The tournament, a two day event hosted by Ron and Sharon Ferguson, was the first tournament of the NBL Blue Ridge Conference and Forth in the 2007 MATT season.

On hand were some top notch judges and tournament promoters including Corky Sikes, Johnny Watkins, Dewey Earwood, Donald McClunney, Ernest Dukes, Brian Pena, Kenny Green, Corey Waiters, Dean Pyles, Joshua Page, Jane Sirkel, Preston Rogers, Lauren Ferguson, Rick Zollars, Charles Burris, Doug Armstrong, Magic Johnson, and Lawrence Arthur to name a few.

Top teams came out to show off their skills and do battle at this years event such as South Carolina team’s War Angel, SMA, Superkicks, Virginia’s team FX, PVT, Unity, and Rogers TKD, Georgia team’s Strike Force and Jaded Dragons, and North Carolina team’s MVKC, RCU, William Reed’s and Kenny Morrison’s.

Friday night started off with adult traditional and choreographed self defense. Dean Pyles had no problem winning both of those divisions while his daughter Alexandra Pyles brought down the house with her comic routine in the 17 and under, under belt division.

In the art of breaking, John Helms won the junior division while Steve Shockley won the adult division.

Continuous sparring junior winners included Isiah Ismal over Bradley Norris in fly weight, Jared Pressley 126 to 110 over Corey Kellum for the feather weight, Gene Middleton 48 to 45 over Grisha Smirnov for light and Caitelyn Crittenden 69 to 55 over Samantha Monahan for the girls light weight division.

Team Unity held Team Strike Force in check 22 to 11 for the junior girls team sparring divisional win.

In creative weapons, Jared Pressley kept Corey Kellum and Bradley Norris from taking the 11 and under division. Brice Ferguson of Team FX took top honors from Team Strike Force member Gene Middleton for the 12-14 boys divisional win. Chris Urcinola of Team MVKC held off Josh Bailey of Team SMA in 15-17 boys. The girls 15-17 divisional went to FX’s Gina Hairston, while Josh Bailey got really creative with his bo staff to win the 15-17 musical weapons division with all kinds of fancy moves.

In traditional weapons, winners included juniors Bradley Norris, Gene Middleton, Kaylee Plunkett and Torren Davis with Joshua Page taking the adult division.

With a score of 29.94 Gene Middleton bested Joseph Stewart by a mere hundredth of a point in 12-14 boys choreographed musical forms, Shanna Young of Team EWO kept first place to herself in the 17 and under girls division, Josh Bailey was top of the class in the 15-17 boys division while in the adult version, Jeff Doss topped Lauren Ferguson for the win.

Saturday morning in 9 and under creative forms, Corey Kellum of Team FX came out ahead of the pack. Gene Middleton with a score of 29.94 to Brice Ferguson’s score of 29.92 took the honors in the 12-14 boys division.

Jeff Doss lead the way over Scott Porter, and Jerry Duncan in the men’s hard creative division, Lauren Ferguson showed off all kinds of aerial kicks for the women’s divisional win, while Rick Zollars topped Jeff Blake and Michael Goodwin in the senior division.

Traditional forms winners included juniors Bradley Norris, Gene Middleton, Kaylee Plunkett, and all the way from New Jersey, Mike Spizzuco. Adult winners included Carrie Goldbeck, Johnny Watkins and Lauren Ferguson.

Now on to the rock’um, sock’um sparring events of the day. In the junior divisions Jared Pressley and Luke Porter wasted no time taking the 9 and under and 10-11 boys division respectively. Brice Ferguson held Brett Gibson of Team Reed 4 to 0 in the 12-13 boys division. Noeile Bolin took home the trophy for the 13-14 girls division, while in what looked to be the largest boys group of the day, Benjamin Ferguson of Team FX got around Dominque Rapano of Team Reed for the 14-15 boys divisional win. Some of the winners in the men’s divisions included Jerry Duncan, Enrique Lopez Scott Porter, Kenny Green Jr. and Joshua Page 10 to 4 over Robert Pendleton for the super heavy win.

Senior men winners included Jerry Sellars middle weight, Teddy Taylor heavy weight and Larry Dillingham 45 and over, while in one of the women’s divisions, Gina Thornton surpassed Lauren Ferguson 5/4.

The Ferguson’s hope everyone had a great time and wish to see you next year at the Southern Classic.