Northam's own STRYKA Fight Team followed up on a massively successful 2019 and started 2020 with a bang by snagging two special bout trophies and five State medals in the WA State 2020 Autumn Novice Boxing championships held in Fremantle over March 7, 14 and 15.
"Prince" William Brewer (15 years, 57 kilograms) was the first STRYKA boxer to compete in a 57 kilogram special bout (his opponent came in 2.5 kilograms overweight) on Saturday, March 7 and did himself proud in battling his far bigger and much more experienced opponent to an extremely narrow split decision loss.
Both Will Brewis and Cody "the Assassin" Lacey (14 years, 60 kilograms) then went on to get taken out of the competition in the semi-finals by much bigger, older and more experienced opponents the following Saturday.
But neither went down without a fight and both should be extremely proud of their debut efforts.
"Savage" Sarah-Jane McCall (12 years, 48 kilograms) followed up behind the boys by winning the sub schoolgirl 48 kilogram silver medal and Mitchel "Baby Bull" Daley(15 years, 70 kilograms) then closed out the Saturday, March 14 program for STRYKA in spectacular fashion by dispatching his semi-final opponent via a devastating second round technical knockout.
The team started the finals the next day on Sunday, March 15 in fine form, with "Savage" Sarah-Jane McCall snagging yet another silver medal, this time in the sub schoolgirl 50 kilogram division and Elijah "The Hitman" Jennison (14 years) also securing a silver in the 80 kilogram junior boys' division.
Mitchel "Baby Bull" Daley then followed up his impressive win the day before by completely dominating his final opponent to capture gold in the 70 kilogram junior boys division.
While Georga "G Force" Stanley (15 years) put an exclamation point on the championships for STRYKA by snagging yet another gold via a dominant unanimous decision in the 57 kilogram junior female division.
STRYKA coaches Fi and Guy Mead were once again assisted in the corner for this tournament by Police Citizens Youth Club's manager Jane Atterby and all three expressed their immense pride in the achievements of the team as a whole over the course of the tournament.
They once again reinforced the fact that the team simply would not be able to achieve the incredible successes they have had so far without the ongoing support and generosity of their major sponsors, Bendigo Bank, Macca's junior sports grants, SVG Construction and the Avon regional community as a whole.
STRYKA Fight Team is a not for profit Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) incorporated sporting association that provides local fighters from underprivileged circumstances and backgrounds with the opportunity to compete in their chosen combat sport of either boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jujitsu (BJJ) or full mixed martial arts, while raising their self-esteem and improving their social skills by getting them actively involved in community support programs, such as supplying free firewood and free labour to local aged pensioners in need.
STRYKA charges no coaching or training fees whatsoever and makes no payments of any description to any coaches or any other staff.
Instead relying solely on the generosity of sponsors and private donations to pay for all associated expenses such as team uniforms, training/competition equipment, travel, tournament entry fees, training facilities and so on.
To this end, STRYKA is constantly looking for new sponsors and donations to enable their community services to remain free.
They may be contacted either through the Northam PCYC or directly through their STRYKA Fight Team Facebook page for anyone wishing to provide support for the association.