The Bertsches have a reputation for hosting a competitor and spectator-friendly event and this year was no exception. What was missing was not the friendly atmosphere but a particular martial artist who was one of the most reliable supporters of the NBL and the Pacific Jewel - Shannon Apple. Apple, a blackbelt who was a dedicated competitor and excellent judge passed away suddenly on February 25, 2009 at the age of 46. The 2009 Pacific Jewel Nationals was dedicated to Mr. Apple and with his portrait hanging on the stage overlooking the tournament arena, you could almost feel his generosity and spirit in the room.

Mackensi Emory kicked off Friday afternoon with a win in the 12-14 girls non-musical weapons division while Peter Timmes cut his way to a victory in the 12-14 junior musical weapons division. The highlight of the night was fan favorite Josh Durbin nailing his head with his weapon in the adult non-musical weapons, which narrowed his chance at a win. But he was able to capture the judges and the victory in the adult musical weapons.

The evening was buzzing with a lot of great youth and teen team fighting along with continuous fighting for all ages.  There are some very talented juniors that are making names for themselves on the west coast.  Men's team fighting raised the roof as the sun set on Vancouver. Team sparring was a division that Shannon Apple simply loved and the fighters at the Pacific Jewel Nationals did him proud with their efforts.

There were many great battles to be had from the regular NBL teams, and some new faces/teams.  The first match was Team Proper against Team GOP: Sean Arceo versus Jamie Cravens was round one. Cravens knew that Arceo was a fast hitter so keeping his distance and timing was an important factor. Arceo laid some solid hits onto Cravens and Cravens countered with a number of reverse punches, but the result was still a 4 to 2 victory by Arceo. Next was Brian Young against Jamal Albini. Albini and Young were exchanging blows back and forth but Young was able to creep up on Team Proper's lead by winning 6 to 5, making the team score 9 to 8. Two great friends and greater rivals Brandon Bertsch of GOP and Wade Taylor of Proper faced off in the final match. Bertsch had the pressure of catching up for his team, and Bertsch fights well under pressure. Both competitors were exchanging hard blows. Taylor was lethal with his quick hands and Bertsch with his amazingly flexible kicks. It was down to the last seconds of the match and the score was tied at 12. Before the buzzer, Bertsch was able to lay 2 point on Taylor. The overall score was 14 to 12 in favor of Team GOP. 

The next fighting team was Bay Area's Best (BAB) against Team East West. Willie Hicks of BAB was up against Doug Bertrand. Bertrand was hesitant, but Hicks was relaxed winning 6 to 3.  Julio Castro of BAB fought Marty Maye in the second fight. Both competitors had the same fighting style. Each fighter was exchanging kicks and though Maye was able to bring his team's score up, Bay Area's best was still ahead 8 to 7. The final match was between the big boys, Ryan Gonzalez of BAB against Hakim Walker – a name few NBL people may have known, until they saw him fight.  The match was by far the most entertaining one.  Gonzalez gave Walker a great fight throwing in some hard reverse punches. Walker was able to reciprocate with a few of his own reverse punches.  Gonzalez surprised Walker with an arsenal of kicks including a jump spinning hook kick. Walker responded back with his own kicks, but the judges weren't able to see the points. The pressure and frustration was building on Walker. In the last 15 seconds, Walker came through with reverse punches to catch up to Gonzalez. It seemed that Walker was going to tie with Gonzalez. But time ran out for Team East West and Bay Area's Best won 15 to 13. 

Bay Area's Best advanced to the stage to face against the next winner of the team fights. The final battle was Team GOP against Team FMA. First up was Jamie Cravens against Joshua Pittman of FMA. Pittman drilled Cravens with some heavy reverse punches to the body. Cravens was able to respond back, but it wasn't enough as Pittman won the match with the score of 6 to 2. Next was Bryan Young against Joshua May of FMA. Young started the match with some hard hits and brought his team ahead by one point with an ending team score of 10 to 9.   Pressure was on Brandon Bertsch again to keep the win alive for his team in his fight against the formidable legs Michael Jefferson of Team FMA. Both competitors exchanged blows. The match ended with a tie but the overall score was 14 to 13 in favor of Team GOP. Team GOP would move on to meet Bay Area's Best on stage in the Saturday night finals.

