Articles
Makenzee won the championship belt in both sparring and Kata divisions, and Francesca won the sparring championship belt.
Other belt winners were Green Belt John Ornelas, 36; Brown Belt Philip Fluty, 13; and Purple Blue Belt Wyatt Hamrick, 10. On the previous day, White Purple Belt Justin Georgiou, 9, took home a gold medal.
In April 2011, Verrett’s Kenpo, along with Brentwood Police Activities League (PAL), will hold a karate tournament open to all styles. All proceeds will be donated to the Brentwood PAL.
Read more: thepress.net – Karate kids earn belts
Read more: thepress.net – Boxing a big hit
The Police Activities League (PAL) recently completed a summer boxing program for middle school kids at Verrett’s Karate Kenpo. An after-school program will begin in the middle of August on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for kids in sixth through 12th grade.
“Probably the oldest sport in PAL is what we call PAL boxing,” said Brentwood Police officer Roger Wilson, who is the executive director of PAL. “The martial arts part of it has been coming in. The goal of PAL is to keep kids off of the streets after school. A lot of the kids that we get in this program have been in fights on the street. Some of them haven’t; they just don’t have anything to do. We bring them in here; we give them a positive environment. One, to get that energy out and two, to teach them that fighting is literally a sport, and it’s not something you take out on the street.
“When you start doing statistics, the time of the day when juvenile crime is at its peak is between the hours of 4 p.m. and about 8 or 9 p.m. Thus, we’re trying to come up with something to do for them in the afternoon, to at least offer them some kind of positive environment to come to, instead of hanging out in gang and drug areas. A big question we got, and I still get it is, ‘You’re taking kids who have been arrested for fighting and teaching them how to fight?’ It actually has the opposite affect on them. They find out that they don’t need to go out fighting on the streets if someone gets in my face. We’re also teaching them positive ways to resolve their problems.”
Wilson is excited about the growth of the free program at schools, such as the one run by Randy Verrett. “The biggest thing is that we’ve now branched it,” he said. “He’s moving from this location to a bigger one (in the same shopping center), so now we’re going to incorporate the boxing in with the PAL martial arts.
“PAL boxing is the oldest sport in the nation. There are a couple of different kids, and I don’t know their names, but they’ve been in two different Olympics. One kid took the silver medal in his weight class in boxing. He got his entire start as a gang member on the streets of L.A. They took him off of the street, they put him in PAL boxing, found a home, and he took it to the part where he competed in the Olympics.”
Vincent Lang, who volunteers his time as instructor and mentor to the kids, said, “We are mostly teaching boxing, so we’ll start them out with cardio, just to get them warmed up. Then we’ll teach them shadow boxing, teach them combinations and have them work the combinations on the bag. Then we’ll let them either spar each other just with body shots or we’ll spar with them to show them what to do.”
Lang, who is a student of Verrett’s adult boxing classes, is also an example of how fast success can come. “I actually started a year and a half ago with Mr. Verrett, not knowing anything about what I was doing. And then I became a good boxer and he asked me to help with the boxing program. I feel that it gives kids an opportunity to get out of the house instead of just sitting around and doing nothing. I think that’s what causes the trouble: when they’re just at home.
“I’ve seen a change in the attitude from the kids when they come in here. Hopefully, it’s calming them down and they’re not out looking for fights and they know that fighting is just a sport and it’s not something they need to be doing outside the gym.”
For more information, go online to www.verrettskarate.com or call 925-516-1339.
Read more: thepress.net – PAL boxing program a knockout
Read more: thepress.net – Sparring specialists
Among the contingent was Malik Hill, 13, left, who began training in the Police Activities League about three months ago. Verrett’s took home one fourth-place and five first-place trophies.
The winners included McKenzie Pereira, Franchesca Pereira, Aidan Ornelas and Wyatt Hamrick.
Read more: thepress.net – Disposing of Dragons
Photo courtesy of Randy Verrett
Just a few years ago Jay Vizcarra was going nowhere fast – a bum with a one-way ticket to Palookaville or worse. “I just got into a lot of fights with hanging out with the wrong crowd,” he said. “Every day I was fighting somebody.”
Now 20 years old, the Brentwood resident still gets into fights – but now they take place in the ring in mixed martial arts bouts. On Feb. 20, fighting under the moniker “Vicious” Jay Vizcarra in the first-ever officially sanctioned amateur bout in Northern California at Dragon House in San Francisco, he put a rear naked chokehold on his opponent, causing him to tap out, ending the fight with two seconds left in the first round.
“That’s a big accomplishment for me to where I had no technique fighting on the street and going in there with someone who’s bigger than me,” he said. “The win was the biggest accomplishment of my life.” He plans to do more amateur fighting and then eventually turn pro “and end up big.”
It’s quite a turnaround for someone who might have ended up doing his fighting in San Quentin. Vizcarra credits the Brentwood Police Athletic Program (PAL) and Randy Verrett’s karate kenpo school on Balfour Road in Brentwood with helping get him on track. “Now I help teach the PAL class” at the school, said Vizcarra. “I watch (PAL) Officer (Roger) Wilson on how he helps the kids out so much. I never had anybody, a role model like that. I wish I did. I wish I had somebody who was there to help me. Right now I could be in jail” if not for the help.
At Wilson’s request, Verrett launched an eight-week karate class in October that is free for middle school and junior high students participating in the PAL program, and have followed that with mixed martial arts training.
“I can see changes in kids who used to be enemies, and now they are training together and sparring together and getting along,” said Verrett. “We are trying to work on something now to where we will offer our gym to the PAL program (year-round). We don’t want it to end for them. We want to be here for them as a safe place to come. Even if it’s just hanging out and listening to music in the gym, lifting weights or sparring. We are trying to get a bigger building. If we can get sponsors to help out, that would be huge.”
PAL holds periodic fundraisers, but is always ready to accept tax-deductible donations through Wilson at 925-809-7768. For more information on Verrett’s karate school, call 925-516-1339 or go online to www.verrettskarate.com.
Read more: thepress.net – Martial arts police fight for at risk youth
http://www.thepress.net/view/full_story/4184823/article-Martial-artistry?
http://www.thepress.net/view/full_story/2227212/article-Local-fighters-win-in-SF?