Tonight was an awesome night for a few reasons, one was the great classes of course and the other was the promotion of 2 outstanding citizens and students. Danny “Red” Heath and Brandon “Big B” Hendrickson. They both moved to the rank of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt! Congrats guys, well earned indeed!
I thought I’d talk the time for tonight’s blog to write a little story about both guys and how they came to get the blue belt. Lets start with Danny Heath.
Danny Heath started at Ivey League MMA from the first day back on March 3rd, 2008 (he was at my grand opening when we were at a gymnastics center). When he came to us he was just a skinny kid with a willingness to learn like no other. Danny started out wanting to be a MMA fighter and even won a Muay Thai bout in July of 2008. He’s still shooting for his MMA goals but along the way he fell in love with the GI. Danny started training with the GI on in April of 2009, in fact his first GI was a gift from one of the parents because it was Danny’s B-day. All in all Danny’s been training for 3+ years in BJJ, Muay Thai Kickboxing and Wrestling. You would be hard pressed to find a better person or student then Red. Danny now works at Ivey League and has been a great help for the students and myself. I could write a book on all the good stuff Danny has done but that would take a while. Congrats again to a great student and friend.
Brandon Hendrickson like Red has been a great student. I call Brandon the mayor of Annapolis because he knows so many people. Brandon is an actor during the day and by night he rumbles with the many students here at Ivey League. He first came to us in June of 2009. It should be noted that Brandon did no sports what-so-ever before training in MMA. He just liked the UFC and decided to try out of 7 day free trial. Brandon like Danny Red got bit by the GI bug and took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu full tilt. Brandon has been a huge part of the growth of our academy because he always brings people in. On top of that Brandon has just been a great help to myself and Miss Teresa. When we first opened up in Severna Park MD Brandon was working 14 hour days to help grow the academy, something I’m grateful for to this day. In BJJ class Brandon is also known as Mr. Technique. He always executes moves with great form and skill. Brandon also lost a ton of weight training with us so he’s a good weight loss story as well. He started with us at 225 and got down to 166 pounds! He didn’t even change his diet, he just did the classes. Again, much congrats to Big B.
So there you have Monday night at Ivey League in the books. 2 new blue belts and some happy students.
