NAGA Rhode Island Results For Ivey League MMA

This past weekend we packed up our Ivey League Minivan and hit the road for beautiful Providence Rhode Island, where the NAGA was hosting yet another amazing grappling tournament.

We didn’t take a large number of students this time around. This is mostly due to the distance. And believe me, it was freaking far! It took us 7+ hours to get there and about the same to get back home. Long weekend indeed.

We ended up taking 6 students to compete. 5 kids and 1 adult. Below you’ll find them listed along with where they placed at the competition. 1st placers are in bold.

Jacob Miller – 1st Place (Expert)
Mouth Garlington – 1st Place (Expert)
Magnus Benz – 1st Place (Expert)
Prototype Miller – 2nd Place
Cutter Gardner – 2nd Place
Phil Higgins (Adult) – DNP

We ended up breaking a record and reaching a major goal for Ivey League and myself (Danny Ives). This was the first time we were able to claim 3 expert level division gold medals. Needless to say I’m happy about this and so are the students, as they should be!

As with any high level tournament like the NAGA or IBJJF, you’re bound to gain some great experiences and really cool stories. We all learned a lot in New England that’s for sure. Read on for the the full write up and details for each student that competed.

Jacob “Juji” Miller:

Juji’s a perfect case study for anyone who wants to better understand what it takes to make it to the top. Lot’s of heart, patience and hard work all came together for Juji, which in turn helped him to reach some pretty big goals.

Here you’ve got a kid that went a year without winning a single title at the expert or yellow belt level (yes, a year!) to now winning back to back expert titles in Pennsylvania and Rhone Island. Outstanding stuff.

During his matches Juji was fantastic. He used lots of chain wrestling to off balance his opponents and once on the ground it was guard pass city.

If this is a sign for things to come then young Juji might want to pick up some sunglasses, cause his future will be very BRIGHT 🙂

Magnus “Magneto” Benz:

Magnus entered his second tournament with a lot of momentum from his last outing at the NAGA Pennsylvania, where he claimed first place in the intermediate division. In RI, we moved him up to expert, where the big dogs come to play…

The thing is, momentum is all fine and dandy but when you’re competing at the expert level your momentum can get stopped flat, and for a long time.

Magnus didn’t get stopped. Not even close. Magnus showed us why he was promoted to the rank of BJJ Yellow Belt. He used not only good techniques but also a brutal pace that wore his opponents down and left them unable to fight him off.

During his matches he also proved that he’s a thinker not a stinker. He listened to everything Coach’s Victor and Dave Miller said and was able to escape some pretty close submission holds.

When it was all said and done Magnus ran through his division and scooped up yet another first place medal and a pretty sweet championship belt too.

Mouth Garlington:

Mouth, despite being being very sick, ended up pulling off the rare feat of winning the expert level teens division at the tender age of 13 years old. For those in “the know”, this is very difficult to do.

Mouth’s match for 1st place was a barn burner. Lot’s of back and forth action with takedowns, defense and sweeps. When the smoke cleared Mouth came out on top by a score of 2-0.

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that he earned it! I asked Mouth what motivated him to perform like that even while sick and his exact words were “I can’t ride back in the van with Juji and Magnus having belts and me not!”

Haha that made me laugh. Whatever the case, he got the job done and that’s good enough for me.

Prototype Miller:

Lauren “Prototype” Miller didn’t get what she wanted, which was 1st place, but she did end up with a silver medal and lot’s of much needed mat experience. That’s what’s most important anything.

Proto had tough matches and lost to the same girl both times in gi and no-gi. Hats off to the young lady who defeated proto because she was awesome and deserved to win the division. No excuses, Proto will learn and come back stronger next time.

When it comes to loses, no matter who the child, we always stress that they won’t win every time, It stinks but that’s just how it goes. However, if they learn from their loses and use them to fix mistakes and get better, then it’s win-win.

Each and every tournament should be about having fun, going to a cool event and at the same time gaining valuable experience.

Zachary “Cutter” Gardner:

Our resident silly kid Zachary “Cutter” also placed 2nd. Just like with Proto, he was upset because he wanted to be on top of the podium. But to be honest he didn’t do bad at all. His matches were very exciting and he showed that he’s made a bunch of improvements within his grappling game, both in terms of skill and tactics.

The most improved area for Cutter was without a doubt his match intensity and last second scoring tactics, both came in quite handy. He’s getting better and better at playing the tournament game and it showed for sure.

Phil Higgins:

Coach Phil lost first round to someone from Dan Simmer’s Academy in New England. Phil did well early on but got caught in a triangle check and was forced to tap out.

It wasn’t what we were expecting out of Phil but sadly these things happen. We’ll move on and hit it hard in NYC on November 15th. It goes without saying that upon returning to Maryland Phil has been training night and day like a madman. He knows that’s what’s needed to produce championship level results.

All in all the team did well. Special thanks goes out to the great coaches (Victor, Dave, Phil, Dave G) who braved the long trip just to help out the team.

Also, DeMatha high school’s Wrestling program should get some credit as well. We’ve been sending the solid yellow belts down there for takedown training twice a week and It seems to have paid off I’m…thanks guys!

We sent 6 and came back with a 50% gold medal ratio. For most coaches that would be considered a success. But in my mind, we still had 3 students that missed out, and that doesn’t sit well with me. I wanted 100% gold medals.

We’ve already started hitting it hard in preparation for future events. Next up for the competition team will be the NAGA North Carolina on November 8th followed by the NAGA NYC on the 15th. I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to speed on all the results.