Severna Park Eighth-Grader Wins Jiujitsu Gold

By Elsa Webster | Student Intern

After months of training, Severna Park Middle School eighth-grader Liam Ellis took home gold at the Pan Kids IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Kissimmee, Florida, in late July.

The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) is a highly regarded institution for people of all ages who practice jiujitsu. Its Pan Kids competition is the largest children’s jiujitsu tournament in the world.

“I heard about it from my coaches because I’ve been training for a long time,” Ellis said. “I first heard about it around three years ago, I’d say, and I’ve kind of just been training really hard since. So it’s more of just completion for me.”

Ellis attends Crazy 88 Mixed Martial Arts, where kids train as teams and are “almost like family.” While Brazilian jiujitsu is more of an individual sport, Ellis shared his victory at Pan Kids with his teammate Evelyn Hexter, who won a silver medal. The pair met through Crazy 88, training in the sport together.

Ellis spent months prior to the tournament preparing.

“For the past four or three months, I’ve been getting in around 20, 30 hours a week of trying to work on my techniques and my skills and just overall how I’m going to fight and also my endurance,” Ellis said. “Endurance is a really big part, but it all comes together.”

Although this was the biggest competition yet for Ellis, it was not his first. The previous year, Ellis went to Las Vegas for another large tournament, and he has competed in state and regional tournaments in New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

Ellis’ journey in jiujitsu started when he was only 3 years old but intensified when he turned 10. After having difficulty enjoying other sports, Ellis embraced his family history of wrestling and jiujitsu. Crazy 88 gave him another incentive to start being more serious about the sport because of the members’ positive attitude and the friendships he made while training.

“I continued or pushed myself through because my grandfather was always big into sports like that, and he recently passed, so I really wanted to do something for him,” Ellis said. “So I just wanted to continue the sport. I’ve always really loved the sport, though. It’s a great thing. My family’s really big into wrestling and all that. And my brother used to do the sport and he’s helped me a lot in that too.”

The years of training represent work toward a goal, with the Pan Kids tournament being one step into Ellis’ future with jiujitsu. He plans to continue with the sport and aspires to eventually become an IBJJF Hall of Famer. Ellis hopes to participate in bigger tournaments at the IBJJF before he reaches his goal of signing an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contract and is unable to participate in any other competitions.

Ellis’ win at the Pan Kids tournament only marks the beginning of what he hopes to do with Brazilian jiujitsu. After significant time spent training and participation in numerous tournaments, his future with the sport is within reach.