Andrew Kowalewski and Jordan Simon tied in the 15 to 17 Junior Japanese division. After a run off Kowalewski advanced to face off against Mackensi Emory and Trevor Kim for the junior Japanese title in the finals. Kowalewski and Simon tied again in the 14 to 17 junior musical forms division and Kowalewski was again able to surpass Simon's second performance. Josh Durbin notified the SportMartialArts.com reporters that he had won all of his adult contemporary forms division and apparently did not injure or maim himself in the process! Adrianne Angat was eliminated from the Japanese division by Trevor Kim, but she was able to capture the first place victory in the Korean division. She would be going up to face off against Mara Hipolito and Colbey Northcutt.

The adult sparring divisions had some surprising victories. Jamie Cravens eliminated the quick Sean Dumlao in his first match, but wasn't able to outmaneuver the lengthy Joshua Pittman. Jodi Schaubschlager was down 1 to 6 against Christine Tardiff. After a quick timeout, Schaubschlager came back with a few reverse punches on Tardiff, but wasn't able to quite catch Tardiff before the buzzer as the final score ended 8 to 5.

Wade Taylor went through Michael Jefferson with no problem, but had a hard time fighting against the bigger Ryan Gonzalez. The match got intense when Gonzalez executed a right punch to Taylor's chest, which almost knocked him out. Taylor was ultimately able to overcome Gonzalez with the score of 10 to 8 but Taylor was not capable of defeating Brandon Bertsch for the spot in the semifinals.  Brandon had a lot of fights, at one point jarring his shoulder and was no longer able to use one arm against his final competitor to make it on stage.  Jamal Albini was able to finish his division with a first place, but Bryan Young became a road block in the run offs to beat him to the punch in sudden death to get on stage. 

The highlight of the day in senior men's sparring competition was Moe Lama breaking David Coppock's face mask which left a bloody gash on Coppock’s nose within the first few seconds of the match. Lama was disqualified for drawing blood - through a face mask! Junior Salientes had no problem against his opponents including beating Marty Maye to secure his spot on the stage for finals. Hakim Walker nearly shut out all of his competition in his division, since his name was new to some local competitors who were talking about what a good fighter he seemed to be...surprising them with all his wins and ability to get through David Coppock for the spot on stage against Junior Salientes in finals.

Even though Jordan Simon was shut out from competition (he wasn’t there for his weapons divisions on Friday night), he was able to start the night show off with a demo solo. The Junior Choreographed Musical Grand Championship began after Simon's demo. First up was Jonathan Hernandez of Texas. He definitely had a lot of power packed in his small body. Andrew Kowalewski of Idaho went right after with a good mix of extreme tricks and basics. Following Kowalewski was Peter Timmes of California. Timmes’ form was very basic compared to his other competition, but he seemd to bobble during some basic moves and on an aerial twist. Mackensi Emory, also of California, was the last competitor to finish up the grand division. She seemed consistent and solid throughout her routine and had a difficult level of form. She seemed to be a shoe-in for the victory but the judges gave the vote to Timmes on his performance and he walked out as the grand champion winner. The Adult Contemporary Forms Grand was pretty much all Josh Durbin as he “Jesus” flipped his way through a grand champion victory over Jimmy Nguyen and Deon Beatty.

Maile Mendiola and Ashlee Grant battled for the Junior Continuous Girl's lightweight division. Both Californian competitors showed no mercy against each other. Grant scored 43 points over Mendiola’s 32 points in the first round. Second round seemed to be all Grant as she turned up the fire on Mendiola. Grant won with a final score of 73 to 53. 

