The Dragons were breathing fire in Fort Lauderdale last week. Dragon’s Dojo in Spring Hill Florida continued its impressive run of winning Tae Kwon Do fighting medals at the national level.
Carlos Carasquillo, a long-time staple in the Spring Hill community and martial arts teacher in the Hernando County School System, continues to field a competitive national team of Tae Kwon Do students.
This year, the travel team consisted of three female and two male participants. Taylor James won gold in her belt and weight class in fighting completing three grueling fights before winning in an exciting final fight. She also won a bronze medal in the forms division. Darby Turley won gold in both forms and fighting despite having a challenging time finding anyone to fight in her age and weight class. Katie Henry, fighting as a 12 year old, won bronze and qualified for national team tryouts in the black belt division and will compete against three 14 year old girls for a spot on the national team in September in Lauderdale. She won two tough fights before losing a hard fought semi-final match.
Ethan Coker, fighting as a 14 year old in the boys 15-17 year old division, fought an incredibly exciting fight but after a lot of action (and head kicks), lost a close one at the end. Demetrius Garcia closed out the fighting by winning a bronze. He had a tough fight and battled to the end and came up short in his first attempt at nationals.
The dojo will next be represented by Katie Henry at the national team trials in September and then the entire dojo will compete in the Walt Disney World tournament Oct 8 – 10.