I was sitting in Los Gatos High School, chatting with my friend and recent southern California transplant Karim and he asked me who the players and significant schools in the area were. I began to list them off and realized I wasn’t going to have an easy time of it, there were simply so many in Northern California now. It was a rather satisfying feeling as I began to contemplate just how much the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene has grown, especially in my corner of the world. Much of that was reflected on the mat of the first annual America’s Cup held by Claudio Franca and friends.

The Claudio Franca academy is known for throwing the US Open in Santa Cruz, which has always been a well organized, competitive event. The America’s Cup was held in nearby Los Gatos and maintained the same high level of organization and professionalism as things ran extremely smoothly and on time for the two day event. In a bit of a departure, the first day was all children’s and teen’s divisions, where as the second day was devoted to the adults.

Due to a family commitment I was actually only able to make it to the second day of the event. One competitor mentioned to me that he thought the intensity level at this tournament was unusually high and well that may have been the case, I suggested it may have as much to do with the heat wave that breaking over NorCal that had left the gymnasium unusually hot that day. The level of competition on the mat was certainly intense and the day began with the white and blue belt divisions which were deep with competitors and talent. The tournament ran very much on schedule and by late afternoon we were treated to the purple and brown belt divisions.

The lone black belt match of the day saw Theodoro Canal over Alex Ferreira.

For full results, check out

http://www.strongvon.com/sv/html/tournament/Tournament_53/m_results2.jsp?id=53&cat=Belt-White&left=fightree_53_16_yrs_up%7E&%0Aright=fightree_53_16_yrs_up%7EBelt%7EWhite%7EAdult%7ERooster_%28126.5_lbs%29.jpg