Next was boy against girl in the flyweight division. Alexis Bricker and Matthew Hernandez aren't strangers to each other as they swung at each other with both left and right hands. Bricker proved that girls rule the ring of continuous sparring as she defeated Hernandez 67 to 58. 

Another boy versus girl battle went underway in the lightweight division. Drew Beatty, representing Allstar Karate, went up against new Prorank Regional member Trevor Logan. The match was a slugfest as both fighters threw some furious punches at each other. Beatty decided to use her kicks on the shorter Logan. She was quite successful on the first round with a few head kicks on Logan. The score was 47 to 27. Logan wasn't ready to quit, but Beatty decided to throw in more head kicks on Logan winning 97 to 57 in the end.

Jobe Ashby and Bradley Norris fought for the Junior Lightmiddle weight division. Ashby and Norris were back and forth with skilled combinations. The two both wanted to finish off their night with a first place win, but it was current world champion Norris who left with the title and a score of 64 to 44. 

Kyle Petrosky and Sean McNeil fought for the Boys Light heavy weight division. The match was the closest of the entire night. Both Petrosky and McNeil were all over the ring and almost fell off as well – they came in pretty close contact with the reporters of Sportmartialarts.com who scrambled to protect the equipment. It was quite a back and forth battle, but Petrosky was victorious over McNeil with the score of 60 to 51 in the end. 

The last continuous fight of the night was the girls' middle weight division. Colbey Northcutt was up against Amanda Bogen. The match got very interesting as Northcutt laid a one two punch to Bogen's head, along with some nice follow up kicks with blood drawn from Bogen. So the match was stopped as the judges decided Northcutt's fate. Bogen had a previous nose bleed during the day so as a result, the Judges had Northcutt win by default.

Men's team sparring was pure excitement as Bay Area's Best battled against Team GOP. First up was Willie Hicks against Jamie Cravens. Hicks controlled the match and shut out Cravens 7 to 0.  Julio Castro fought Bryan Young who was determined to bring his team back into the ball game as he came in with four reverse punch points on Castro. Castro used his counter punches on Young's attacks and kept his team's lead 9 to 4. The last fight was filled with drama as Ryan Gonzalez duked it out against Brandon Bertsch who was down an arm, literally.  Bertsch could not use it for any offensive tactics due to an injury. Gonzalez started the fight with his hard kicks which Bertsch seemed to not have any problems blocking until Gonzalez side kicked Bertsch's injured forearm. Bertsch showed a slight favoritism towards that injured forearm as he kept his right forearm tucked throughout the match. Bertsch fought Gonzalez with only a left arm. Bertsch turned the match around as he gave Gonzalez numerous reverse punch to the body followed by a kick to the head. Gonzalez threw in his own mix of spinning kicks onto Bertsch. Bay Area's Best snuck through with a win as time ran out for GOP with a score was 17 to 16.

For the Junior Choreographed Musical Weapons Forms Grand Championship, Alyssa Erikson got the audience hyped as she gave it her all with lots of energy and intensity. Andrew Kowalewski did great weapons work and tricks. Peter Timmes was back up to attempt two grand championships. He had a slight fumble on his basic routine and ran out of steam at the end of his form. As a result, Kowalewski was the grand champion winner of the night.

The Adult Contemporary Weapons Grand Championship was Jason Reiss against Joshua Durbin. Maureen McCarthy had to bow out due to a torn hamstring from her earlier division during the day. Reiss demonstrated a Nick Schneider-like routine as he maneuvered the bo around his neck. Durbin was a lot more careful this time as he tried really hard not to bounce the bo off his head. His routine was very intense and did not result in a self-knock out which result in a second grand championship win of the night.

