QUINCY — Robert Bentley said that he doesn’t always reach out to share news of tournament wins for his staff and students at Legacy Martial Arts, partly because it happens so frequently.
This time calls for an exception.
“I’m forever impressed by them, but don’t typically reach out to the media because they’re always winning, and I don’t want to be overwhelming,” Bentley said. “But this is the best we’ve ever done over my 23 years of teaching.”
Ten students and staff took part last week in the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) Tournament of Champions in Phoenix. A total of 1,258 athletes from 13 different nations competed at the tournament, with a full load of awards coming home to Quincy with Bentley’s team.
“Many of our students have competed internationally for years,” Bentley said, “but this year was especially exciting as other countries haven’t been able to travel since 2019. So this was a celebration of 13 countries, across five continents, coming together. to represent (the) ATA. I love that our students don’t take the opportunity lightly.
For team Legacy, champions at the event emerged at the world and national level.
Chase Bradshaw brought home first-place wins in the world champion competitions for Extreme Weapons, Traditional Forms, Traditional Weapons, and Combat Weapons, along with a second-place finish in Sparring.
Jen Bradshaw scored first-place finishes for Creative Weapons, Extreme Forms, and Extreme weapons, and second-place finishes for Creative Forms and Combat Weapons. Debbie Shierling took the top spot for Traditional weapons and third place for Combat Weapons. Joan Goehl took first for Combat Weapons and Sparring with a third place for Traditional Weapons.
Peyton Robbins with Team Highlanders took top honors in Team Combat and second place in Team Sparring. Other notable finishes include Robert Bentley’s second place finish for Creative Weapons, Anna Lee Bentley’s pair of second-place finishes for Creative Weapons and Extreme Weapons along with third place finishes in Creative and Extreme Forms. Greg Shierling took second in the Traditional Weapons competition.
Team Legacy was filled out with Jadyn Green and Mia Blaesing taking to the mats in Phoenix. In order to be invited to compete for the title of World Champion, competitors must be ranked in the top ten around the world for that season.
“Words can hardly express the pride that I feel for these athletes when they win,” Bentley said. “But I don’t care if my students win, I care how hard they work. Winning is just the result of the daily discipline they had to get there.
“What gold medals don’t tell us is the story it took to get there,” he continued. “The years of practice, the other students who made great training partners the whole way, the awesome instructors we have right here in Quincy and Hannibal and the guest instructors we’ve had from all over the nation, who love to visit us because of the dedication our athletes have towards their training. A quote from Disney’s (film) ‘Cool Runnings’ says ‘a gold medal is a great thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.’”
“The thing I love about martial arts is how it teaches life skills to our students like self-confidence, discipline, respect,” he said. “The life skill I see represented the most in competition is perseverance. Debbie Shierling has seen the podium at the World Championships nine times, six of those being silver medals. As great as that sounds, as an athlete, it can often feel defeating being the runner-up that many times, and this year, she finally reached the pinnacle for the first time, being crowned World Champion.
“Perseverance is never giving up, even when you fail, even when it’s hard, even when you’re tired, even when you feel defeated,” Bentley added. “Debbie Shierling is the definition of perseverance, and all our students and instructors looked up to her before the title.”
Bentley said he’s proud of his staff and students as representatives for the Quincy area. He noted that, demographically, Legacy Martial Arts is in the top 1% of the winningest schools in the country for Taekwondo, based on population.
To Bentley, the martial arts he teaches aren’t about medals and trophies or even about fighting.
Bentley said that he also loves how family oriented martial arts has become, especially for his Legacy team.
“Debbie’s husband Greg also saw the podium at this tournament,” Bentley said. “My wife Anna and I both saw the podium at this tournament… (should I) mention how much better she did than me? Jen (Bradshaw) and (her son) Chase both won World Titles in multiple events. What a special moment for all of us.”
Bentley emphasized that, even though awards are given primarily for individual performance, taekwondo is very much a team sport.
“We have over 300 students that helped get these competitors ready for the grand stage,” he said. “We have five full time instructors, an additional six interns, and a dozen certified instructors who prepared these athletes for the top level. Legacy has over 75 black belts actively training each week, and we had over 150 individual students compete in this year’s tournament season. Each individual competitor is grateful to every member of Legacy for helping them get where they are.”
Along with the competition itself, Bentley noted that the world championship is a chance for staff and students to meet friends they’ve made through social media face to face for the first time.
“Peyton, Mia and Jadyn had girls from all over South America in their division, Argentina and Chile mostly. Eli Combs had competitors from Portugal and South Africa. But there is nothing like seeing (the US flag) on the podium. We represent our country, we represent the tri-states, we represent Quincy.”
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