formidable Trevor Nash with a 6-4 score to win his first national sparring grandchampionship. In the earlier semi-final rounds, Nash had successfully defeated Jason Tankson-Bourelly in a nail biter match that ended 4-2. Hicks, who hails from Michigan, advanced after defeating another youthful competitor, Max Tcherner of Canada, and then put on a fantastic show with Robbie Lavoie in their first time ever fight with each other. When the dust finally settled, a proud Hicks bowed to the crowd and received his recognition.

The Kumite Classic, a vision of Bill Viola III, is more than just a martial arts tournament. It is part of a complete fitness show with bodybuilding pageants, fitness contests, boxing, grappling, an expo of nearly 100 vendors and a ton of other events. The venue was teeming with action throughout both days of the event. But, when the Saturday eliminations were over, the facility was cleared and it was all sport karate action for the rest of the evening. The night started out with a live performance by a band on stage accompanied by martial arts performances by Nick Bateman, Johnny Liscar, Cody Hackman and Rommel Gargoles comprising “Shawked”. This excitement set the pace for the contemporary forms performances.

In the junior department Joseph Pruiett, Caitlin Mosley, Alex Pye and Sage Northcutt got their chance to entertain the crowd with their choreographed musical performances. After her performance, Mosley was in the lead, but four judges gave their nod to little Sage Northcutt who was up last and ultimately took another grand championship giving him coast to coast titles so far in 2007.

The adult competition started with the shirtless soft-style performance of Rommel Gargoles. Ashley Artese and Daniel Pitlock were up next with exciting routines but the 18 inch biceps of Gargoles, the kicks of Artese and the crazy twists of Pitlock were not enough to topple the mesmerizing performance of Jason Tankson-Bourelly as he won the adult contemporary forms grand championship. Daniel Pitlock got recognition however as he won the adult contemporary weapons grand championship with his extreme bo routine. His challenger Joey Greenhalgh suffered a slip with his weapon while Rommel Gargoles' whip chain wasn't enough as well to defeat Pitlock. Little Seth Boyette and big Josh Bailey couldn't topple the curly haired Jordan Simon as his 'Welcome to the Jungle' bo routine won the grand champion honors to bring back to California.

Traditional Forms
There were some new faces on stage in the youth and adult traditional forms and weapons competition. Justin Lanteigne and Corey Black train together under Don Benoit in Sudbury, Canada which appears on the map to be closer to the North Pole than Pittsburgh. Their Japanese performances were full of intensity. Lanteigne blew away schoolmate Black and his other challenger Sage Northcutt with his focus and fervor. Little Kevin Houser of New Jersey wasn't about to go home empty handed adding to his success at the Salt City Internationals. His Korean performance and nearly vertical kicks took the youth Korean grand championship from Darius Bean of Maryland and Nicole Provost of the highly touted K.I.C.K. Team.

In the adult competition, long time no see Javik Grach of Illinois also had nearly vertical kicks in his Korean performance while Ashley Artese had a strong Japanese form. Joey Castro was all traditional as he seemed to connect with the spirit of the old masters in his Japanese routine. Upon its completion, it was clear that Castro would take home the grand champion title for the Kumite Classic.

More Sparring
The NBL National events always provide a pre-cursor to the adult fighting matches with junior continuous sparring. At the Kumite Classic, the juniors were especially enthusiastic which resulted in two disqualifications out of the six matches. Ali Viola managed to bloody the lip of Crystal Penny in the second round of the junior girls featherweight division with Penny awarded the win. Then in the next match of the evening Sage Northcutt was disqualified for excessive contact in a very controversial decision leaving Corey Kellam of Virginia with the featherweight win. Little Andrea Tyrrell and Ethan Martin were so tiny we almost couldn't zoom the camera in close enough to see them. The energy displayed in this super fly combat was amazing and wild. Tyrrell who hails from Canada managed to take the lead in the second half and win. Kevin Houser took his second on-stage award with a win over Gene Middleton in the junior lightweight division. Sarah Johnson of North Carolina kept her cool and kicked herself to a win against Christopher Wilkins in light middleweight while Kyle Petrosky lost to Miguel Soto of Mexico by a mere two points in boys middleweight. With the crowd wound up from the youth continuous sparring, everyone was ready for the adults to get under way.

Men's team fighting matched Team United against Team Straight Up. What makes Team United such a unique three-some is that they are a true inter-school team. Richard Steckham and Shane Baker, the two younger fighters, are both students of the third fighter, Trevor Nash and all three grew up in NBL competition. Nash has done such a great job of training his students that he is able to team up and fight with them to great success. His students then get the advantage of being coached by their instructor and teammate. The Straight Up team was a mix from Team All Stars (Robbie Lavoie), Team Victory (Jerrell Dawson) and Team Paul Mitchell (Joey Greenhalgh). Steckham, in his first year as an adult, faced Lavoie and kept the score tight with Lavoie winning by only one point. In the second match, Dawson held his own, allowing Baker to gain back that one point and sending the match into the third round with a 7-7 tie. Nash's legs were everywhere as he kept Greenhalgh at bay and scored repeatedly to end the final round with a 6-2 score and the win for Team United.

Jason Tankson-Bourelly and Joey Castro each had another bob for the apple with the traditional kumite finals. This division was full-out hardcore traditional fighting with no head gear, light pads on the hands and no pads on the feet. Points are only awarded for solid and hard devastating blows. The daytime eliminations for this division were full of the sounds of people getting kicked and punched really, really hard. Bourelly and Castro lined up ready to go at it. Bourelly nailed Castro with a side kick that took Castro's wind early in the match. Castro was down 6-2 as time was running out and almost made a comeback with a takedown but it was not clean enough for the judges to award a point. Castro then took a shot to the face with a hard Bourelly round kick that rocked him and earned Bourelly three points and sealed his win.

In the women's grand championship, Ohio's Renee Slapnicker first faced Virginia's Mercy Tom. Tom was valiant but Slapnicker's blitzes gave her the win and moved her into the grand championship round against Sonja Kujamin of Canada. The fight with Tom was only a warm-up for Slapnicker of Team Five Knuckle Bullet as Kujamin fell victim to the attack and Slapnicker ended with an 8-3 victory and the women’s title.

The final event of the evening was the men's sparring grand championship where Willie Hicks came out on top. With all the competition completed, it was time for celebration and oh, what a party it was, just ask Corky (if he remembers). The Kumite Classic showed that the youthful are here to stay - watch them make this sport even more exciting at this year's Super Grands.