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Sport

6 June, 2022

Coral coast crushing the competition

NESTLED away on the eastern coast of the far north resides one of Queensland strongest and greatest judo clubs boasting an impressive line-up of fearsome judo practitioners and state and national champions.

By Rhys Thomas

Mossman’s Coral Coast Judo is one of Queensland’s largest judo clubs with nearly 70 members and a strong competitive cohort of state and national champions.
Mossman’s Coral Coast Judo is one of Queensland’s largest judo clubs with nearly 70 members and a strong competitive cohort of state and national champions.

The Mossman based Coral Coast Judo Club was founded over two decades ago in 2001 by George and John Brendecke and currently contains multiple state and national champions as well as an impressive female and junior cohort of competitors. 

President of the club and 1st Dan Jeff Anderson has held his position for eight years and in that time has seen phenomenal growth in the club. 

“There are lots of reasons people play judo, there is only a mid-range proportion that really want to be competition players,” he said. 

“A lot of people do it for a bit of fitness and a bit of social activity. 

“With the juniors it definitely develops a lot of self-esteem, discipline, self-respect, confidence and coordination – you would be surprised the amount of young people that cannot do a forward roll.” 

One of the club’s members, Sebastian Temesi, was recently selected to participate in the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham at the end of July. 

The current head instructor of the nationally recognised club is 2nd Dan Andreas Schmidt he trains and leads the contingent of talented judo practitioners. 

Four to five years ago, Coral Coast Judo was the second largest judo club in Queensland and despite numbers falling off in recent years, the club has remained in the top five in Queensland. 

Around the club’s peak there would have around 75 members with a large portion being female competitors, with the club being recognised as number one in the state for female participation. 

“Like any small club we have waves and peaks, so we go up and down – we are still sitting at around 60 students at the moment,” Jeff said. 

The club’s true growth spurt took place when Jeff oversaw the junior development and the club relocated from their one of their previous residences, basically a storage shed, to Pinjara Place. 

From there the club’s popularity and junior involvement steadily improved as the club pursued sponsorships and grant money as well as increased after school participations. 

The club now shares a space with the Mossman Show Society.

“That was a huge success, some of their families are still heavily involved and some are on the national team,” Jeff said. 

“It has been a gradual growth, we have very good people involved in the club winning nationals and quite a few state champions. 

“I would say we got four or five gold medals last year in the nationals.” 

The club now has its sights set firmly on this year’s national championships set to be held this Friday, 10 June with the juniors competing on Saturday and the seniors on Sunday. 

Coral Coast Judo is seeking to cement their place as one of the most competitive and most attended clubs in Queensland.

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