Lavanna Laass and Brendan Bellavance may be greeting everyone with Aloha next week when they land in Honolulu, but then they'll get down to business.
The teen-aged judokas from the Hart Judo Academy are amongst nine Prince George athletes (including four from PG Judo Club) and 20 from B.C. who're competing at the U.S. Junior Nationals in Honolulu July 4-5.
It's the first time a PG contingent has competed at the U.S. junior nationals.
The pair are part of B.C.'s Canada Winter Games Development Team with the hopes of being selected to compete at their hometown 2015 Canada Winter Games next February.
"This is more of a team-building tournament where we'll try and build a sense of community," said Laass, 18, who'll fight in the IJF (International Judo Federation) Junior Under-21 female -63-kilogram division. "It's big because it's out of the country and it's good to gain some [more] experience."
Bellavance will compete in the IJF Junior U21 male -100kg class.
It's been a long year for the pair, having fought in a major tournament every month since last fall.
Laass won six medals (three gold, one silver and two bronze) at events in Edmonton, Regina and Richmond, while Bellavance won bronze tournaments in Qubec and Richmond.
They most recently each won silver medals at the Canadian Judo championships last month in Sauguenay, Que.
"My season's been up and down," said Bellavance, 17, who earned his first degree black belt a couple weeks ago. "[At nationals], I won one match and lost one and made a mistake. I know what I did wrong and I've learned from it. From the start of the year I've come a long way and I've started beating opponents and it's nice to see that progression."
Laass won silver in the senior women's -63kg division at nationals and finished fifth in the U21 -63kg division.
"Competing in U21 was a work in progress," she said. "And at the senior level most of the success was unexpected but I was happy with my fighting and had my nerves under control."
Their Hart club coach, Bruce Kamstra, is leading the provincial contingent in Hawaii as Team B.C. coach.
He, along with PG Judo Club head coach Aline Strasdin, who also serves as the provincial coach, will help determine the B.C. team that will compete at the 2015 Games at the Northern Sport Centre.
"We're hoping for some strong competition and we anticipate they [the athletes] will do well and get some more fights in," said Kamstra. "They're really just doing another competition where they'll learn and what areas to improve on and focus on their strengths."
Three years ago, Judo B.C., the governing body overseeing the sport in the province, set a goal of identifying athletes who could potentially compete at the 2015 Games, said Kamstra.
That number was originally 60 to 70 athletes and now between 30 to 40 athletes remain to make Team B.C. Only the top male and female in each division will qualify for 2015.
"We should have a full team at the Canada Winter Games," said Kamstra. "Historically we've had a strong team, with athletes from clubs in Burnaby, Steveston [Richmond] and Vancouver. Each region has a few strong athletes and we could potentially have a few kids from northern B.C. on the team."
The Prince George Judo Club will be well-represented in Hawaii.
Kyle Wilkinson, 15, will compete in the juvenile B boys -60kg division while Ryan Russell will compete in the juvenile A boys -48kg division.
In the intermediate girls' class, Tami Goto, 12 will compete in the -38kg division and Sydney Edgson, 11, will compete in the -42kg division.
"It's an exciting time for the athletes," said their coach Strasdin. "We're taking them to gain experience. For Sydney and Tami, it's their first really big competition. Ryan and Kyle both have nationals experience and they want to take their judo to the next level. The pros and cons of it is not knowing anyone they're fighting.
"But judo is judo and there shouldn't be too many surprises."
What will be different is the larger competition venue at the U.S. junior nationals that will have six competition mats compared to four mats at Canadian nationals.
No matter the size of the event, Strasdin knows it will be beneficial in the long run.
"It will be good for their career," she said. "We'll tell them just fight the matches the way they know they can."
Upon their return, Laass and Bellavance will train on their own and take up other sports to take a break from judo. They'll then begin preparing for the final 2015 Games selection tournament in Abbotsford this fall.
"We know what we have to do to qualify," said Bellavance. "And we know who we're going to have to compete against."
"The kids have to be able to perform on that particular day [in Abbotsford] and then they have to perform at the Canada Winter Games," added Kamstra.
