A kickboxing team from Yellowknife with a string of national titles under their belt is preparing for international competitions this fall. For a “little” club in Yellowknife, they’ve achieved some hard wins that teams in Ontario and southern regions might only dream of.
Scott Thompson and John Stanley, who run Stanley Boxing and Fitness in Yellowknife, just returned from the national championships with a stellar team.
“We had two of our youth win gold, and one youth won silver, and our two adults also came home with Silver, and then two more youth with bronze,” Thompson told True North FM.
John Stanley, who is the club’s head coach, started kickboxing as a young adult after practicing boxing and Taekwondo as a teen. He’s been coaching for 30 years now.
Thompson explained that bringing 10 athletes this year, this was the biggest team that they’ve ever taken to the Nationals in Toronto.
Stanley pointed out that the team from Yellowknife is going a long way.
“For a small place, we’re what we’re doing here is pretty phenomenal in reality. I mean we bring up 10 athletes and come home with two Canadian Champions and three silver medallists. We had five in the final five, 50 per cent of our athletes were in the finals, I feel pretty proud of the way the team has been operating and what we’ve been able to accomplish,” he told True North FM.
Thompson pointed out that they also won two gold medals last year, one the year before and several other placements.
Stanley explained that as a gym, they’ve trained 17 Canadian champions in three different combat sports, including boxing, mixed martial arts and kickboxing.
For a “little place” in the far North, that’s a major accomplishment.
“The thing is we’re we’re doing something that like we come from a small obviously, a very small population and we see teams from Ontario that have a million people to draw on that kind of thing — and they’re not bringing home any more medals than we are,” noted Stanley.
Stanley and Thompson said that the sport of kickboxing is growing in popularity among youth in Yellowknife, but also among adults.
“There’s always, there’s always a good crowd there, and it’s growing all the time,” said Stanley.
The club currently has about 100 youth who take part in kickboxing and not all of them compete.
“A lot of them are doing it for self-defence or just for sport and to be active,” explained Stanley.
The sport of kickboxing has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee and is expected to be featured in the Olympics in the coming years.
The club also works with organizations like Sport North and KidsSport.
“So we work hand in hand with helping kids in that way too,” explained Stanley.
Athletes from the club are now preparing to head to an international competition.
“This is the first time it’s been held. It is a North American tournament, but it’s open to countries around the world as well,” said Stanley.
And in November, one athlete is heading to the senior World Championships in Abu Dhabi.
This will be the second time in his career that he’s coached a senior athlete on a national team competing at that level.
The club is preparing to host a special event, which will bring local athletes together with athletes from across the country.
“We are going to be hosting a competition in the new year, a local show. It’s going to be an East versus West kind of thing,” explained Stanley.
The event is in the planning stages and the vision is to give athletes from territories and Alta. and athletes from the eastern part of the country a chance to take part in kickboxing competitions right here in Yellowknife.
“We’ve got great reception up here and great support for those competitions, and it’s great for athletes to be able to compete locally. So we’re looking forward to that as well, outside of local competitions. That will give our local athletes an opportunity to compete without having to travel as well,” said Stanley.