Bobby Seronio beat out DJ Hoffman in the boy's 10-11 point sparring division with the score of 8 to 6. In the boy's 12-13 point sparring division, the highlight of the night was Jensen tying the match with a cartwheel kick on Jordan Pallen. But Pallen was able to conquer Jensen on the last point as he walked out as the winner with the final score of 7 to 6. 
Ashlee Grant was back on stage and walked away with another win under her belt as she defeated Rachel Casey with the score of 6 to 2 in the girl's 13-14 point sparring division. James Gilbeaux and Patrick Salientes fought for the boy's 14-15 point sparring division. Both Bay Area athletes were toe to toe. In the end, Salientes walked out as the winner with the final score of 6 to 4. In the boy's 16-17 point sparring division, Leon Jefferson kept Dezmon Monroe-Robinson busy as the match ended with the score of 8 to 8. Jefferson was able to work his way around Robinson for the final point. The final score was 9 to 8 and Jefferson was the winner.

In the senior men's point sparring grand championship, it was east versus west. Junior Salientes is known for dominating this particular grand championship title. So far no one has surpassed Salientes in the senior's division when Salientes decides to attend an event, but Hakim Walker was the new name and favorite of the tournament. The last time NBL saw Walker was in Super Grands 2005. Both competitors dominated their division and run-off rounds during the day. The audience was anticipating a great fight this evening – which is what they got. Walker started the match off with a fast blitz to Salientes. Walker seemed to have studied up on Salientes during the day as he kept working his reverse punch on Salientes. Salientes wasn't going to let Walker shut him out as he fired back with three points. But Walker continued to counter to Salientes. Salientes was not able to capitalize on Walker as the final score came out to be 10 to 3 and Walker was the grand champion victor of the night.  Walker was also honored with the Shannon Apple Award for his outstanding performance on stage.

For the Junior Japanese Forms Grand Championship Andrew Kowalewski set the bar for his competition as he showed intensity and solid stances. Trevor Kim was up right after Kowalewski. Kim showed a lot of snaps and speed with his hands. Mackensi Emory was back up again. This was her first onstage appearance for traditional forms. She did quite well and showed lots of precision but the judges gave the win to Kim.

For the Adult Traditional Forms and Weapons Grand Championship, Brandon Bertsch was up first with his traditional bo and looked good after being out for a year and half due to an MMA injury. He definitely shook up the competition despite his arm injury. Next was Scott Wu with his kajukenbo routine. He showed lots of power and stuck every technique. Derek Bentley went right after Wu. Bentley was on point with his Korean routine. Following Bentley was his sister, Nicole Bentley, representing the women. Nicole Bentley was sharp and looked great. Lastly, Wu was back up for his Japanese routine. Wu was solid and consistent as always. Bertsch's weapon routine and Wu's kajukenbo tied, but Wu's Japanese beat out both routines by .01 and Wu was declared the grand champion winner.

In the Junior Korean Forms Grand Championship, the small Adrianne Angat showed the judges that she can not only perform a Japanese routine, but also a solid Korean form. Next up was Mara Hipolito who was intense throughout the form. Colbey Northcutt was the last performer. She is no stranger to the Korean division as she showed massive flexibility on her kicks during her form. Northcutt was the judges' favorite of the night.

In the men's point sparring semi-finals, Willie Hicks shut out Sean Arceo with the score of 4 to 0. Due to a re-injury, Brandon Bertsch bowed out to Bryan Young which meant Young and Hicks would face each other for the overall title. Christine Tardiff and Jessica Covarrubias fought for the women's point sparring grand championship title. Covarrubias controlled Tardiff throughout the match. Covarrubias was able to maneuver her way around Tardiff's kicks and time Tardiff well enough to win 7 to 4. 

The men's sparring finals was between Hicks and Young. Young was on point the whole weekend. Many anticipated Young being able to overcome Hicks in this finals. Both fighters were timing each other perfectly, which led to sudden death. Hicks felt the pressure but stayed focused enough to jam Young's sidekick with his blitz to finalize the score and earn a 5-4 victory.  

The match ended with the same tone as the entire Pacific Jewel Nationals tournament, exciting to the very end! You could almost hear the cheers of Shannon Apple amidst the clapping of the audience. If he could have, everyone knew that Shannon Apple would have been right in the middle of all of the excitement at the event. He will be dearly missed but never forgotten.