PKA Participates in Regional Championships

Porco’s Karate Academy (PKA) recently participated in the Annual WTSDA Regional Championship over two days. Hosted by the entire Region 9 (which consists of Tang Soo Do studios all over New England), the Championship was held at the XL Center in Hartford, a facility large enough to accommodate over 500 participants.  The Championship ran smoothly, highlighting the leadership skills of all the students, instructors and volunteers that organized and participated in the Championship.

The competition began on a Friday evening, starting the Team Creativity Competition. Competing with 3 other teams, PKA’s Demo Team won co-3rd demonstrating their creativity and technical abilities in their demo.

The competition continued on a Saturday first with all black belt competition. Christopher Perry, a 3rd degree black belt and instructor at PKA, won the Championship Cup in the highly competitive male 17-34 years old category for the second year in a row. In addition, Michael Porco Jr. was awarded his 4th degree master's belt, a symbol of his dedication to the art and his hard work. Afterwards, all other students competed in different divisions with various students from other studios. In order to demonstrate all aspects of the ancient Korean martial art, the Championship included four areas of competition: weapons, open-hand forms, sparring, and breaking. Everyone competed admirably and showed great sportsmanship and high spirits.

Participants from PKA included the aforementioned Christopher Perry, who won first place in weapons and forms, as well as second in breaking and third place in sparring, as well as Amelia Shwartz (2nd degree black belt, 2nd Breaking), Michael Reyen (1st degree black belt), Emily Albrecht (1st degree black belt), Darren Kirby (1st degree black belt), Yanni Kousidis (1st degree black belt, 2nd Breaking), Jake Terifay (blue belt, 1st Forms, Sparring, and Breaking, 2nd Weapons) Rogelio Frutos (blue belt, 2nd Forms, 3rd Breaking), Amelia Shill (blue belt), Mystic Higginson (blue belt), Angella Kousidis (blue belt), Shilin Ray (blue belt, 3rd Weapons), Sean DeMott (blue belt), Deryl Gaier (blue belt, 2nd Breaking), Alex Frutos (red belt, 3rd Weapons, 2nd Forms; 1st Sparring and Breaking), Jacob Lujanac (red belt, 1st Weapons and Forms, 2nd Sparring and Breaking, James Hillefeld (red belt, 3rd Forms), Michaela Intemann (red belt), Lauren Menousek (red belt), Kelly Terifay (red belt), Caroline Cassetta (brown belt, 3rd Breaking), Sofia Giusto-Sandy (brown belt, 1st Sparring and Breaking), Ethan Hillefeld (brown belt), Saahil Ray (brown belt, 3rd Weapons), Isabella Tourigny (green belt, 1st Forms), Tristan Galipault (green belt) Bennett Goggliettino (orange belt, 2nd Breaking), Joshua Schumacher (orange belt), Geno Ventresca (orange belt), Carlos Trujillo (white belt, 3rd Sparring), and Gavin Galipault and Ilsa Popovic (Little Dragons).

Porco’s Karate Academy is celebrating 30 years of dedication and teaching students of all ages. The studio is located at 113 Church Hill Street, Sandy Hook, CT (203-426-2427).