Impact Masthead
April 2010 Newsletter
Crosstrain & Member Appreciation Barbecue

Please join us on Saturday, May 8, for the next Impact Jiu Jitsu crosstrain. The crosstrain will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Beaverton Impact gym.


BBQImmediately following the crosstrain, everyone is invited to a Membership Appreciation Barbecue at the gym. Impact Jiu Jitsu has gone through many changes over the past six months and has taken many steps forward. We could not have done it without our students' support. Our membership has grown, our programs have expanded, and our competition teams have been on fire both locally and nationally. Please come and celebrate with us, and get ready as we have many great things planned for the future of our gym. Food and refreshments will be provided. Family and friends are welcome as well.

Wow...What a Month!
Impact Jiu Jitsu's team competed in three big competitions, in three different states.

The Revolution
On Saturday, March 13, the Revolution tournament was held in Bonney Lake, WA. Team Impact brought 11 athletes to the competition. There were some great matches.

Rich Rangel dominated his stacked Lightweight Purple Belt division. His division included many of the Northwest's top grapplers, many who have medaled in National tournaments. Rich showed great determination and came out the winner. Andrew Wong placed second in his division, losing in the finals by points to a tough competitor. Tony Gracia competed well but lost to the same competitor that won the division. KC Thompson had a great performance in the tournament, winning two out of his three matches by armbar. He would lose his third match in sudden death overtime, injuring his rib in the process. Shaun Ryan had a sweet armbar to omoplata to sweep to armbar transition to clinch the gold in his division. Garland Goforth placed second in his division. He wrestled a tough, larger opponent and would eventually lose a best two out of three match division, but not without getting a submission victory in the second match. John Young had two good matches as well. He just received his blue belt the week before and proved that he could hang with seasoned blue belts. JT Horner won his Advanced No-gi division and John Atkins placed second in the same division.

Awesome job by all of the competitors. Thank you to those that came out to support and coach our athletes!
Sub League
Saturday, April 3, was the second and final Sub League Qualifier of 2010. It was another great success with approximately 250 competitors. All divisions ran on schedule, thanks to our awesome staff and volunteers.

Impact won the team competition with 117 points. Many great things were said about our youth and junior competitors. They came out to grapple and win. The adults did great as well, with many of them competing for the first time or moving up a division. The results can be seen at subleague.com. Pictures will be posted soon.

Registration for the Championship and Open tournaments on May 22, 2010, will be up soon as well. Watch subleague.comfor updates.
PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships
Impact Jiu Jitsu brought 18 competitors to the PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships at University of California Irvine on April 8-11. Impact came home with one Gold, two Silver, and two Bronze medals.

Blue Belt, Men
Rose & Bryan MaruggBryan "The Beast" Marugg was one of our first competitors. On Thursday, he wrestled in the Adult Lightweight Blue Belt division. This division was the biggest division of the tournament with 100 competitors. John Atkins and Sean Duffy were also in this division. Bryan started things off with ease. He sent his first opponent home in 27 seconds with a triangle submission. Bryan would have seven matches total, submitting five of those opponents. Bryan would tap his Impact patch after every victory, signaling that he couldn't have won without his team. His only loss was in the finals to a competitor who got two takedowns, then refused to do Jiu Jitsu with Bryan. Bryan kept attacking and going for submissions, but his opponent was able to escape and stalled out in Bryans guard to win the gold. Yueh Han Lin and Rodney Buswell also competed on Thursday. Both of them armbarred their first opponents, but would lose their second matches.

Blue Belt, Women
Missy ConklinMissy Conklin came out to win. Missy had three matches in her Women's Blue Belt division. Her first match ended with an armbar submission victory, but her last match ended with an armbar submission loss. Missy's grappling was excellent and she received the Bronze medal.

Purple Belt, Men
Friday was a tough day for Impact's purple belts. They all came out and wrestled to win, but unfortunately, many of them were eliminated in the first round.

Richard Rangel & Keith JohnsonThere was some spectacular grappling on Saturday, where we watched the purple belt masters (30-35 age group) division compete. Richard Rangel dominated his division, just as we knew he would. He came out to win, and he did just that will all five of his matches. Richard tapped one of his opponents with a guard armbar. Richard let the submission go, but his opponent continued wrestling and the referee said he did not see the tap. After winning the match, Richard's opponent basically admitted to tapping and advised Richard to keep the arm next time. This fueled Richard's fire and he crushed the rest of his opponents. Impact proved to be one of the loudest groups in the stadium every time Rich won. It was a very memorable moment when his hand was held in victory after his final match. Richard also tapped his Impact patch and received many high fives and hugs after his final victory.

