The Karate Institute of America has been extremely blessed throughout its thirty-seven year history with wonderfully generous people who have given their time, energy, skill, and support to ensure its success. Without question, the one individual whose generous endowment blessed the KIA with its own studio in the early 2000s is second dan Black Belt, Jeff “Boa” Norman—the sixty-first Black Belt of the Kiado-Ryu. In 2001, the KIA was without an indoor facility.

Wolverines are powerful, solitary, tenacious predators. Highly aggressive and fearless, they’re blessed with such great fighting skills that bears, big cats and wolves avoid confrontations with them. The Karate Institute of America has its own Wolverine, Tejas Maniar, the 57th Black Belt of the Kiado-Ryu. Wolverine earned his 1st Dan rating on the 23rd of January 1998, eighteen long (or is that short?) years ago. How fast time flies! Tejas’ Black Belt Ceremony

Need a good accountant? Robert “Bob” Barnhart, owner of Barnhart Accounting in San Clemente, has been the official accountant of the Karate Institute of America for over thirty years. The reason? Bob is an excellent accountant, honest and personable. He does great work at a reasonable fee. If you need or are looking for a competent person to handle your tax needs, Bob Barnhart is a great choice. He’s easy to talk to and will give you excellent service.

Our KIA feature of the week highlights another National Forms Champion who is also Founder and CEO of a very successful business enterprise. Steve “Coyote” Vertun, Kiado-Ryu Black Belt #39, received his 1st Dan rating in December of 1995. With a determined, relentless, never-give-up mindset, Coyote won the Brown Belt Forms Championship in 1993, a competitive circuit of thirteen major United States cities. Steve is one of four Karate Institute of America students to win a coveted national martial arts championship hosted by the North American Sports Karate Association (NASKA).

Here’s a wonderful flashback to the early 1980s and a Saturday morning KIA kids class with instructors Greg “Maddog” Bendel and Rose “Renegade” Hoberg. Rose became the 12th KIA Black Belt; Greg the 14th. How cute these kids were! And they could never be tired out! The ages of these children were 5 to 7. Simply adorable. A couple things of note: This photo was taken at the main studio on the corner of Lambert and Aspen streets in Lake Forest.

KIA Black Belts are diverse individuals. Mike “Shooter” Benedict is one such person. One of his hobbies is being a biker, and he’s placing that “Benedict focus” into a fun and healthy passion. Shooter is the sixty-second Black Belt of the Karate Institute of America. He is also a second dan. His youngest son, Greg aka, “Earthquake,” is the fifty-ninth Black Belt of the KIA—another terrific father/son Black Belt duo.