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Date: May 23, 2006

From: AnnMaria De Mars

To : Participants and Supporters of CJI State Championships

Subject: Thank you

The biggest state championship in the country was held this weekend with 650 competitors, more than the senior nationals and more than some junior nationals. Thank you first of all to the hundreds of players who competed and the coaches who coached them not only on Sunday but every day to get to this point. In many states, being state champion means you showed up. In California, it really means something. Even showing up to fight means you have a lot of guts because this is a tough tournament. I was so proud of all of the competitors. It was a great day to be from California.

Thank you to all of those who worked so hard day and night, literally, to make this tournament a success. I left the pooling room at 2 a.m. and Laura Clark, Karen Kataoka, Lorne Maeda, Dorothy Kunihiro, Ed Shiosaki and, of course, Jerry Hays, were all still there, just like they were last year at 2 a.m. Entering data and pooling over 1,000 matches in one day is a huge undertaking.

Thank you to all of those who helped with scorekeeping, registration and the million other tasks done by volunteers. A special thank you to Natalie Laursen and Meagan Higgins for not stealing my car when I gave them the wrong ticket to go pick up the box of Koka Kids magazines and, instead, the valet brought up my car and gave them the keys. Thank you, very, very much to the people who came to the CJI meeting, which was standing room only, especially Walter Dean who came in the middle of his vacation. The tournament bid by Gardena Dojo for the 2007 State Championships was much appreciated. I know they will put on a phenomenal tournament.

Thank you to all of the referees who worked tirelessly all day to, as Hayward Nishioka said, “Help athletes make memories of events that will last a life time”. For those children (and adults) who won their first state championships, this was a day they will never forget and you were an integral part of it.

Thanks to all of you, we raised $5,000 for California Judo, Inc. that we were able to use to give our athletes who represented us in the senior nationals even more money than we had originally planned. Last but not least, thanks to Ryan Rebman and Mitchell Palacio for handling details small and large, both in the forefront and behind the scenes.

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