Neither Brent nor I can remember the exact reason we picked karate for him to get involved in. He had played football and baseball and felt he was just not coordinated enough. It had been hard on his self esteem. Our best guess is that the neighbor, Joe Tiemeyer, was an instructor at the karate school. Brent was friends with his brother - and someone in the family suggested karate. We enrolled Brent when he was 6 and he loved it. The owner/head instructor (I don't know the exact term), Dennis, really liked Brent and spent time with him helping him get started. Brent had always been a likable boy, but very shy. Karate not only helped him with his coordination, it always helped him with his shyness. They competed regularly in events in Arizona and a big event in Long Beach, CA. Brent always did his best and came away with many trophies. A few times we, his parents, felt the judges were bias again him because he was not a minority - prejudice in reverse. Brent stayed in Karate for at least 3 years (again we don't remember when he stopped going) and earned many different colored belts showing his progress. In this picture taken in November, 1982 he had advanced to a purple belt. He was truly our own Karate Kid.
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