KICKgen School News

Hey everybody! This is Adrian, bringing you a report on what I saw this past weekend at the Pan American Internationals in Miami, FL hosted by Manny Reyes.

I actually made my way down to Miami from my home base of Orlando with someone that everyone knows, Sammy Vasquez! Upon arriving at the tournament hotel, the Miami Mart Airport Hotel & Convention Center, we waited in the lobby for the venue to open. While we were waiting, I was able to meet the double sword wielding phenom - Kalman Csoka, as well as a very enthusiastic Venezuelan Team. Once we got into the tournament venue, I started seeing the familiar faces of top competitors from Teams Paul Mitchell, AKA, Prorank, Straight Up, Full Circle, etc. Many of the competitors were just getting in at around the same time and started warming up to get ready for their divisions.

Friday night’s excitement peaked in the younger divisions with nerves, pressure and an air of excitement. The quality of competition showed in the performances of the competitors, but true sportsmanship (what we all love) was seen when competitors cheered each other up with hugs and high fives.

As the day winded down, competitors and spectators made their way back to their hotel rooms to rest up for the following day's events. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Sammy Vasquez and Danny Graham, learning some of the history behind numerous events as well as the evolution of today's competitors.

Saturday brought another day of competition that lead up to the night time show. The show started off with a couple self-defense demonstrations, which lead up to the 13 and under forms competition that pitted David Pedland (traditional), Austin Crane (extreme), Mackensi Emory (extreme) and Tiffany Larsen (traditional) up against each other. David and Tiffany's traditional forms were very intense while Austin and Mackensi went on to show their phenomenal acrobatics. Judging must have been tough, but Austin Crane came up on top.

Next to go on stage was the 14-17yr old forms, where Jennifer Espina, Gio Gonzales, Joshua Quartin and Becca Ross. Jennifer and Gio both performed traditional forms while Joshua and Becca performed extreme forms. Now, while the extreme forms won over the judges in the younger division, Gio Gonzales' shirtless traditional form was the victor.

13 and under weapons were next with Mackensi Emory beating out Ricky Morris, Sammy Sudith and Cole Eckert with her extreme weapons form. In the 14-17 division, Becca Ross prevailed with her extreme bo form even though there was stiff competition with Josh Quartin and Audrey Donahoe's sword forms and Gio Gonzales' bo form.

After all of the excitement from the forms and weapons, the night show took a change of course with team and individual sparring, with the highlight being Team USA vs. Team Venezuela. In the individual sparring division, there were some issues with judging/refereeing over points which led to the disqualification of one of the competitors. After that little scuffle, the fighting continued in a different way with a grappling match between Freddy Trillo and Juan Ramos. Then came the continuous fighting event where tournament promoter Manny Reyes Sr.'s son, Manny Reyes Jr. battling it out with Paulo Craman of Team Inferno MMA, with Reyes winning.

Shortly a break, the show came back with the seniors, where some of the competitors showed that they could keep up with some of the younger athletes with their forms and weapons. The main highlight though came with the event I was looking most forward to, the 18 and up divisions. All of the competitors wowed the audiences with their high flying acrobatics and complex weapons forms. In the end, it was Sammy Vasquez who took the forms title and Kalman Csoka's double sword form winning the weapons division.

In the end, the tournament was enjoyable to watch during the two days, just seeing how everyone's forms were changing and what new tricks were being thought up was exciting. Another thing that I enjoyed was being able to meet and interact with some of the competitors and their parents/coaches, because they are the people that make KICKgen what it is and their support is what keeps us doing what we do and make us look forward to come out to the tournaments and spread the word on how everyone is doing.

So, if you've got a tournament coming up and are interested in getting in contact with KICKgen about doing a possible KICKgen LIVE! Broadcast of the event or would just like know more about us, KICK an email to me at the email address below. Thanks!

Adrian Tunaya

Buzz Director

adrian@kickgen.com