Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Coach offers self-defense classes; team to train in Stafford
9/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Taekwondo
More than 50 female students and staff attended a self-defense seminar led by Liberty University tae kwon do coach Jesse Wilson and members of his team, held Aug. 25 in the Wiseman Wrestling Room.
"For the women of Liberty, with college students coming in and being away from home for the first time, we offered some advice and introduced them to very basic training in martial arts and some of my training techniques from my time in the U.S. Army," Wilson said.
The event was so well received that Wilson, in response to the recent abduction of a female University of Virginia student in Charlottesville, Va. and other missing persons cases in the Lynchburg, Va., area, plans to instruct a full day of self-defense classes Oct. 2 at Rustburg High School in nearby Campbell County. He has tentatively scheduled another seminar at Liberty open to female students, faculty, and staff on Jan. 19.
"I have been thinking of how to help the young women in the surrounding community and decided to reach out to the local high schools to run a similar program for their ninth and 10th grade females," said Wilson, who will teach the students during their physical education class with help from his assistant coaches Tom Childress and Brian Preiser and team members.
This Saturday, Wilson will take the Flames to Power Kix Martial Arts Studio in Stafford, Va., to train in a clinic led by former United States tae kwon do Olympian Arlene Limas in preparation for the season's first Atlantic Collegiate Alliance of Tae Kwon Do (ACAT) Tournament, Oct. 26 in Virginia Tech. The other three ACAT events will take place at Duke, American University, and Stafford in March.
Liberty started the season with 18 competitors, but has picked up a few more newcomers to complement last year's National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Championship qualifiers Dani Gallagher, a black belt, and intermediate green belt Biranganine "John" Ntibornera, a refugee from the Congo. Both are seeking national bids again with first- or second-place showings in each of the four ACAT tournaments of the season. Two newcomers, black belts Adam Saxton and Ty Hong, also have an excellent shot.
"Both of them have great potential, so we may end up taking four this year," Wilson said.
