Seven-year-old Salish MacDonald will be representing the Houston Shogun Dojo nationally next month as he qualified for nationals recently.
MacDonald, a purple belt with the Houston Shogun Dojo, has been a student of Sensei Cheryl Thornton's for the past three years, since she started at the dojo in fact. For her it was pretty exciting to see he'd done so well at the WKC provincials and would be continuing on in the world of competitive karate.
"He's very determined, he has a lot of energy," Thornton said.
MacDonald has been not only practicing every week with their dojo in Houston but traveling to Smithers to practice sparring as well, Thornton said. Those trips prepared him for provincials, which anybody could go in, but only the top three in each class would get to go to nationals.
MacDonald certainly qualified, with a gold in kata and a silver in point fighting. Those scores means he qualifies for the provincial team and will be off to the WKC National Tournament in Ottawa this May long weekend.
MacDonald was all smiles during practice last Tuesday on his achievements.
"I was pretty nervous, counting the stands probably more than 100 people were there," MacDonald said.
It was quite the learning experience for him, though. Now, he's working hard on practicing his dodging and other techniques so he's ready for nationals.
"That I'm most excited about," MacDonald said. "It's going to be pretty fun."