This past weekend was a bitter sweet one in the state of Arizona. In their first tournament representing CTA, Strong Heart Academy and Phoenix BJJ and MMA, CTA finished in the top 10 in team standings at the Arizona State Championship.
From Phoenix BJJ and MMA
Individually Kids:
– *Sammy Carrion – Gold in Pre-teen 1 Ultra Heavy White Belt Division
– *Phenix Carrion* – Gold in Junior Teen Super Heavy White Belt Division
– *Ethan Abraham* – Bronze in the Pre-Teen 1 Light Weight Grey/Yellow
Belt Division
– *Seth Abraham* – Bronze in the Pre-Tee 2 Ultra Heavy Grey/Yellow Belt Division
Adults:
– *Destiny Cazares* – Silver in the Blue Belt Juvenile Female Feather
Division (Destiny was only a 15 year old grey belt and decided to move up
in age bracket to Juvenile and up belt to blue belt for this tournament to
face harder opponents!)
– *Robert Sanchez* – Bronze in the Blue Belt Masters Medium Heavy
Division and Silver in the Blue Belt Masters Absolute Division (This was
Roberts first tournament as a blue belt)
– *Jose Suarez* – Gold in the White Belt Masters Heavy Division
– *Korey Kerber* – Silver in the White Belt Adult Featherweight Division
– *Caleb Baker* – Silver in the White Belt Adult Heavy Division
From Strong Heart they brought home 3 golds, 3 silvers and 4 bronze. One of the highlights of the day for both academies was seeing strong hearts student Ronee Dizion taking home the gold. This is the 6th try for Ronee and after persevering and working hard he made it to the top of the podium
For all the success the weekend was bittersweet. The evening after the tournament (this Sunday) Phoenix BJJ member Warren “Big Poppa” found out that there was a major tragedy in his firefighter family. During the summers in Arizona there is very bad wild fires and unfortunately 19 firefighters lost their lives to those fires. All tragic deaths, all 19 lost. The fire service is a family driven field, the family connection when events like this happen hits very close to home. Our condolences go out to every one in the state of Arizona, and especially to those affected by this tragedy.
