Black Belt

Tae Kwon Do masters in Bel Air held their black belt testing recently. Students ranged in age from 11 to 60 years old. The testing was held by Master Jimmy Hennesey and officiated by Masters Don Patterson and Stanton Tam. Students who tested for their first degree black belt included Adam Trzepkowski, Justin Saing, James Di Meo, Daniel Goettel and Andrew Becker. Testing for their second-degree included Alex Dietrich, Amelia Gutkoska, Will Bearsch, Cheyenne Woppman, Jeff Blevins and Matt Bacher.

Tae Kwon Do masters in Bel Air held their black belt testing recently. Students ranged in age from 11 to 60 years old. The testing was held by Master Jimmy Hennesey and officiated by Masters Don Patterson and Stanton Tam. Students who tested for their first degree black belt included Adam Trzepkowski, Justin Saing, James Di Meo, Daniel Goettel and Andrew Becker. Testing for their second-degree included Alex Dietrich, Amelia Gutkoska, Will Bearsch, Cheyenne Woppman, Jeff Blevins and Matt Bacher.

THEY LEARNED AT A Millersville martial arts studio, and they put their knowledge to use in Ireland. And when they were done, 18-year-old James Miller and 12-year-old Sheryl Leavell were world champions in their age groups at the 2001 European World Martial Arts Games. Miller of Glen Burnie and Sheryl of Severna Park won three gold medals each at the competition last month in Killarney, Ireland, where they amazed the competition from 15 countries with their knowledge of the ancient art of self-protection and personal discipline.

Each week, we bring you a Q&A with a Ravens player to help you get to know him better. Today's guest is safety Haruki Nakamura, 24, a third-year veteran who grew up in a family of judo champions and played football to forge his own identity in the family. Question: How far back does you family's judo tradition run? Answer: It started with my father (Ryozo). He was actually being shuffled around the world to teach judo. He came from Japan to the United States in the 60s and ended up being one of the top referees in judo.

NAJIB AMIN will live forever or die trying. He is 71 years old and still putting the kids through their paces. Sometimes they think he's not talking their language. But there are days, like last week with Julian Harris, where they come back to tell Amin he was right, and look how their lives are working out. Julian came in from Chicago. Amin remembers him as puffed up, exploding with energy, bragging to everybody in the locker room that he was better than they were. You never know about kids.

While many senior citizens are relaxing in retirement, 80-year-old Bingham Ford is flipping men half his age over his back.Nearly two weeks ago, Mr. Ford became the oldest person in the world to earn a black belt in ninjutso, a Japanese martial art that combines several styles. Last year, Mr. Ford received a black belt in taijutso, an unarmed version of ninjutso."Age is relative," said Mr. Ford, who is a month shy of his 81st birthday. "If you think you're old, you're old."It has taken the agile octogenarian only three years to earn the belt at Will Maier's United Martial Arts studio in Columbia, where Mr. Ford is an assistant teacher and advisory consultant.

Two days shy of his 83rd birthday, Brooks Bingham "Bing" Ford really is getting better.Three years ago, the Columbia resident marked his 80th year -- amid the fanfare of 300 spectators who had gathered at Howard High School -- by earning a first-degree black belt in martial arts.Mr. Ford is still kicking and punching -- with the same fervor of his younger classmates at Will Maier's United Martial Arts studio in Columbia -- toward a third-degree black belt that he hopes to attain on his 85th birthday.

The mere thought of inflicting pain in such an intentionally ghastly way made the dozen Johns Hopkins University women cringe and groan with discomfort.A thumb gouge to the eyes? Squishing the eyeballs with sudden and forceful pressure? Could I really bring myself to do that?You can and you better if ever you're in a threatening situation when your life could depend on it, Long Reach village resident Sharon Sirkis told the students at her self-protection seminar.Ms. Sirkis, 36, a black belt in karate who owns a karate studio in Anne Arundel County, also runs Have Black Belt/Will Travel, a business that takes her to private homes, businesses and campuses to teach women basic self-defense and to increase their self-confidence.

CALL Mark Joyce's pager, and a girl's voice says, in a strong drawl, "Hi, my name is Kristen Joyce. I am a black-belt candidate. If you wish to speak to my daddy, Mark Joyce, please leave a message."In February, Kristen, a fourth-grader at Elkridge Elementary School, was one of the youngest children to earn a first-degree karate black belt in the state -- though her father has yet to change his message because he loves her put-on Texas accent.She has 22 trophies in her room and has won first place in the East Coast Regional Karate Tournament three times.

