The anticipation was killing me as we drove up from Kansas City to Kearney, Missouri for Ruby's first Judo tournament. She had literally been asking me everyday for at least a month, how many days until her tournament and the day was finally here. Having had at least four or five months of practice under her belt it was time to see if she could turn theory into action. As we arrived in the high school I walked with the wife and kids over to the bleachers. Once everyone was settled in I set out to scout out her bracket and the competition. Not surprisingly, Ruby was the National Champion, as soon as we got there. Being that there were no other 5 and under, less than 40 pound girls signed up, by default Ruby won her bracket and her first national championship. Unlike the Kansas Jayhawks, Ruby could just show and win the national championship...zing!
Considering my in-laws, my Dad and his wife, my brother and his wife and kids, Ruby's preschool teacher, and one cousin all came to the meet to watch I had to find at least one match for her. I spoke with the tournament director and he told me that if I could find some kids and coaches who would be willing to set up an exhibition match then he would put it on the schedule. Unfortunately, I could only find two boys, who were roughly her age and weight to match up with. I would rather her fight only girls but she would have been heart broken if she didn't get a chance to shine.
Her first match was against her practice partner, Peyton. They are almost the exact same size and were excited to go against eachother. The judge says "hajime" (begin) to start the match. All of the commands are in Japanese and it's pretty cool to see the kids take right to it. Ruby attempted her two throws she knows many times, but to no avail, she was forced to use her suffocating ground technique to subdue Peyton and get a 5-2 victory. I don't even know if she realized she won but her and Peyton were smiling and laughing after it was over so I was happy.
After waiting around two hours, it was time for her second match. She was tired, having missed her nap, and not feeling very good. The fire in her eye from earlier was extinguished, I could tell this was going to be rough. From the very beginning of the match, she was on the defensive, backing up, not being aggressive. The little guy finally took her down and got her on her back, she would later claim she was being choked, which is not allowed until 12 years old, and was "pinned". Any thought I had that she didn't really care about winning and losing was immediately erased when she knew she lost and broke down in tears. Her coach came up to me later and said, "she doesn't like losing does she?" Absolutely not.
By that point we had been there for almost six hours, got to watch her fight in two matches, and were ready to go home. She got to stand on top of the podium get her first place medal and ride off into the sunset. Just before we left her coach told me that she would be getting her yellow belt at practice on Tuesday. She is going to be thrilled. What a great day with my little national champion.
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