Vince Patrick runs the new Champion Karate School in Elizabethtown and the emphasis is on family while the training is on solid foundational principles. Patrick is a product of the Chuck Norris United Fighting Arts Federation
KICK, PUNCH, THINK!
The Champion Karate School has opened last month in Elizabethtown. The classes have been filling up and with a state-of-the-art facility and cutting edge training, it has become the talk of the town.
The Champion Karate Studio is located at 1107 F West Broad St. in Elizabethtown. For information on classes and packages you can visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057648661730#
The Champion Karate School in Whiteville and now in Elizabethtown has top-notch teachers, many who have come up through the ranks of the school.
Vince Patrick and his wife, Kimberly run two Champion karate schools in two different communities in Southeastern North Carolina. Their only sparring is done on the mat and have been happily married since 2018.
ELIZABETHTOWN –
The Champion Karate club officially held their grand opening Saturday morning at 1107 F West Broad St. in Elizabethtown.
The grand opening was held primarily for children from ages 4-15 where the kids could come, get a free trial lesson and a free uniform. There were also specials going on during the grand opening for registrations and family rates.
Vince Patrick and his wife, Kimberly were on hand to welcome new prospective students and to share their karate coaching staff from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
By 10:30 the parking lot was full and there were a line of people waiting to sign up and get their karate on. Instructors were set strategically around the huge studio – some with punching bags and some with implements of training.
Patrick is descended from the Waccamaw Siouan tribe and he grew up in the Buckhead community just outside of Bolton/Lake Waccamaw.
“I got into the martial arts when I was about 16 years old,” he said. “I studied at a small school in Bolton and then I eventually went to Wilmington and trained under John Maynard. He was a Chuck Norris blackbelt. He holds multiple degrees in different styles under World Champion Joe Lewis. From there I met Miss Renee Ashley who also trained under John Maynard.”
Ashley was a native of Bladen County and had a Champion Karate center here in Elizabethtown. Patrick would travel to E-town and train under Ashley in her Broad Street studio. In essence the opening of this karate studio Saturday is a resurgence of a great teaching center of Elizabethtown’s past.
Ashley retired out of the teaching portion of her center in E-Town.
“I’ve always had strong roots with Bladen County,” Patrick said. “I traveled over here in my youth to train under her. As we got our facility in Whiteville started, we have a lot of family members that travel from this area to Whiteville. Over the years they just kind of kept on nudging me and asking me if I could get a little closer. It just worked out.”
At graduation, Patrick was two years into the program to become a respected blackbelt and instructor.
“I went into the military,” Patrick said. “I did the National Guard and as I was also going to college.”
Patrick started his higher education at Southeast Community College and then transferred to UNC-Pembroke to work on a business degree. This was all during a time that he had opened a karate school.
“I was going to college, was in the National Guard, was running a karate school and was also working second job,” Patrick said. “My mom kept telling me that I was going to burn myself out.”
Growing up a Patrick in a rural area was a great memory for Patrick.
“I grew up in a very small community,” he said. “I come from a really big family – there were 15 brothers and sisters on my dad’s side and eight on my mom’s side. It’s like, every other person I was kin to growing up. You couldn’t go by your grandma’s house – speeding because your mom was going to know about it by the time you got home. I come from really good, close, tight-knit families.”
Patrick said that it was a community where everyone looked after each other and it was the epitome of “taking a community to raise children.”
“That’s a lot of the way I want to and how we run our karate program,” Patrick said. “We have a family-oriented program. We do a lot of extra activities with our families. We have family involvement that’s very important to me. The parents get to come in and watch their kids and even have programs where parents can get out on the floor and do training classes with their kids. We don’t want this to just be a drop off and leave where I’m just watching your kids for an hour or two.”
When Patrick was young, he was involved in baseball and other sports and he said that the reason he originally got into karate is that he had a best friend in school who had invited him and after the first session he was hooked.
“I absolutely just fell in love with it,” he said. “With my best friend there and motivating each other, I just kept with it. Now I am a seventh-degree black belt in the American Self-Defense System. I also hold a second-degree black belt under Chuck Norris in the United Fighting Arts Federation.”
He is also a first-degree black belt under Joe Lewis. With all the earned accolades, Patrick is adamant about karate being a sport of self-control.
“I tell the kids and teach it today that the best weapon you will ever have is your mind,” Patrick said. “Think about a situation before you get into it. It’s not about the punching and the kicking. It is discipline and it is being self-aware of your surroundings and circumstances. I always say that karate is like insurance. Glad you have it; just hope you never have to use it.”
With family an integral part of the business, Patrick has both of his daughters helping out in addition to their other responsibilities of life and his wife is going to be running the Whiteville karate studio.
“My wife Kimberly, she is actually the headmaster at the charter school in Whiteville,” he said. “Years ago I was teaching a kick-fit class which is kind of like cardio kick boxing. She was in our class and we met there and got married in 2018. She has just encouraged me and pushed me to not only meet – but excel in my aspirations. She tells me I can do it and when the challenges grow rough, she encourages me to push through it.”
One of the trainers and Patrick’s right-hand man and Second in Command in the studio is Colton Boswell who has been with the studio for almost two decades.
He actually started when he was 10 years old and at 29, he looks back on a very fruitful venture and his passion to train and teach children how to defend themselves. Boswell is a fourth-degree black belt.
“I usually teach five classes a day and I go Monday-Friday, so I’ve taught a LOT of kids,” Boswell said.
The studios both in Whiteville and now Elizabethtown have a very strong mentor and icon in Chuck Norris who still keeps tabs on his students – one of those being Patrick. When you walk into the studio, one of the first things you will see listed on a board is the Chuck Norris code of ethics.