USA Judo CEO Congratulates World Team Members & Shares Other News!

As we all head back home from this highly successful Senior National Championships in Myrtle Beach, i would like to congratulate all athletes who participated in these National Championships.

 

I would like to especially congratulate the young men and women who fought so well to earn the rights to represent United States in these up coming World Championships in the birth place of judo – Japan.

 

We are so very proud of the fact, that these same young athletes were the same ones which were selected a few years ago by USA Judo Director of Athlete Performance Ed Liddie and Coach Jimmy Pedro to be a part of the innovative U23 Program.

 

It is indeed rewarding to see that these young athletes are beginning to bear fruit of the investment that United States Olympic Committee and USA Judo made over the last few years on them. It is obvious to us, and, I hope to our members, that the decision made by our Director of High Performance to engage Jimmy Pedro to lead the development of this group of talented athletes was indeed great, if not brilliant.

 

Congratulations are in order for the following athletes who qualified for the USA Judo 2010 World Championships Team and their respective individual coaches.  The 17 former U23 Team members who qualified for the team are indicated with an asterisk:

 

Women’s 48kg

Katelyn Bouyssou* (Hope, R.I. / NYAC / Mayo Quanchi Judo Club)

Ann Shiraishi* (San Francisco, Calif. / East Bay Judo Institute)

 

Women’s 52kg

Angelica Delgado* (Miami, Fla. / USA Judo National Training Site at South Florida)

Jeanette Rodriguez* (Davie, Fla. / USA Judo National Training Site at South Florida)

 

Women’s 57kg

Marti Malloy* (San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose State University)

Hana Carmichael (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

 

Women’s 63kg

Christal Ransom (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center)

Janine Nakao* (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

 

Women’s 70kg

Ronda Rousey* (Santa Monica, Calif. / NYAC)

Katie Sell* (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center)

 

Women’s 78kg

Kayla Harrison* (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

Kaitlyn McKim (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center)

 

Women’s +78kg

Nina Cutro-Kelly (San Antonio, Texas / Universal Judo)

Toni Geiger (Dumont, N.J. / Tech Judo)

 

Women’s Open

Allison Clifford (San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose State University)

 

Men’s 60kg

Nick Kossor* (Glenville, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center)

Aaron Kunihiro* (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

 

Men’s 66kg

Kenny Hashimoto* (Thornton, Colo. / Northglenn Judo Club)

Brad Bolen (Glenville, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center)

 

Men’s 73kg

Michael Eldred* (Fruitland, Idaho / Western Idaho Judo Institute)

Nick Delpopolo* (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

 

Men’s 81kg

Travis Stevens* (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

Jose Bencosme (San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose State University)

 

Men’s 90kg

Jake Larsen (Lafayette, Colo. / Team FORCE / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center)

Garry St. Leger* (Brooklyn, N.Y. / NYAC / Legrosports Starrett)

 

Men’s 100kg

Kyle Vashkulat (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center)

Shintaro Higashi (Scarsdale, N.Y. / NYAC / Kokushi Budo Institute)

 

Men’s +100kg

Daniel McCormick* (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)

Conor Driscoll (San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose State University)

 

Men’s Open

Anderson Leal (Houston, Texas)

Iavor Kostadinov (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center)

 

No doubt that the USOC financial investment on these athletes is beginning to pay dividends!

 

 

YOUTH OLYMPICS NEWS

 

Another kudo is sort of overdue to our 2010 Youth Olympics Team Coach Serge Bouyssou (Hope, R.I.) for been selected by our Athlete Performance Committee to lead our team in the upcoming ignagural Youth Olympics in Singapore. Serge will be coaching his young talented daughter Katelyn Bouyssou (Hope, R.I. / NYAC / Mayo Quanchi Judo Club), also a member of the Senior World Team, and Max Schneider (Chicago, Ill. / Tohkon)

 

ALL DRAWS TO BE DONE AT COACHES MEETINGS

 

On other news front, I would like to let all coaches know that, at the request of many of you at these Senior Nationals all competition draws will be done during the coaching meeting and with all coaches been present to observe the draw. This will begin at our next national tournament.  We will provide you with more details on how this will work in the weeks to come.

 

BLUE and WHITE GIS FOR JUNIORS

 

Continuing on information for coaches, we want every coach and athlete to know that, beginning with this year’s Junior Olympics and moving forward, junior athletes will be required to have both a white and a blue gi for all of our national junior competitions.  This change was made mainly at the request of coaches, referees and even athletes who did want to continue the practice of having junior athletes remove their hard-earned color belt to put on a lower color belt. With three months to go to the Junior Olympics, this should be ample time for parents to secure the second gi. We hope this will be welcome news to our Junior coaches, athletes and parents, as well as the referees.

 

USJF/USJA JUNIOR NATIONALS POINTS

 

And staying on the junior news, we would like to announce that during the recently completed Board of Directors meeting in Myrtle Beach, it was approved by USA Judo to restore points to this year's combined USJF/USJF Junior National Championships. This prestigious event will now have a five-point value on the USA Judo Junior Elite National Roster.

 

WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

Finally, congratulations to all of the Masters who competed in this year's Nationals in Myrtle Beach. A reminder to all Masters planning to go to the upcoming World Championships in Budapest, you need to contact Alyssa Johnson in our National Office (johnsona@usajudo.us) in order to have USA Judo send in your entries to Worlds. As requested by the organizers and the IJF, all USA registration must come from our USA Judo National office. Please don’t wait and contact Alyssa right away!

 

Thanks to everyone who made these Senior Nationals Championships such a success, and specifically to our referees who continue to give so much to the sport.

 

Best to all!

 

Jose H Rodriguez

CEO

USA Judo

 

 

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