Idaho

North Idaho karate team wins big at Pasadena tourney

Published

1 year ago

September 11, 2024

North Idaho karate team wins big at Pasadena tourney

The nine-person Universal Kenpo Kung Fu Association (UKKA) team from Spirit Lake and Sandpoint competed at the Pasadena International Karate Tournament in Pasadena, Calif., on Aug. 30-31, and returned home to North Idaho with 40 international titles which totaled: 23 first-place trophies, 12 second-place trophies and five third-place trophies.

The tournament had hundreds of competitors from the United States, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

60-year-old black belt Mike Siegfried (the team instructor) won three first-place trophies and one second-place trophy.

14-year-old green belt Alannah Winland (team captain) won four first-place trophies and one third-place trophy.

18-year-old purple belt Allilah Dykes won three first-place trophies and one second-place trophy.

14-year-old orange belt Saydie Green won one first-place trophy and four second-place trophies.

10-year-old orange belt Jesse Winland won two first-place trophies.

9-year-old orange belt Jessika Winland won three first-place trophies and one second place trophy.

13-year-old yellow belt Taylor Jenkins won six first-place trophies and one second-place trophy.

9-year-old yellow belt Audrey Jenkins won one first-place, four second-place and one third-place trophies.

8-year-old yellow belt Michael Jenkins won two third-place trophies.

“Our little team came back to North Idaho with 40 international titles,” Siegfried said. This is a truly stunning achievement. I am so proud of the team and their awesome parents and grandparents who have supported them from the beginning. During the event, the team worked together in the face of very tough competition. They performed in the weapons, forms, synchronized forms, and sparring divisions with skill, grace, beauty and fearlessness. More importantly, they treated their competitors, teammates, and themselves with dignity and respect which are hallmarks of a well-trained martial artist. United together, they worked tirelessly for a year to prepare for this tournament, and they exceeded all expectations. The team trusted each other, their skills and their training and they are now international champions because they put in the work and had a plan to win.”

Team UKKA is sponsored by the Verbal Judo Institute, Inc., a verbal de-escalation training company based in New York. Team UKKA hopes to represent the state of Idaho in additional tournaments this year. If you are interested in supporting Team UKKA as a sponsor, you can contact Master Siegfried at Idahoukka@gmail.com. You can also support them by watching their journey on YouTube and subscribing at http://www.youtube.com/@idahoukka

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Idaho

Looking forward to another year of East Idaho Sports – East Idaho News

Published

8 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

Looking forward to another year of East Idaho Sports – East Idaho News

Note: As a bonus to our readers who have followed us into Year 2, the East Idaho Sports staff will post a special story on Sundays – Could be a column, opinion, feature, or just something fun and goofy. Hope you enjoy, and thanks again for coming along on this journey.

EASTERN IDAHO — Dec. 31 marked the end of the first full calendar year of East Idaho Sports. It has been a pleasure to bring our readers coverage of local youth, high school, college and semi-pro sports.

Over the last 12 months, we have covered state champions, national champions, junior hockey league champions, record-breaking performances and so much more. Those of you who have followed along since we launched in August 2024 have seen how we have expanded our coverage to include some interactive features like this Sunday Special series, Game Balls and the Photo of the Week voting.

We look forward to the completion of the winter sports seasons — including some Winter Olympics stories — spring sports, the summer sports schedule and returning next fall to start it all over again.

But we also hope to continue adding to our coverage, and shine spotlights on even more of the great athletes and sports programs in eastern Idaho.

In order to do that, we would like some help.

With just two full-time reporters and one freelance photographer we will regrettably miss things. And while we try to fill those gaps ourselves, we are always open to tips.

If there was a sporting event or sports story that deserved coverage it didn’t receive, please email us at sports@eastidahonews.com. If there is an upcoming event that should be spotlighted, please email us.

Also, our Photo of the Week stories will continue to be posted midday every Monday. If you have photos from a local sporting event that you want to enter in the running, email those to us by Sunday morning. For those who follow the voting — on our public Facebook group East Idaho News – Sports — a reader-contributed photo was recently selected our Photo of the YEAR, and we would love to continue adding those on the weekly ballot.

This photo of West Jefferson’s Justus Burtenshaw during the first round of the state tournament, taken by reader Julie Hall, was selected out East Idaho Sports Photo of the Year.

Finally, we recently added a regular feature we are calling the “Whip-around”: A quick rundown of local high school sports action. In order to expand these stories to include more teams, we would love for coaches, players or parents to send us photos of game scorebooks. If you are linked to a local team and would like your team to be added to these stories, please email us, and we can let you know how to do so.

It has been a pleasure to highlight the many local athletes for their successes and hard work, and we look forward to another year of precisely that.

We will see you at a field, court, course, pool, etc., near you in 2026.