FOLEY — It was a very productive July for area youth competing in martial arts after Lavelle Smith’s group of youngsters took home several gold and silver medals during the North American Grappling Association national competition.
“Our team did very well at NAGA,” Smith said. “After a full day of competition in Foley, Alabama, on July 20th, our First Christian Church Free Form Martial Arts team won a total of 13 national championships and placed 10th out of 120 teams represented.”
Ja’Coby Edwards, Brian Smetzer, William Smetzer and Henry Ford each won double gold medals, while Amad Diallo and Emily Moran won a gold medal each, Nicklas Davies earned two silvers and Emmitt Davies took home a silver.
Photo courtesy of Lavelle Smith
“I’m super proud of everyone,” Smith said. “We did an outstanding job winning 29 fights. The future is very bright for our martial arts outreach ministry. We are building a new activities building here at the church and will be expanding our martial arts outreach ministry soon. Right now, we have just over 50 students participating in the program.”
Smith has been training in martial arts for more than 50 years. He is the founder and chief instructor for Free Form Martial Arts, which he began more than 40 years ago, and is a seven-time world champion who was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame in July 2011.
Smith has been the Pastor of First Christian Church since 2020.
“I started an outreach program for First Christian Church of Columbus four years ago, when I took the lead pastor position there,” Smith said. “We started part-time training once a week on Sunday evenings. We now train twice a week with plans to implement a full-time program soon.”
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