I hear the recruiting year went very well for them. I know of at least 3 young and very good Los Angeles area players who started there this semester. Jack Hatton moved to the area and will be training with them. I think he will be a solid -81kg player for them. A player with tons of potential from the midwest and one from Japan might be there too but haven't heard more about it. Add in the some of the top players already there, and things are looking very good for them
Hatton had a lot of potential as a 15 yr. old for Jason Morris. Haven't seen him fight since. I know he lost his match in the junior worlds this past year. Please keep us informed on there recruiting. I know my buddy is considering SJSU for his son(judo/wrestling) who is an 11th grader in HS.
Hatton has a lot of potential as an 18 year old training at SJSU as well.
SJSU now has two more real -73kg players. One is an Armenian kid from LA who placed at Nationals. The other is a kid from the midwest who was on a wrestling scholarship but is now at SJSU from what I hear.
At -81kg the new blood will be the top -81kg HS player from Japan. Hatton will be there at -81kg. Colton Brown at -90kg. LA Smith at -100kg are still there as well and are top players in their weight categories.
Another Armenian kid with real promise at -66kg. Then at heavyweight another Armenian kid from Los Angeles. Not to mention the kids who are already there. There really is no other place for graduating teens who want to do judo at a high level and also get a degree. Not to mention they will be in the great California weather in the most beautiful national training site. After graduation, there are plenty of opportunities in the Bay Area if they've done well in their academics.
Out of state students really need to contact SJSU Judo because they know the ins and outs of getting the kid in school the most affordable way. If he is an 11th grader should contact them by January of next year. California schools are becoming more crowded and applications need to get in sooner.
I will relay the message to his dad. I do know he going away to school. That is a given I think Texas A/M is another college they are considering. But I think right now SJSU has the nod.
No idea. Was just the answer I got when I asked about how recruiting was going a few weeks ago. Edit: Just to be clear I'm not sure if he is there yet or not. I know that things were looking good for him being there.
As for the -73kg Armenian, I think he's a Hayastan member but trains at Tenri frequently. Will miss seeing him there.
I believe the Armenian heavyweight is actually Persian but he trains with the Armenians and also does Sambo in Beverly Hills. Really huge guy. Nice guy, too.
I'm rooting for Hatton as I train w/ his father and brother. I wish him luck. He's really something special and I can see him going far. Whole world is ahead of him.
Regarding Hatton, I'm not so concerned about who he was or even who he is. I'm more interested in who he can become. I like the athletes who aren't really on people's radar. Number 10's are on nobody's radar.
He's only 18 maybe 19 years old. I didn't go to Sr. Nationals last year, but heard he played great defeating Reser and Joshua White. He couldn't have been more than 17 or 18 at the time. He's played up in weight at some tough regionals and did pretty good. Gotta love that.
He isn't catching Travis by 2016. Give him 2 1/2-4 years at SJSU with some great training partners his weight and one category down, one category up and I believe he will be a very tough person to beat. Yeah. Somewhere between 21-23 years of age, I think people will start talking about him.
I don't know about "open mat" there. I have brought brown belts to practice there on a visit. That said, they were all members of USA Judo and we contacted them in advance of going there to make sure we were welcome.
EKPOGI, I'm pretty sure you don't have to be shodan. The spirit of the rule is to prevent people, BJJers in particular, from showing up and wasting everyone's time by committing shidos from start to finish. I personally look forward to these types of scenarios but I can see how others find them unproductive.
BJ Penn wasn't the first BJJ competitor to go and train/teach at SJSU and he won't be the last either. Just off the top of my head, Flavio Almeida went up there and is a good friend of Swain. Michael Jen trained there with David Williams. Of course David Camarilllo has a solid relationship with them now and the head coach Shintaro Nakano teaches over at Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu as well.
BUT, if you want to visit and train there, the proper protocol is to contact them in advance.
