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Local Judo Club Could Be Producing Olympic Champions
"I try to instill the basic ingredients of life lessons every time I teach a class," says Legros, who started the judo program in 1993 when the Spring Creek Towers development was known by its original name, Starrett City. The 47-year-old was a member of the 1992 Olympic Haitian judo team. He continues to teach judo, which means "the gentle way," to students ages 6 and older, Monday through Friday, from 3 pm to 5 pm. During the program’s earliest days, eight-year old twin brothers, Garry and Harry St.-Leger, and thirteen-year-old Dynell Pinder, joined Legros almost every afternoon. The young men, who still reside in the huge East New York housing complex, continue to train 25 hours a week at Intermediate School 364 with Legros, a physical education teacher at the school. It seems that the decade of intensive training is finally paying off as Pinder, ranked second in the country in his weight class, has an opportunity to make the United States 2004 Olympic Team. He is scheduled to face four other top competitors in the 132-pound weight class in California on June 5. A victory could earn him a spot with this summer’s United States squad, which will compete in this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. "Making the Olympics would be a dream come true," says Pinder, a sophomore at Long Island University in Brooklyn. "In most amateur sports, such as judo, there isn’t much higher you can go than winning a gold medal at the Olympic games." While the St.-Leger boys have no plans for the upcoming Olympics, they do hope to be eligible for the 2008 games and have been winning many international meets in the meantime. Harry St.-Leger is ranked number one in the U.S.A. in the 178-pound weight class, while Garry is number one in the 160-pound weight class. Both took home gold medals in their respective weight classes at the Pan American judo championships, a competition involving judo teams from all over North and South America, in Puerto Rico last weekend. The twins admit that judo has taught them more than just self-defense. "Having taken judo for so many years I have learned what it means to be disciplined and how to manage my time better," says Harry, a freshman at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Garry, a freshman at Kingsborough Community College, agrees that judo has expanded his horizons and has allowed him to travel throughout the U.S. and the world for judo competitions. "Judo has helped me meet so many unbelievable people and has taken me to so many cool places," says Garry. He will be going to Budapest, Hungary for the Junior World Championships later this year. Legros claims that his pupils are not just judo students, but more like his own family. "I treat my students as if they were my own children," he says. "Everyone must be enrolled in academic school in order to attend the judo classes and I check their grades regularly. We train together, eat together and travel together and they come to my house in Westchester whenever they can." Legros admits that it has been rewarding to watch students like Pinder and the St.-Leger boys grow up and succeed. "I told every member of that 1993 group that if they stuck to the training regiment then they would be champions by 2004. It’s such a good feeling to know that these dreams have been realized," concluded Legros.
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