AWB has its own ‘karate kid’
SELKIRK — The RCS school district has its own “karate kid.”
Lukas Schmitt, 9, is a fourth grade student at A.W. Becker Elementary School and has won big in both national and international martial arts competitions.
Lukas last weekend competed in the 9-10 year old age division at the Markham City Open in Ontario, Canada, an international karate competition, where he took home both a gold and silver medal.
This was on top of the bronze medal he won after traveling to Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in July.
Lukas has been studying karate for only two years, yet has medaled in both national and international competitions. He began the sport with the Albany County Recreation Program, right here in Ravena at Pieter B. Coeymans Elementary School.
“A backpack note came home talking about the free rec program,” said Lukas’ mom, Lisa Schmitt. “We didn’t know he would absolutely fall in love with it.”
Though he has only been at it a couple of years, Lukas has become enamored of the sport.
“We can be in the middle of the mall and he will start practicing his moves — that’s how much he loves it,” Lisa Schmitt said.
Last weekend Lukas won the gold medal in kata, a specific series of movements in which the athlete must maintain proper form, and a silver medal in kumite, in which the athlete trains against an adversary. Kata and kumite are two of the three main forms of karate training.
He traveled to Canada with 21 fellow students in his dojo, where he trains with the Albany TKO Elite Travel Team. The team is led by Sensei Kirsten Dawson and Coaches Shakema Stewart and Eric Krevelle, according to Lisa Schmitt.
Lukas wasn’t the only one enjoying success in the competition — the team collectively took home 64 medals, including 31 gold, 22 silver and 11 bronze.
The Albany dojo where he studies is affiliated with the Albany County Recreation Program, and after seeing what Lukas could do, he was invited to join the dojo full time. He now trains four times a week, in one to two hour sessions, according to his mother.
She said much of his success comes down to training and the karate instructors who have taught him the craft.
“He has really great mentors,” Lisa Schmitt said. “There are three students in his dojo who are in their teens who competed in Worlds several times. One of his mentors just got back from a Worlds competition in Malta. He is training with the best.”
