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NAGA
Grappling Championships
Joshua Lebsock From the Warrior's Cove Takes 1st Place The Warrior's Cove Competition Team joined forces to support Rickson Gracie's Highest Ranked Representative, Rodrigo Vaghi and his highly successful competition team - Team Vaghi. The Team Won 1st Place Overall and 1st Place in the Gi Divisions. (Don't miss Rodrigo's next Seminar at the Warrior's Cove!) "Nobody exactly knew how strong submission grappling was growing in the Midwest. There was huge talent, and small tournaments, but no means to truly gauge where the region was compared to the rest of the USA and the world. When the 3rd annual Chicago Grappling Championship had ended, more than 130 different divisions were hotly contested, in countless hundreds of matches, by an astonishing 700-plus grapplers. This was one of the largest grappling events ever held in the country, proof positive that grappling in the Midwest is not good, it is great, huge and surging!" - Grappling Magazine, December 2005. The Warrior's Cove had 9 members that competed in this tournament for Team Vaghi. They brought home 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze. Winners were:
Rodrigo Vaghi, had the following students in various divisions:
Over 70 large and small groups were represented at this tournament including Carlson Gracie, Pedro Sauer, Machados, and others (see below). Former student of the Warrior's Cove, Paul Petushin, also had a small group in attendance. Following are overall Team Standings based on official NAGA results:
This was a well run tournament. Hats off to the organizers. By Scott Sjoquist: Team Warrior’s Cove consisted of Scott and Melissa Sjoquist, Josh Lebsock, Chris Deager and friend Jay, Ron and Drake Heath, Darryl Peterson, Juan Rivera, Jim Stemel, Ernie Sherger and Jeramiah Johnson. Nine members were competing. Unlike last year we didn’t have any vehicle issues on the drive to Chicago. We did stop in Black River Falls, Wisconsin for gas and Deli Express sandwiches. The sandwiches were compliments of Juan Rivera he brought 5 boxes of ham and Swiss on rye bread. Thanks Juan!!! Juan didn’t pay the full toll at one both so I expect Darryl will be getting a ticket in the mail. We had dinner Friday night at Leona’s where everyone agreed they had the largest menu ever seen. Josh having cut 10 pounds over the previous few months was rubbing it in that this year he could eat what ever he wanted. Daeger being in the super heavy weight division could consume what ever he wanted and he did. He ordered a large Oreo Ice Cream Sunday. It was about a quart of dense ice cream, three mounds of whip cream, three cherry’s and a bunch of Oreo cookies. He attacked the Sunday but it proved to be a tough opponent after a couple loafs of bread and an entrée. We arrived at Morton East High school at 7:30am Saturday morning. We ended up being the 3rd or 4th group in line. At 8:00 sharp the doors opened. Everyone made weight so we loaded up in the cars and went to the Holiday in for a buffet breakfast. Josh, Chris and Jay slept in and showed up around 1:00pm. Josh Lebsock: Josh took home a first place Samurai Sword and points for Team Vaghi. Ernie Sherger: Ernie did very well with only a few weeks of training. He took home a 2ndplace silver medal and points for Team Vaghi. Ernie had a couple spectacular take downs/slams. Wait until this guy learns some more Jiu Jitsu. Jeramiah Johson: Took home a second place in Gi and points for Team Vaghi. Juan Rivera ended up in third place No-Gi division, taking home a medal and points for Team Vaghi. Scott Sjoquist: “I lost my Intermediate No-Gi match but I was happy with my performance. I wasn’t warmed up and I had to quickly get out of my street clothes and get on the mat. I was going for a modified Kimura from the bottom but he was holding it with his other arm. I gave it up and he ended up in half guard attacking my neck and I rolled when I didn’t need to and didn’t protect my neck quickly enough. Lesson Learned! He choked me out with a Rear Naked Choke between 1:30 and 2:00 minutes of the match from a mistake I made. I talked with Jason the guy I lost to after the match. He started training in 1996, is a purple belt under Pedro Sauer and has his own school south of Chicago. Jason ended up taking third in the division.” “My No-Gi Division was a different story. I was warmed up and had my gi on this time. I did my best to wait the first minute of each match. Opponent#1 The first guy was pissed he couldn’t get out of my guard and grabbed one of my fingers and a cranked it backwards. Then any time I pulled his torso down he slammed down on me trying to get head butts. He was successful on two of them. I attempted two arm bars from bottom but couldn’t finish. I won on two advantages. Opponent #2 He had finished his first opponent so I was cautious with this guy. After working the guard I finally took top position and dropped into an ankle lock the ref yelled no ankle locks so I switched to heal hook then the ref shouted no leg attacks at all. I ended up requarding. He was down by two points and couldn’t open my guard from the knees so he stood up. I swept him backwards ending up in the mount position, winning 8-0. Opponent #3 I lost this match but felt I could have tied or won it. This guy won the division. He had a take down in the middle and one near the end of the match but at no time did he have a position to submit. With a minute left I tried to get in a position to triangle but he was wise to it and defended well. With a division of 10 guys I would be competing in the third place match. Opponent #4 Jason the guy I lost to in the no gi had been coaching me during all of my matches because Josh and I were competing at the same time. However the third place match was against his guy so he wasn’t going to coach me. Melissa ran over and grabbed Josh to coach me. I put the guy in guard and waited for his arm. I jerked his arm down threw open my guard put it around the back of his neck and locked it up. As soon as I locked my leg over the top I knew he was done, because it was on tight. We rolled and he tapped. I finished with a third place bronze medal and points for Team Vaghi. I was hot after each match but I could have had matches like the first 5 for at least another hour. I had achieved my main goal of staying relaxed for all my matches and didn’t burn out. Ron thanks for calling out times and Josh for the guidance” Chris Daeger: Chris had a match that went into overtime and then into a second sudden death overtime. He got a take down and moved on. I don’t know that this was fair because Chris ended up having an extra match that the others didn’t. Jim Stremel: Jim lost both his gi and no gi matches but did well with limited training time and deciding a couple days prior to complete. Jim’s fitness has come all long way. The NAGA event was much improved over last year. More organized, finished several hours earlier, brand new wrestling mats, better food. Thanks to Ron Heath for bringing several cases of Chippewa Spring Water for the entire team, calling out times for team members and finding us when they called our divisions. Jay thanks for running camera #2 and joining us on this years trip. A special thanks to my wife Melissa for enduring another long, hot, smelly day to help out the team and bringing a touch of class. She also spent the day running around video taping and has been spending hours of her time putting together a DVD that should be available this week.
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