The Red Deer Judo club has been running in the city for more than 50 years, but it has never had a home base – until now.
The Aka Shika Dojo will provide a place for young athletes like 10-year-old Addison Wheeler to better hone their judo skills.
“The fun part is you get to throw people, and you get to learn Japanese,” said Wheeler at the grand opening of the dojo, Thursday.
During the club’s time in the city they’ve bounced between temporary locations and shared space with other sports clubs.
“It’s difficult without a permanent physical location, a physical plan, to grow your club the way you want,” said President Al Schaefer.
More than 60 people packed the dojo for the grand opening.
“You can focus more on the coaching and growing the club and attention to the athletes themselves,” explained Schaefer.
Jaquina Simao began her judo journey with the club nearly 14 years ago.
She said her training helped her become a four-time national champion with the Canadian team in Montreal.
Now she’s back to help coach future athletes.
“It's really exciting, it's a new time for me moving from competing to coaching but I'm equally excited to see the kids I coach start to compete at the level I was competing at,” explained Simao.
The space also couldn’t come at a better time as the 2019 Canada Winter Games - which will be hosted in Red Deer - aren’t too far away.
“Fourteen spots up for grabs, we don't have people in all those categories, but we should have some vying in a few of those categories,” explained head coach Brian Fujimoto.
The club relies on the hard work of volunteers to make ends meet, but the games will also provide an additional boost that Fujimoto said is long overdue, “We'll get two new mat services, that will be a real asset to the club because these mats have to be replaced on a regular basis, and it's about time.”
In a typical year, roughly 60 athletes sign up at the club.
Staff hope to see that number grow now that they have a new home.
