Georgia Qualifier

I've been enjoying my experience as an official for Taekwondo. My mentor Master Balon encouraged me for so long to have this kind of experience and finally a few years ago, when he was still a Clinic Coordinator, certified me and I officiated for the first time at his tournament in 2013 and I officiated one other tournament that year. The following year I upgraded an AAU tournament and had the opportunity to run a ring at another tournament, officiate in Queens and New Jersey again, and then officiated three days at the AAU Nationals for the first time which was a blast!

Over the year I also got experience officiating at other tournaments I was able to attend outside the AAU, representing what the AAU has taught me and have met a lieu of other new faces that I ended up having a great time with. When I was in Georgia last year at the end of the summer I even got the chance to help out officiating one of the local tournaments down there which was pretty cool.

At the beginning of March, I had the pleasure of traveling down south once again to my dear friends in Georgia. It was quite the adventure getting down there (a later blog), but I would not have missed being down there for them for the world. It's what you do for family. I've also never been to other AAU tournaments outside by region really and I plan on traveling and broadening my horizons even more next year.

What was really great was that it was like being at nationals all over again. The Tennessee crew were there and welcomed me with open arms, the Florida crew was present, the Chief Referee from Missouri was there who EVERYONE knows, the North Carolina people greeted me with big hugs, and other than me was Master Hasan from New York from the north! They think we talk funny, but they just don't know better yet LOL!

Me with a few familiar faces from nationals!

Master Stone is the Georgia District Director and Regional Director. He ran a fantastic tournament. He had 300 competitors, over 120 were Black Belts! That's a HUGE margin for the Black Belt divisions and I was utterly impressed by the quality of these Black Belts that came out to compete. Certain rings ran with the electronic hogus of KP&P for the Black Belts, and other rings ran Olympic Sparring for color belts. There was also forms divisions being run, and designated rings for other events that will be at the AAU Junior Olympics like padded weapon sparring and board breaking. Then of course was Point Sparring and even a division of Team Point Sparring.

The tournament ran very nicely and with all those events and all the divisions, with six rings, I believe the tournament ended at a great time of 5:30 or 6:00. Organized and timely without losing quality. Beautifully done. There was no lack of officials who showed up to help. Although we all helped run the rings and officiate the tournament, we are also all martial artists and had plenty of time to talk and collaborate about martial arts.

It always amazes me to see and learn how other people from across our nation train and interpret and instruct their martial arts. And these guys are absolutely awesome. I got to see Master Dave Turnball of Florida work with his students, Master Hooper from Tennessee is very smart and very sharp, I always have fun with the Georgia crew. My first nationals ever I worked with Kelley Hardy and it was great to be on the floor with her again. And of course one of Master Stone's senior students Miss Wendy Heath was on her game that day as well.

Miss Stacey Stone and I at the Georgia Qualifier. 

Master Debbie Hooper of Southeastern District. 

But something I haven't stop hearing from ALL my friends from down south was this: "You HAVE to meet Master Kathy!" That's all I've heard! For eight months! You gotta meet her! You gotta meet her! Well FINALLY I had the honor and privilege to meet in person Master Katherine Wieczerza from Tennessee! This is Master Stone's instructor, but she is ALL of the southern master's instructor apparently.

She is a phenomenal martial artist, and one I want to do one of my specials on. She is not only a brilliant Taekwondo and Tang Soo Do practitioner but also director for the Gojo Shorei system. Once again, the tremendous loyalty all these other phenomenal masters and their following had for this woman was a great comfort to see. And no, it wasn't just southern hospitality. These people truly are loyal and respect her for the stature she holds in their lives. It was beautiful to see.

But I also see why everyone wanted us to meet. I would listen to her speak and everything resonated with me, I understood all her references, and sometimes I would chuckle because it was as if I were hearing myself speak. One time I was having a conversation and she was standing behind me and I had to stop because I realized we were having the exact same conversation saying just about all the same things. I guess I felt validated in the sense that if Master Kathy were saying it,  must be saying something right! LOL!

My time in Georgia is always a pleasure. This trip in particular was cut short due to circumstances out of my control. But I will be back. But my goal next year is help out all my other southern friends if I can. So far I've done my little by little each year I say I am. But it did make me look forward to nationals this year. And this year I'll have my own team getting to compete again and it'll be a nice meeting of the two worlds. Congratulations Master Stone on a job well done! (BOWS)

Master Kathy and I in Georgia.

Yours in service,
MASTER A TRENTO