performance, Mosley was in the lead but four judges had their eye on little Sage Northcutt as he took another grand championship - giving him coast to coast titles in 2007. The adult competition started with the shirtless soft-style performance of Rommel Gargoles. Ashley Artese and Daniel Pitlock were up next with exciting routines but the 18 inch biceps of Gargoles, the kicks of Artese and the crazy twists of Pitlock were not enough to toppled the mesmerizing presence of Jason Tankson-Bourelly as Tankson-Bourelly won the adult contemporary forms grand championship.
Daniel Pitlock finally got some recognition as he won the adult contemporary weapons grand championship with his extreme bo routine. His challenger Joey Greenhalgh suffered a slip of the bo while Rommel Gargoles' whip chain wasn't enough to defeat Pitlock. Little Seth Boyette and big Josh Bailey couldn't topple the curls of Jordan Simon as Simon's 'Welcome to the Jungle' bo routine won the grand champion honors.
There were some new faces on stage in the youth and adult traditional forms and weapons competition. Justin Lanteigne and Corey Black train together and their Japanese performances were full of intensity. Lanteigne blew away schoolmate Black and his other challenger Sage Northcutt with his focus and fervor. Little Kevin Houser wasn't about to go home empty handed after his success at the Pacific Jewel Nationals. His Korean performance and nearly vertical kicks took the youth Korean grand championship from Darius Bean and Nicole Provost. In the adult competition, Javik Grach also has nearly vertical kicks in his Korean performance while Ashley Artese has a strong Japanese form. Joey Castro is all traditional as he seems to connect with the spirit of the old masters in his Japanese routine. Upon its completion, it was clear that Castro would take home the grand champion title for the Kumite Classic.
The NBL National events always provide a pre-cursor to the adult fighting matches with junior continuous sparring. At the Kumite Classic, the juniors were especially enthusiastic which resulted in two disqualifications out of the six matches. Alison Viola managed to bloody the nose of Crystal Penny in the second round of their match and Penny was awarded the win. Little Andrea Tyrrell and Ethan Martin were so tiny we almost couldn't zoom the camera in enough to see them. The energy diplayed in this featherweight combat was amazing and wild. Tyrrell managed to take the lead in the second half and win. Kevin Houser took his second on-stage award with a win over Gene Middleton. The second disqualification of the evening gave Corey Kellum a win over Sage Northcutt as the center referee felt that Northcutt's attack was too bloodthirsty. Sarah Johnson kept her cool and kicked herself to a win against Christopher Wilkins while Kyle Petrosky lost to Miguel Soto by a mere two points in their round.
With the crowd wound up from the youth continuous sparring, everyone was ready for the adults to get underway. Men's team fighting matched Team United against Team Straight Up. What makes Team United such a unique three-some is that they are a true school team. Richard Steckham and Shane Baker, the two younger fighters, are both students of the third fighter, Trevor Nash. Nash has done such a great job of training his students that he is able to team up and fight with them to great success. His students then get the advantage of being coached by their instructor and teammate. The Straight Up team was a mix from Team All Stars (Robbie Lavoie), Team Victory (Jerrell Dawson) and Team Paul Mitchell (Joey Greenhalgh). Steckham, in his first year as an adult, faced Lavoie and kept the score tight with Lavoie winning by only one point. In the second match, Dawson held his own, allowing Baker to gain back that one point and sending the match into the third round with a 7-7 tie. Nash's legs were everywhere as he kept Greenhalgh at bay and scored repeatedly to end the final round with a 6-2 score and the win for Team United.
Jason Tankson-Bourelly and Joey Castro each had another bite at the apple with the traditional kumite finals. This division is full-out traditional fighting with no head gear, light pads on hands and no pads necessary on your feet. Points are only awarded for solid and hard devastating blows. The daytime eliminations for this division were full of the sounds of people getting kicked and punched really, really hard. Bourelly and Castro lined up ready to go at it. Bourelly nailed Castro with a side kick that took Castro's wind early in the match. Castro was down 6-2 as time was running out and almost made a comeback with a takedown but it was not clean enough to get a point. Castro then took a shot to the face with a hard Bourelly round kick that rocked him and earned Bourelly three points and sealed his win.
In the women's grand championship, Ohio's Renee Slapnicker first faced Virginia's Mercy Tom. Tom was valient but Slapnicker's blitzes gave her the win and moved her into the grand championship round against Sonja Kujamin of Canada. The fight with Tom was only a warm-up for Slapnicker of Team Five Knuckle Bullet as Kujamin fell victim to the attack and Slapnicker ended with an 8-3 victory and the title.
The final event of the evening was the men's sparring grand championship where Willie Hicks came out on top. With all the competition completed, it was time for celebration and oh, what a party it was. Kumite Classic showed that the kids are alright and they are here to stay - watch them make this sport even more exciting.
Special mention goes out to Gene Middleton for finding the best strawberry smoothie and even getting the color of the umbrella right! And Joseph Pruiett will be holding a scorekeeping clinic for anyone interested - we discovered that the kid's got lots of scorekeeping talent!
