The Rogers Nesei Karate Federation, founded by Plant City native Rudy Rogers, presented the first annual Strawberry Open Tournament of Champions at the Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center.
The event was an open karate tournament hosted by two of Rogers’ students in “Rhino” Mike Thomas and Clyde “Quiet Elephant” Newton Jr. The tournament saw around 70 people in attendance, with around half of those competing and representing various martial arts dojos across the state, ranging from Clearwater to Tampa to Plant City to Jacksonville, while some competitors even made the journey from as far as South Carolina.
“For the first time, I think it went well, it went excellent,” Rogers said. “And being in the fall, we were competing with little league, football, college football and the most important thing, weather. But I think it went really well.”
Rogers Nisei Karate took a lot from their first-time event, giving them a clearer picture of what they want for the tournament in the future, ranging from date of the event to the venders that they plan on using. Eventually the organization would like to shift the timing of the tournament to line up with Strawberry Festival season, aligning with their original plan, so that it takes place either shortly before or after the festival, but they do indeed envision the event as a long-standing staple for Plant City to look forward to each year.
“We’re trying to tie it in with the Strawberry Festival,” Rogers said. “We were supposed to have this in May but we had to push it back to September. That’s what we want to do, we’ll definitely try and have it in the spring moving forward.”