TEAM EVER-GOLD

The latest revolution in sport karate isn't karate at all; it's Team Evergreen, one of Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw Kung Fu's national competition team branches. While Kung-Fu stylists often fare poorly at open karate tournaments, Team Evergreen has been forging an unbroken chain of victories up and down the West Coast. And if you haven't heard of them, you probably didn't attend any "AAA" NBL (National Black Belt League) competitions in the Pacific Northwest in the 2000-2001 seasons or IMAC (International Martial Arts Council) tournaments in the 2001-2002 season.

Based at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. (just south of Seattle), this group of students and martial artists tackled fourteen NBL tournaments in the 2000-2001 season and eight IMAC competitions in 2002. They consistently dominated competition in both forms and fighting, and have won numerous Grand Championships, including Jessie Smith's "hat-trick" of three in one day at Jesse Palmer's 2002 Coca Cola Nationals. Team Evergreen competes in many different NBL and IMAC divisions: forms, both traditional and creative; point sparring, both regular and continuous; and at Chinese-style tournaments in semi- and full-contact divisions such as WKC (World Kickboxing Council), USAWKF (USA Wushu Kung Fu Federation) and san shou.

Their main competition venue in the 2001 season was the NBL, which is one of the largest open sport karate competition circuits and is sanctioned in 52 countries. In 2002 they competed predominantly in IMAC, which has drawn many former NBL fighters and culminates in their World Championships in Vegas. Team Evergreen takes great pride in smashing the karate stereotype of Kung-Fu competitors as pretty gymnastic performers by demonstrating hard-hitting Shaolin Eagle Claw forms on the floor and hitting them hard in the ring.

Team Evergreen is part of the larger worldwide Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw International headed by Grandmaster Fu Leung, who introduced Bak Shaolin Eagle claw to the U.S. in the 1970s. His long time disciple, Sifu Dana G. Daniels, founded the Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw U.S. National Collegiate Teams in 1995 and established two collegiate clubs at the University of Wisconsin in both Madison and Oshkosh. These teams flourished in 1996, taking five of 15 national ranking medals in continuous fighting at the USAWKF National Championships.

They earned fame and notoriety while fighting excellent Chinese kung-fu teams such as Tat Mau Wong's and Wing Lam's, and completely dominated Lily Lau's Eagle Claw tournaments in San Francisco in 1996 and 1998. The team produced several top Kung-Fu people who are also successful in their own chosen fields. Noam Reininger, a forms, continuous, and san shou gold medallist in the USAWKF, was immediately hired by DELL Computer Corporation after graduation and now works at their headquarters in Austin, Texas as a team lead on the fast track to management. Sam Haskin, also a gold medallist, was hired by the British web design company, Fluent Communications in Seattle, WA, and now is the Interactive Development Team Manager.

Haskin was also the founder of the Evergreen Team. A young college student at the time, he transferred from the University at Madison (Wis.) to Evergreen State College in 1996 and organized the Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw Kung Fu Club and Competition Team. The Team is composed of Evergreen students with an interest in genuine Kung-Fu. So while Team Evergreen is six years old, its victories come from an unbroken legacy of Kung-Fu that is vested in Grandmaster Fu Leung, his Bak Sil Lum Ying Jow lineage, its ancestors, the national coach Sifu Dana G. Daniels, and the national team.

From such memorable victories as the 1995 World Wushu Championships in Baltimore, Md., in which Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw took 32 medals in the nationals, including gold in sanshu, to the more recent victories of Team Evergreen at tournaments like Double Diamonds 2000, Jon Funk's Tiger Balm 2000, Henry Chung's Midland Martial Arts Open Championship, Al Dacascos's 12th Western U.S. Nationals, the NBL Super Grands 2000-2001, and Jesse Palmer's Coca Cola Nationals 2002, Team Evergreen has continued to impress.

The list of trophies is certainly impressive. At the Double Diamonds, Team Evergreen took 17 medals with seven competitors. At Jon Funk's Tiger Balm Internationals 2000, they took 27 medals including forms Grand Champion by Sam Haskin and third runner-up by Loa Arnoth with only 11 competitors. At the NW Martial Arts Challenge, they took 17 medals with nine competitors. At Dacascos's 12th Western Nationals they took 24 medals with seven competitors. At the NBL Super Grands 2000-01 the team took 23 top-ten World Rankings and at the Coca Cola Nationals 2002, they went home with 16 medals. No matter where they go or who the competition is, Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw leaves its mark.

The Team follows a daily training schedule that involves a variety of components. At the heart of its regiment are the traditional drills of Northern Shaolin and Northern Eagle Claw as taught by Grandmaster Fu Leung and Sifu Daniels. These drills provide a well-rounded martial arts curriculum with attention to physical strength, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, hand and footwork, stances, mental focus, and most importantly, spirit. Team Evergreen trains at least three hours a day, with marathon sessions lasting up to eight hours. They have an indomitable spirit born of paying their dues on a daily basis. So while some teams may owe their success to prodigal students or full-ride sponsorships; Team Evergreen does it the old-fashioned way — working and training for success every day of the week.

Team Evergreen takes great pride in demonstrating the strengths of Chinese Kung-Fu, its tradition and warrior way on the open karate circuit. It continues to push the limits of just how much a collegiate team of fulltime students and graduate player-coaches can accomplish, an accomplishment almost of unheard of in the NBL, USWKF, IMAC or other sanctions.

Meet The Team

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