Illinois Shotokan Karate Clubs News

Illinois Shotokan Leads the Way in Hosting First Zone Championship

More than 700 athletes from over 70 different dojos entered the Harper Community College gymnasium, in Palatine, IL to compete in the First State and Zone Championship on April 18, 2010. The Zone Championship was a new type of event that will categorize tournaments by location where each zone will be made up of approximately four to five state areas.

“As president of the USA Karate I felt it was important to lead the way and host the first Zone Championship,” said John DiPasquale, ISKC founder and current president of USA Karate. Charles Jarnagin, founder of Karate Life Studios in St. Louis, has been attending DiPasquale’s tournaments for more than 15 years.“I believe in Sensei DiPasquale’s tournaments,” Jarnagin said. He runs one of the smoothest and best traditional events I’ve ever been involved with, period.” Jarnigan brought nine of his dojo members to the tournament from St. Louis and said he would highly recommend others attend this tournament.
“Any traditional karate person in the Midwest would be foolish not to go to this event if they are interested in traditional competition,” Jarnigan said

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The Zone Championships are designed to help athletes by bringing together experienced competitors from several states to one tournament within a car ride from their home. The USA Karate Federation also plans to utilize the tournaments as an opportunity to organize official and coaching seminars. Chicago was the first to host a Zone Championship, which included competitors from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Missouri.

“I believe the tournament was a tremendous success,” DiPasquale said. “The competition was very high and I was exceptionally pleased with the valuable experience the athletes gained.” Elisa Au Fonseca, a three-time world champion attended the event as coach and was also pleased with the competition.“I thought the level of competition was really good,” Au Fonseca said. “I was impressed that for that region there were so many strong competitors. I was happy with the beginner divisions all the way to black.”

In addition to the competition experience the Zone Championships will provide, the tournaments will also serve as a fundraiser for USA Karate. The Illinois State and Zone Championship raised more than $7,000 for the organization.“The money raised at the tournaments will be used to help develop our programs and support the athletes,” DiPasquale said. “This year we plan on having five Zone Championships and our hope is that all zones will have a Zone Championship by 2012.”

The next Zone Championships will be held in California in late summer or early fall. A Zone Championships in New York for later this year is also in the works. DiPasquale hopes athletes will take advantage of these new opportunities.“It is definitely always good to get as much experience as possible,” Au Fonseca said. “The competition at the zone level is very good at this point, especially for junior athletes.”