Anne Arundel County gym produces five medalists at Pan Kids IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship – Capital Gazette


Gemma Fiorenza walked downstairs on her birthday four years ago to find a present filled with a bright future.
Fiorenza was not supposed to do jiu-jitsu. The rising middle schooler said her parents wanted her older sister to do it, but she never did.
“My parents were like, ‘Open this one!’ And inside was a huge gi,” Fiorenza said.
Four-and-a-half years later, Fiorenza is one of several kids training under renowned Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Vicente Júnior at Conquest BJJ, a gym in Pasadena. The gym, small in stature, is bursting to the seams with champions.
Five youth members of the Vicente Junior Team that trains at Conquest in Riviera Beach show off the medals they won at the Pan Kids IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2022 held in Kissimmee, Fla., in July. From left are Lane Metcalf, 13, of Kaiser, W.Va.; Bain Hughes, 15, of Pasadena; Elijah Brinegar, 14, of Ellicott City; Gabriel Silva, 12, of Annapolis; and Gemma Fiorenza, 11, of Pasadena. (Brian Krista/Capital Gazette)
Winning a medal at the Pan Kids IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Orlando involves beating what are considered the best child jiu-jitsu competitors in the world. Fiorenza won a silver medal. Her gymmates Elijah Brinegar, Bain Hughes and Gabriel Silva won gold and Lane Metcalf earned a bronze.
“With a couple thousand kids, it’s never going to be easy,” said Silva, who conquered two-time Brazilian champion Arthur Piloto Oliveira de Sousa in the yellow belt, super heavyweight junior 3 category. “This year, it was different. I was more confident in myself than before.”
To find the path to victory, Silva kept every memory of his past defeats at this tournament at the forefront of his mind. Silva and best friend Hughes trained together for four years, practically every single day. In their first trip to the tournament, they both lost in early matches. The next year, the same.
“I was ready to not do that this time,” Silva said.
A gold medal won at the Pan Kids IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2022 by one of the Vicente Junior Team members that trains at Conquest BJJ in Riviera Beach. (Brian Krista/Capital Gazette)
Last year, Hughes surrendered to the ultimate champion of his yellow lightweight teen 3 class, Amari Payton. Every day since, Hughes woke up and trained to avoid that happening again.
The 15-year-old is sure that propelled him over his opponent last month. But there were the little things, too. He warmed up, for instance, both his body and his mind. He’d competed in more IBJJF competitions this year, which had honed his brain to handle the pressure.
“I was more ready for the big tournaments. I wasn’t afraid,” Hughes said.
For Brinegar, who won in a gray-belt division for his win, is a 14-years-old brand ambassador for a kimono company. It was his style that brought him through to the win.
“I was more aggressive, and I just wanted to do my game plan,” he said. “I got a guy in submission for two-and-a-half minutes.”
Silva wears his orange-white belt with pride. It makes him happy now, the feeling he had after his victory.
“I was just sitting there, like, ‘Wow,’” the 12-year-old said. “I just did this.”
Five youth members of the Vicente Junior Team that trains at Conquest in Riviera Beach show off the medals they won at the Pan Kids IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2022 held in Kissimmee, Fla., in July. From left are Lane Metcalf, 13, of Kaiser, W.Va.; Bain Hughes, 15, of Pasadena; Elijah Brinegar, 14, of Ellicott City; Gabriel Silva, 12, of Annapolis; and Gemma Fiorenza, 11, of Pasadena. (Brian Krista/Capital Gazette)
Júnior doesn’t care as much that his kids medaled. The 45-year-old coach competed since he was 16, earning a dragon’s hoard of medals. For him, it was more about the journey and lessons than the prize.
“It was that they tried for three years,” Júnior said. “My goal is always to teach them to overcome. Gold, silver, bronze. One point, everyone’s proud about it, but they’ll forget it. Put it in a box. But that confidence will teach them to be a good person, a good citizen, a good teammate, a good friend.”
When Júnior emigrated to the United States, Americans’ lack of sociability threw him. Now, he keeps looking at a photo taken at the Kids Pan-American and it reminds him the kind of community he misses in Brazil still exists. The people in the picture — him, other parents from the gym, other kids — awash in pure joy for one of their victors, smiles beaming larger than should be physically possible.
“It was more joyful than the tournament itself. To see everybody happy. To see that community,” Júnior said. “Something that more and more we’re losing.”
The kids easily pour in more training for jiu-jitsu than most varsity athletes in the area. Balance is the key to continuing success without burning out.
Metcalf is a wrestler first and has been for nine years. He said it helps him with his balance in jiu-jitsu, especially as he travels three hours several times a week from West Virginia to train in Pasadena. The feeling he gets from the sport, too, is what keeps him in it.
“I get to tap out people. I’m very aggressive,” he said, laughing. “My dad was a boxer; I’m sure I got that from him.”
Fiorenza, a yellow-white belt, practices six days a week, mostly strength and fitness training. Her unbridled passion is what keeps her in it now, especially as she lost steam during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
That, and, “My friends,” he said. “The people around me who motivate me to do it, people on social media, really gets me going.”
Every single person who brought something home this year is confident they’ll return with more gold next year. But to them, like Júnior, that’s not the best part.
“It felt great that more than one person got gold,” Brinegar said, “that a whole bunch of people did it [medaled]. I feel really, really happy for everyone.”
Copyright © 2022, Capital Gazette
Copyright © 2022, Capital Gazette

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