2008 Ashida Fall Classic

The UNL Judo Club held their 2008 Ashida Fall Classic at Sho-Rei-Shobu-Kan on Saturday, December 13th. This tournament is named for Sensi Ashida, who was once a sensi at UNL and, despite being 80-something, still teaches judo at the State University of New York.

The tournament was well attended. For their entry fee, participants were allowed to register in two divisions and many took advantage of this. There were about 10 to 12 people in the Men's Open division. The matches ran from 11:15 (does any tournament ever start when advertised?) to about 4:00.

One highlight of the tournament was watching Porter Giles, age 5, fight in his first tournament. He had to fight a kid who was a lot bigger than him and lost twice, but as he was unopposed in his division, he still got a gold medal. Porter's father Brian is a karate sensi and couldn't have been prouder to have passed the torch on to the next generation. Well, maybe if Porter had won.

The scoreboard program was used again after a quick reprogramming to follow the new IJF rules which eliminate the score of "koka". The day after this reprogramming, we were informed that we had to continue using the old rules because the new rules don't go into effect until Jan 1 and the flier submitted when the tournament was sanctioned said "Current IJF Rules Apply". However, all the participants agreed to follow the new rules, so we did.

After the tournament, the UNL Judo Club and two members of Sho Rei Shobu Kan went to Old Chicago for pizza and beer.