Keith Johnson had some great matches on his way to a bronze medal. Keith trailed on points in one of his matches and with five seconds left, applied a Peruvian Neck Tie submission on his opponent to snatch victory out of his hands. He also had a huge judo throw takedown in one of his matches.

Black Belt, Men
Sunday saw our black belts compete. Head Coach Michael Chapman threw his hat in the ring and drew a tough match. His opponent got two takedowns - both times Michael attacked his opponent's back trying for submissions. Behind on points Coach Michael kept attacking with submissions but would eventually lose the five minute match. His opponent would go on to win the division. Cameron Apple was up next facing Otavio Souza, one of the top middleweights in the world and the eventual division winner. Otavio swept Cameron, passed his guard and mounted him. Cameron gave a good fight, but Otavio stayed tight and didn't give Cameron any space to escape. A recurring shoulder injury forced Cameron to tap.

Armand DebrugeCoach Armand Debruge was scheduled to be the first Impact competitor on Sunday, but he had been feeling ill on the entire trip. His desire to compete and to represent Impact overcame and he decided to compete in the Absolute division despite his illness. He wrestled three tough matches against much larger opponents, and he made it look easy. Armand should have won his third match, but the referee did not award points when he should have and then gave the decision victory to Armand's opponent. We all know Armand truly won that match. It was awesome to see him win and get so pumped up after each victory. He is truly an inspiration to everyone at Impact.

More Highlights
There were plenty of other great matches as well. Our host, John Manzi, won his Senior Blue Belt division, winning three matches. John trained with us at Impact for several years but recently moved to California for business. John still gets our newsletter and calls Coach Michael to keep up with "his team". Our friend Jeff Bourgeois from Fosters BJJ in Washington (who runs the Revolution tournaments), placed second in his division. Chris Haueter, who gave head coach Michael his black belt, won his first match by points, but lost his second by advantage points. Kayron Gracie won an epic back and forth match against Abmar Barbosa, who beat Kron Gracie and submitted Lucas Leite. Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles Maciel made history, winning four PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships. He is the only person to win gold at four back to back PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships and four back to back Mundials Jiu-Jitsu Championships.

Impact Pan Am TeamThank you to all of our competitors and coaches. Thanks to Matt Leech who came out to help coach and drive everyone around. Thanks to our friends from Alive MMA, Tom Tegner and Scott Abernathy, for their support and encouragement. This was the largest number of competitors we have ever had at a National tournament. We proved that we could hang up there with the big name teams. Time to start training for the next one.
April 21, 2010
In This Issue
Crosstrain & Barbecue
Tournament Highlights
The Revolution
Sub League
PAN JJ Championships
Belt Promotions
May 22 Sub League
Future Tournaments
Blue Belt Promotions

With the constant excitement of all the events swirling around us, you may have missed a couple recent blue belt promotions.


Shaun MirjavadiShaun Mirjavadi has used his ground control several times to best his opponents in the cage. If you've had the chance to grapple with him, you found out quickly that his skill was matched to his strength. Shaun won the Intermediate "big guy" division at Sub League Qualifier 1. The Blue belt looks good on him. 


John YoungJohn Young, who has balanced his legal career and family life with Jiu Jitsu time, made the jump to Blue Belt in March. John is a great training partner and has focused his skills into a very strong game. After John signed up for the Revolution tournament, Coach Michael decided John needed to move up to the Blue Belt division to find enough challenge. John did very well, as noted in the Revolution review.


Congratulations guys. You both make us look good.

May 22 Sub League

Get ready for the Sub League Championship and Open Tournaments on Saturday, May 22.


Impact Jiu Jitsu is currently in the lead on Team Points as we head into the Championship.


Athletes that placed first through fifth at one or both of the qualifier events on February 13 and April 3 have qualified for the Championship event. A first place win in one qualifier awards that competitor 50 percent off their Championship registration. A first place win at both qualifiers awards them free entry into the Championship.


The Open Tournament on May 22 is for those athletes who either did not qualify or were not able to attend the earlier events.


Start preparing now. Invitations will be emailed later this month. Watch subleague.com for updates and more details.


More Great
Opportunities to Compete

In addition to the Sub League Championship and Open Tournaments on May 22, there will be plenty of opportunities to compete and to support your teammates. The Mundials BJJ Championships will be held in Long Beach, CA, June 3-6. The next Revolution tournament is scheduled for July 17 in Washington. The first Las Vegas International Open Jiu Jitsu Championship will be held on August 14. We will keep you updated as more tournaments become known.

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Impact Jiu Jitsu
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716 E. 1st Street | Newberg, Oregon 97132 | 503-537-0104