After a late-night college party, a "rather naive" freshman named Pam Hinkle was taking a walk with a friend and fellow student. Suddenly, the gentleman got "rather aggressive."Hinkle, who stood little more than 5 feet, retaliated the best way she knew how: She grabbed him in a choke-hold."He didn't pass out, but he did kind of give me the signal that he'd had enough," said Hinkle, a Glen Burnie resident. "Then we just walked back to the party and that was it. We never talked about the incident again."

During the next three days, a lot of the Ravens' attention will be focused on quarterback Joe Flacco, the team's top draft pick out of Delaware. But the sleeper of the Ravens' draft is a safety of Japanese heritage out of the University of Cincinnati named Haruki Nakamura. Nakamura was a sixth-round pick, and general manager Ozzie Newsome and secondary coach Mark Carrier love the guy. "When I watched him play, he was always moving, always in motion, always getting in the film," Carrier said.

Sarah Magladery Lamont, a Baltimore-born owner of an office interior landscape business in Canada, died of cancer Friday at Uxbridge Cottage Hospital in Ontario. She was 55 and had formerly lived in Northeast Baltimore. Sarah Magladery was the daughter of Dr. John W. Magladery, a Johns Hopkins neurologist, and Virginia Lane Magladery, a social worker. She was raised in Towson, attended the Friends School and was a 1970 Bryn Mawr School graduate. She earned a bachelor's degree at Douglass College at Rutgers University.

When Allie Buote was 9 years old, she wanted to be a Ninja Turtle. Jumping on the couch and leaping across the room, she mimicked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles she saw on TV. She was dying to take karate lessons, so her parents enrolled her in taekwondo for her birthday. "My mom didn't think I'd actually stick with it," Buote said with a laugh. She did. She loved it. By 12, she had earned a black belt. By 14, she had a first-degree black belt. All the while, Buote was learning a host of skills and strategies that would help her with the sport she had a passion for most - lacrosse.

Baltimore City Council President Sheila Dixon cried at a live, televised public meeting last night. Yes, that is news. Dixon, who becomes mayor next month, has a reputation as a tough leader. But at her final council meeting as president, Dixon's steely exterior melted as her colleagues gave her a surprise sentimental sendoff in the form of a resolution thanking her for 20 years of service. Even the two-term president - who will be Baltimore's first female mayor and the only one with a black belt in karate - was taken aback by her emotions.

Warner Lai is a rangy eighth-grader who rips through cinder blocks with his bare hand in gym class. He's almost a black belt. Today, he and three other eighth-graders at Midtown Academy, where two mandatory tae kwon do classes each week fulfill the state's physical education requirement, will take tests needed to graduate from danbo, or black belt-in-training, to full-fledged black belt. "I'm calm, I'm ready for this," Warner, 14, said this week, after his last class before the trials.

Take in tae kwon do The lowdown -- See what it takes to earn a black belt -- watch the Potomac Valley Amateur Athletic Union Tae Kwon Do Championship Saturday. The district championship will feature tae kwon do specialists from age 3 to adult. More than 1,000 competitors and spectators are expected to attend. If you go -- The championship is Saturday in the Knott Arena, 16300 Old Emmitsburg Road on the campus of Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg. The hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Free parking is available on campus.

Warner Lai is a rangy eighth-grader who rips through cinder blocks with his bare hand in gym class. He's almost a black belt. Today, he and three other eighth-graders at Midtown Academy, where two mandatory tae kwon do classes each week fulfill the state's physical education requirement, will take tests needed to graduate from danbo, or black belt-in-training, to full-fledged black belt. "I'm calm, I'm ready for this," Warner, 14, said this week, after his last class before the trials.

To show students that doing well can bring them recognition, the Citizens Advisory Committee of Quarterfield Elementary School has asked The Sun to help publicize its Student of the Week. Winners of the honor must write about themselves.My name is Matthew Robert Mikulsky. I'm 10 years old. I live in Glen Burnie, Maryland. I have two younger brothers, a mom and a dad.I'm a fifth grader at Quarterfield Elementary School. My hobbies are writing comics in my composition notebooks and collecting cards.

Joseph Amrhein Sr., a retired industrial engineer for Western Electric Co. and a student of martial arts, died Monday of cancer at Northwest Hospital Center. The Baltimore resident was 86. He was born in Baltimore and attended Polytechnic Institute, but withdrew before graduating to get a job to help his mother. He later returned to high school to earn his GED. He served as a Navy petty officer during World War II aboard the USS Melvin R. Nauman, where he saw action at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Philippine Islands.