Whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game. Well congratulations is in order to all of the Gentle East competitors who played the game yesterday at the Maryland East Coast Open Taekwondo Championship!
I was proud to be there with all of my Gentle East family, and realized how lucky we are to have instructors who are involved not only in teaching us the sport, but in making these tournaments what they are. Master Holloway led and supported all of the referees all day long, and managed to be at every ring that one of his students was competing in. Master McDermott along with serving as treasurer for the Maryland State Taekwondo Association, was everywhere, all day long, helping everybody from coaching to computer scoring. And Master Schoenbrun serving as secretary for MSTA refereed all day long and managed to support her students in all of their competitions.
Jonathan and I, and many of our classmates from the YMCA and Gentle East in Silver Spring competed in forms, team forms, board breaking and sparring and there were a lot of trophies going home at the end of the day. And in some cases there weren’t. And still we played the game and were better for it. As Master Joe said during opening ceremonies, “do your best and forget the rest”. And we did. Part of the accomplishment was just being there, having the courage to compete at all, to put ourselves out there and be part of the game.
Great job everyone!
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| From Gentle East YMCA Back row from left to right – Leora, Dana, Nichole, Laura Bottom row from left to right – Jonathan, Riley, Annabelle |
