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Cocoa Beach Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate Dojo |
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Greeting from Cocoa Beach, Florida.
We continue to train hard, and have added another class to our schedule–Tuesday 6.30pm at our Cocoa Beach Health & Fitness location, supplementing the 6pm Friday class there. In addition, we have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6pm at our Cocoa Beach Recreation Center location. Arigato to our Chief Instructor, Sensei Tom DuJardin, San-Dan, for conducting the Monday class and to Instructor Sempai Joe Motro, Sho-Dan, for assisting with instructing.
We kicked off 2009 by hosting a workout led by Hanshi and Kyoshi Seeger on Friday evening February 6th and attended by visiting black belts and deshi from our sister schools in Florida. We had close to 60 deshi attending and it set the tone for the great weekend of karate training, including black belt testing, Kobudu weapons training, and beach workouts.
During the last weekend in February, over 40 deshi showed up at the Ueshiro Cocoa Beach Karate Dojo, with 21 testing at our bi-annual kyu rank testing. Students from the Merritt Island location also participated in the testing along with visiting deshi from the Cocoa YMCA and Titusville locations.
Arigato to all the black belts who showed up to assist with the judging. Leading the white belt board was Sensei Kurt Tezel, San-Dan, Shihan Merritt Island and Titusville locations, assisted by Sempai Trevor Tezel Shodan, instructor at Titusville YMCA, and Sempai DJ Johnson, Shodan, Instructor at Cocoa YMCA. The other judges included Sensei Tom DuJardin, San-Dan, Chief Instructor at Cocoa Beach, Sempai Carla Eddy, Ni-Dan, Instructor at Cocoa YMCA, and Sempai Joe Motro, Shodan, Instructor at Cocoa Beach. Arigato also to all those deshi who were not testing but showed up to participate in the workout and show support: Brown belts: Kathleen Lemiure, Ik-kyu, Cocoa YMCA; Michael Adams, Ni-kyu; Steve Turner, Ni-kyu; Kevin Tezel, Ni-kyu, Merritt Island; Joshua Adams Ni-kyu; Wade Phillips, Ni-kyu; and Jean Chipman, Ni-kyu.
San-kyu, visiting from Cocoa YMCA, showing great spirit: Narcissa Lora; Dakota Lora; Taran Birdsall; Saxon Birdsall. San-kyu visiting from Viera: Gannon Avery. Congratulations to the following twenty-one deshi who tested and were promoted:
As always, we thank Hanshi Scaglione for his tireless leadership and support of Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu worldwide, and particularly here in Central Florida where Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu is becoming one of the dominant styles of karate. This February we had over 70 students from Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Schools in Central Florida who tested and were promoted! This includes students from: Viera (Hanshi’s Dojo); Suntree (Sensei Tamir, Shihan); Cocoa (Sensei Marchetti, Shihan), Orlando Poinciana (Sensei Aleman, Shihan); Merritt Island (Sensei Tezel, Shihan), as well as our dojo here in Cocoa Beach. Since the new school in Titusville is only weeks old, there were no students testing yet, but in August there will no doubt be a strong showing from this new school, led by Sensei Tezel, Shihan. The growth in Ueshiro SRKUSA here is primarily due to the leadership and support of Hanshi Scaglione who inspires us all to “keep moving forward”. Arigato Hanshi! To this end, we have recently been contacted by the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Martial Arts Fundraising department to conduct a fundraiser for the research and treatment of childhood cancer. We are planning to do a katathon, as well as a self defense class for visitors, with all proceeds going to St Jude’s. The event, planned for May, offers us a chance to kick our training up a notch to get in shape for the target of 100 kata, as well as to be of service to the community and to get some promotion for our school. St. Jude’s provides posters, sponsor sheets, sample press releases etc. Any other deshi and/or schools interested in participating in this, or their own event, are invited to contact me for more information.
Arigato Goziamasu, -Sensei Des Chaskelson |
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