Hey Gang!

Well its official! 5 out of 5 of our guys made the long trip to
Uniontown Pa the weekend of the 20th and competed our hearts out for
slots on the '07 TeamUSA and made it. Returning members were myself,
Saboto Trent and Ben Outlaw. New this year was my son Kent and good
friend Eric Pease. The program has changed from last year by
combining the team trials and the intial training camp into the same
weekend. We arrived Friday evening and battled early Saturday
morning and lasting throughout the day. If you made the cut, you
stayed on til Sunday for another team workout, team roster pics,
meeting and free brunch.

As returning members myself, Saboto and Ben had the luxury of
several chances to win spots on the team but the pressure was on
Eric and especially Kent who had a do or die situation with only one
shot in his sparring division. Team member candidates must place no
less than 3rd place or higher. The odds were against him for several
reasons. One was his infrequent oppritunity to prepare and that his
only division was not divided by rank but by age and as an
intermediate he would have to face more experienced and higher
ranking rivals. His matches were nail biters but when the dust
settled he took a well fought for 2nd place. Eric narrowly missed
placing in the top 3 in the Senior BB weapons division which I tied
1st in with rival Alan Chueng. Pressure was on Eric to do or die in
Handforms which he took 2nd with an impressive performance. Next up
was padded stick fighting. I was going in with a bye but the
breakdown had Saboto fighting Ben in the first round. I gave my Bye
to Saboto to face Ben instead since my slot was already won in
weapons. I've lost to Ben in our last two official matches but to my
surprise, I won this outing. It knocked Ben out of stickfighting but
we had no doubt that Ben would make it oup in his strongest event,
Point sparring. Atleast now Saboto's spot was secured. In the finals
of stickfighting I took another 1st place with Saboto in 2nd and
rival Tim Hartman in 3rd. As predicted, Ben took 1st in Point
sparring so we all came home winners.

Cheers!

Mel