Judo club celebrates new space

Sports & Recreation — 14 February 2012

Local Judoka Dawn Sauve throws Canadian Olympian and Pan Am Games gold medalist Sandra Greaves during a training session, Sat. Feb. 11 at the club’s new dojo at The Fitness Edge. Photo by Chris Marchand

By Chris Marchand

A name change may be in order for the Oxdrift Judo club.

The club has made a move into Dryden, creating a permanent space in the 1,400 square foot aerobics room at Fitness Edge, on Duke St.

Before that could be done, the 36-member club installed new specialized mats (tatami) with a sponsorship from local Richard Norman, a former Pan-Am Games Judo competitor.

“He lent the club $6,000 towards the new mats,” said Mark Jackson. “We don’t have to move them after every class. They’re a new technology with suspended floor. There’s lots of foam under there so when you get thrown it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as being thrown on cement or wood.”

Some of the region’s most promising Judokas from around the region gathered in Dryden, Feb. 11 in preparation for the Ontario Winter Games and to welcome special guest Sandra Greaves of Thunder Bay. Greaves represented Canada in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and won a gold medal in the 1987 Pan Am Games in Indianapolis.

Dryden’s Jarod Burnell, age 14, will be among the northwestern contingent that will compete in Collingwood, ON March 9.

“Jarod is a tough competitor,” said coach Tom Hertz of Kenora. “I watched him fight in Winnipeg last weekend and he was fighting one weight division up. He did very well. Our judokas always step up. It always seems like they’re the ones getting lumped into the heavier weight divisions. They always fight it out and never complain.”

J&M Judo Club’s Jon Hensrud says the Dryden Club’s spacious new digs make an attractive new hub for regional clubs to meet in the middle, a key to coming together as a team before events like the Ontario Winter Games.

“It’s a good opportunity for the east and the west to get together and practice as a team,” said Hensrud. “I think that’s something we don’t do enough of. We get too used to fighting our own clubmates. Getting together like this is a really good opportunity for everyone.”

Jackson says he’d love to see the club return to its former glory, when the northwest put forth the province’s strongest competitors in the sport. Judo’s 60-year tradition in the region owes much to local club founder Rush Mitani.

In 1952, the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Famer started the Dryden Judo Club in his garage and eventually brought the region to unlikely prominence in the sport — hosting tournaments at Dryden Memorial arena with as many as 600 Judokas from as far away as Hawaii.

Mitani’s 60-year legacy leaves an impressive number of accomplished Judokas among the citizenry, people like Dryden Fire Chief Daryl Herbert, coffee and tea baron David Durrance, wind sport enthusiast Brad Woodworth and Health Unit staffer Dawn Sauve have strong ties to the sport.

In recent years, Jackson says he thinks video game culture has taken a toll on the number of young people getting involved in Judo and other sports. Although, he adds that the emergence of competitive mixed martial arts had led to a resurgence of interest.

“It’s been down all over Ontario,” said Jackson. “It’s coming back because of MMA (mixed martial arts) and UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). That’s revitalized it for sure. “Judo comes from Jujitsu — a very dangerous martial art. Our founder Jigoro Kano developed Judo, which means ‘a gentle way’ — a way of defending yourself, but not hurting or killing them.”

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