Competitors from Georgia, Florida, Virginia, North and South Carolina attend the Southern Classic held at the Gilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. The tournament, a two day event, was hosted by Ron and Sharon Ferguson and was the first tournament of the NBL Blue Ridge Conference and the fourth tournament for the 2006 season in MATT.

On hand were some top notch judges including as Dewey Earwood, Johnny Watkins, David Riddle, Erica Smith, Kenny Green, Tim Miller, Corky Sikes, Don Scarborough, Carrie Goldbeck, Robert Pendelton, Josh Page and Joey Shiflett to name a few. .

Friday night started off with adult traditional self defense. Dean Pyles with a score of 29.92 bested Jimmy Thorton’s score of 29.90 for the win while Dean’s daughter Alexandra won the 17 and under under belt division.

A new adult sparring team has formed as of the beginning of 2006. Team B.O.S.S. dominated the point and continuous sparring divisions at this year’s Southern Classic. Some of the team members are Joey Shilett, Tim Miller, Matt Miller, Daniel Miller, Ryan Freeman, Derek Mota, Elijah Quenzel, David Quenzel and Ashley Young.

In continuous sparring, junior winners included flyweight Corey Kellan 28 to 27 over Alexandra Pyles, Lauren Ferguson of Team FX, 68 to 54 over Sha Powell for the girls’ feather weight, and Crystal Penny 62 to 56 over Tonita Harrison for the girls’ lightweight. Torren Davis held off Chris Urcinola for the boys’ light heavy title. Some of the adult continuous winners included Matt Miller–featherweight, Keith Allison–lightweight, Derek Mota–light middleweight. Elijah Quenzel 48 to 36 over Scott Porter for the middleweight, Daniel Miller 41 to 32 over Scan Stefani for the super heavy and in women’s lightweight Ashley Young was the victor.

In the team sparring, adult men’s Team B.O.S.S. came out ahead of Team FX 16 to 5, while Team SMA won the junior girls’ division 14 to 13 over Team FX.

In the junior creative weapons division, Kristi Corbitt of Georgia’s Team Strike Force kept first out of the hands of fellow teammate Gene Middleton and the rest of the gang for the 11 and under division. Adam Lewis of Virginia’s Team EWO won the 12-14 division over Karate World’s Justin Aranda. Justin Lewis held off a half dozen players for the 15-17 division. Josh Bailey of South Carolina’s Team SMA took first from Justin Lewis and Anthony Council for the 15-17 musical division and Kristi Corbitt was the top finisher in the 17 and under open musical division.

Meanwhile in the adult divisions, Robert LaParde of Team FX took first place honors from Michael Goodwin for the 18 and over hard creative division. Goodwin won the soft open weapons division, while Johnny Watkins was the top winner for the senior division.

Torren Davis, with a score of 29.95, bested his nearest opponent Amber Dawson’s score of 29.93 for the 15-17 hard traditional weapons division while Erica Smith showed expertise of her tonfa exercising power and strength to win the 18 and over hard traditional division.

Saturday morning in 10-11 hard creative forms, Gene Middleton took all the marbles from Brice Ferguson and Wayne Easterling. Justin Lewis won the 15-17 boys division. Kristi Corbitt took top honors in 11 and under girls’ hard creative, 29.92 to 29.89 over Ceairea Carbo. Taylor Pruitt of Team Strike Force with a score of 29.93 bested Shanna Young’s score of 29.89 for the win in 12-14 girls’ hard creative, while Lauren Ferguson won the 15-17 girls’ division. Mark Qugh was top of the class in senior hard creative.

Traditional forms winners included, Gene Middleton, Taylor Pruitt and Torren Davis. Gene Middleton was best of the best in 11 and under Korean. While Justin Aranda and Lauren Ferguson aced everyone for the older divisional wins.

In the adult division’s winners included Josh Page taking the Japanese division, Bradley Crotts winning the Korean division, Carrie Goldbeck eking out a win in the women’s Korean division while Erica Smith took the women’s Japanese division.

The final rounds of the day offered point sparring. Matthew McKenna of Team SMA squeezed by Corey Kellam 5 to 4 for the 9 and under division. Austin Capps slipped by Brice Ferguson 6 to 4 for the 10-11 win, Ben Ferguson won 6 to 4 over Darryl Norman for the 12-13 boys’ division. Torren Davis held his ground 5 to 4 over Chris Morrison for the 14-15 boys’ division.

In men’s sparring, Joey Shiflett got past Roy Walker 5 to 4 for the lightweight win, Derek Mota and Robert LaPrade won the lightmiddle and lightheavy repectively. Ryan Freeman was a force to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division. Daniel Miller kept up his winning ways to best Scan Stefani and Robert Pendelton for the super heavy, JeffMcCurry from South Carolina’s Team Knight topped Jeff Blake 7 to 3 for the senior heavyweight, while Joey Shiflet won the 45 and over division.

Ron and Sharon Ferguson would like to thank everyone that supported their event.