Karate Team Scores Big at Nationals
Six members of the U S A Martial Arts Training Center in Weston traveled to Pittsburgh ,PA to compete in the U S A National Karate Do Competitions. The six members team joined around 35 other W V team members for the 4 day event. Over 31 medals were captured by these outstanding West Virginian.
Team members qualified in early February and have put in many extra hour of training in preparation for this elite competition. Our six local members clocked extra hours under direct instruction of head coach and senior instructor Marcus Strader even traveling to train with other participants at special workouts scheduled at our Head Dojo in St. Albans, WV.
The team competed in three categories ; 1.Weapons- demonstration of a student’s skill with short and long Japanese weapons, including Iaido or the quick draw of the Samurai Sword. 2. Forms- demonstration of their Karate skills through set patterns of self-defense moves. 3. Fighting- controlled contact matched between two competitors for points.
Returning from competition, Ethan Galicic placed 1st in the Nation in Iaido, 3rd in short weapons, and 3rd in fighting. Savannah Galicic placed 1st in the Nation in Iaido and 3rd in long weapons. Kaitlyn Strader placed 3rd in the Nation in short weapons and Ryan Hamner placed 2nd in the Nation in long weapon. Kobe Strader and Cole Murphy both turned in outstanding performances but finished just short of medaling. “We are a team and if we win one medal we all win.” stated William King the owner of The U S A Martial Arts Training Center in Weston. The team would like to thank their community for all their kind donations to their cause. Special thanks to Shop-N-Save (Weston)and WalMart (Upshur). For information about training with these talented Karate athletes call 304-871-5046.