This past week, the National AAU Taekwondo Program distributed its Annual Awards in three different categories.  The first set of awards is presented annually to the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal winning Districts based on total registrations for the year.  The 2008/2009 winners top districts were the Gulf District (Houston TX area) under the direction of Master David McClosky with 1537 registered AAU athletes!  This is truly remarkable given that the Gulf District is but one of five in the state of Texas.  The Gulf District historically finishes 1st or 2nd each and every year. 

The Silver Medal winner in 2009 was our Maryland District under the supervision of Master Scott Fiorillo.  The Maryland District finished 2009 with 1,087 registered athletes.  And rounding out the top three spots as our Bronze Medal winner was the Pacific District (San Francisco, CA area) under the guidance of Professor Bill Dewart.  Pacific finished the year with 759 AAU athletes.

“These three AAU Districts continue to achieve top performance and help set the example for all other Districts to follow when it comes to recruitment and programming as well as coaches and officials certification training” says National Sport Chair, Mike Friello.   Our goal is to the raise the level of productivity of the next ten Districts to this kind of performance. 

Recognizing that not all Districts have the potential to be the ‘biggest’ the AAU Taekwondo Program also distributes similar awards to the Top Three Growth Districts based on their percentage growth in registered athletes over the prior year.  The only pre-condition being that they must have registered at least 100 AAU athletes in the prior year. 

The Gold Medal Growth District in 2009 was the Puerto Rican District which operates under their District Sports Director Master Luis Pena Merced.  “We couldn’t be more pleased than we are with the progress Master Pena has demonstrated in Puerto Rico this past year”, said Mr. Friello.  In only its 2nd year of activity, Puerto Rico increased AAU Taekwondo membership an outstanding 183.78%!  And not only is Puerto Rico bringing us a good number of athletes but great athletes to boot having qualified over 20 at the AAU Nationals in Fort Lauderdale last summer for Team Trails.  Puerto Rico hit the ground running and has not looked back.  We’re expecting even bigger things in 2010”.

Another bright star on the horizon, the Montana AAU Taekwondo District laid claim to the Silver Medal spot in the Growth category.  Headed up by Master John Paul Noyes, the Montana District grew a whopping 111.94% in 2009—also in only its 2nd year of AAU Taekwondo activity.  Finishing off the top spots among our growth awards, the Bronze Medal was claimed by Master Angel Aranzamedi and the Colorado AAU District with yet another 100%+ growth (105.17%!). 

“This is the first time that all three Growth Awards were given out to Districts with more than 100% growth over the prior year.  Quite an accomplishment in what many considered to be a recession year.  It is this kind of ‘grassroots’ work by all six Districts, their local leadership, and active members that helped AAU Taekwondo maintain it’s Number One position in registered athletes in the Olympic Taekwondo community with 14,587. 

Rounding out the Annual Awards is the presentation of the David Revenes Award for outstanding service and leadership by an individual to the AAU Taekwondo Program.  It was David Revenes (of the Amateur Athletic Union) together with Dr. Kin Min who first introduced Olympic style Taekwondo to the American public.  Dr. Min served as the first National Sport Chair Chairman from 1974-1978.

This year’s winner of this most prestigious award is Mr. John Bechthold of Waukesha, WI.  John stepped up and took over District Sport Direct responsibilities when our former WI Director has to step down due to health concerns.  Since then he has also assumed the Regional Director position.  In the past several years John has made himself an invaluable asset at our National Championship having taken it upon himself to become our ‘homegrown’ expert with DeltaPool—the tournament management system used throughout all of Europe’s “A” rated events.  And if that wasn’t enough, John has been working very closely with both our National Chief Referee, Chuong Pham, and Officials Program Administrator, Ms. Pat Weseman, to continually upgrade the more technological aspects of our training programs.  Together, these three will be unavailing an entirely new official’s training program in the fall of 2010.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners on a job well done.  For more information about these awards and past year’s winners, please visit aautaekwondo.org