1 For Immediate Release July 27, 2008 Contact: 201-206-2705
http://www.northjerseyjudo.com/ With the Summer Olympic Games around the corner, members of Team North Jersey Judo entered the Keystone State Games in York, PA this past weekend to improve on their own Judo for future tournaments to come. Teams from New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Virginia and of course Pennsylvania entered this event. Aidan Cunningham (Team North Jersey Judo) took 3rd place in his second outing. Aidan came out trying to control his opponents and made frequent attacks using Ippon Seoinage/Shoulder Throw and Osoto Gari/Step Pull Swipe in all of his matches. Aidan looked like a different player with more experience and adding a lot more spirit to his matches. Ramon Hernandez, Jr (Team North Jersey Judo) took 3rd place in his division being outweighed by 10 pounds. Junior lost his first match by a full point but came back to win the rest to stay within medal contention. In his last match, Junior put together 2 ½ point throws totaling a full point which won him his last match. Junior continues to try his best every time he steps onto the tournament mat and doesn’t get himself too nervous before the judges start the match. Junior is now a part of North Jersey Judo’s wrestling program under the watchful eye of Ramon Hernandez and under the direction of Ken Carmichael who was NCAA nationally ranked in his college days. Charlie Boy Cunningham III (Team North Jersey Judo) took his very first 1st place win in his division. Charlie Boy went undefeated and also managed to add wrestling to his Judo to create a single leg pick up when countering his opponent. Charlie Boy came down very hard on himself in the landing as well during this match but managed to win his next one to capture the gold and get to the top of the medal stand. Charlie Boy is also a part of North Jersey Judo’s wrestling program. Charlie Cunningham, Sr. (Team North Jersey Judo) entered the loaded division of more then 12 Judo players at 178 novice and went 2 for 2. His 2 loses were to brown belt caliber Judokas. The other 2 matches that he won were wins he created with his single leg pick ups and combination throw from Uchimata/inner thigh throw into a single leg pick block for the win. Charlie fell off a ladder this past spring with a running chainsaw in his hand which should have knocked him out of even thinking of entering a Judo Tournament. Charlie is a part of Montclair, NJ’s finest police officers protecting the streets in the late hours of the night. He is a member of their Honor Guard which services and attends funeral services for police officers or members of the armed forces who die in the line of duty. He is a great example to all our members, a good judo player and proud father of 2 judokas at North Jersey Judo. Ramon Hernandez (Head Instructor Team North Jersey Judo) took 1st place in the Black Belt division. In his first match, he executed a series of gripping techniques to kill the offense of his opponent to perform Uchimata/inner thigh throw for a full point for an instant win. His second match was against a more skilled player from Brazil but Ramon managed to score a ¼ point and play smart the rest of the match for the win. Already coming off of the top of the medal stand wining the gold at the Summer Slam Judo Championship, Ramon comes out to the Keystone State Games to test a lot of different gripping series and put them to work for the rest of the year and prepare for USA Judo’s Senior Nationals in 2009. Notes from Coach:
All competitors did great at this outing and worked on some vital needs for future tournaments to come on the junior state, junior regional, junior national, national and international levels. Since established in October 2006, North Jersey Judo has been able to be competitive in all of the tournaments they’ve attended and have come away with medals. We look forward to our members working on their own Judo and we are also very excited about the implementation of our new wrestling program under the watchful eye of Ken Carmichael who is a Brown Belt at North Jersey Judo and Ramon Hernandez, Head Instructor at North Jersey Judo. We will continue to work through the summer to prepare for our next tournament appearance in the state of Maryland in late August not to mention get our Wrestlers ready to show a new stand up throwing style of wrestling at the rec level this coming wrestling season. -END- Organization: North Jersey Judo Phone: 201-206-2705 web site: http://www.northjerseyjudo.com/  | | Ramon Hernandez wins using Uchimata |
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