Member News
September 6, 2006
USA Judo Partnership with Police Athletic League Kicks Off in Colorado Springs
USA Judo is pleased to announce a newly formed partnership with the National Police Athletic League.
Through this partnership, an eight-week pilot program in Colorado Springs has been established in conjunction with the Olympic Training Center Junior Judo Program.
The program kicked off under the direction of Tammie Liddie (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Judo Project Manager, with 40 new athletes, ages 5-15, participating in this inaugural session.
Athletes participate in the sessions twice a week for eight weeks. Upon the completion of the session and testing, athletes will receive a yellow belt.
“It’s gone incredibly well so far. All of the kids are enjoying it and we’ve had a great deal of police officer involvement,” said Liz Bratzky (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Director of the Colorado Springs Police Athletic League. “We’ve gotten a lot of really positive feedback and the officers have been some of the most excited about it.”
In addition to Liddie, the program is led by current elite players and past Olympians as well as CSPD former elite judo players, including Ron Lopez, Clay Sunada and 1996 Olympian Cliff Sunada, all of Colorado Springs.
“I'll be working on the streets and cops will come up to me and ask how they can get their kids involved in the program. Not only have the kids enjoyed it, but the parents are enjoying it too and you'll see them watching practice every night," Lopez said. "One of the best things is that since we're at the OTC, the kids get to see the senior athletes training before their practice and it gives them role models.”
“The PAL program has produced many champions in the sport of boxing throughout the years, it is our hope to use the PAL program not only to attract more young people to the sport, but we will hopefully find us a medalist or a World Champion,” said USA Judo CEO Jose H. Rodriguez (Colorado Springs, Colo.) “We could not have asked for better partners than the National Police Athletic League.”
Following the completion of this pilot program USA Judo hopes to expand the partnership with PAL into other cities throughout the United States.
“The program will definitely do very well nationally,” said Eddie Liddie (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Judo Director of Athlete Performance. “There are plenty of former judo players who are police officers in other regions of the country who we hope will help us spread judo even more young athletes.”
The Police Athletic League youth judo program is one of three key mega-grassroots programs which USA Judo has now implemented with the other two being the Boys Scouts Venturing Program and the Native American Sports Council.
“We are little by little implementing our mega-grassroots plan and feel confident that it will take off in numbers in months to come,” Rodriguez said. “We hope to have some of our coaches around the nation take an interest in starting a PAL program in their community and call our USA Judo National office.”
For more information on the program or to start a PAL judo chapter in your area, contact Eddie Liddie at eddie.liddie@usajudo.us.
Photo Credit: John Anderson
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