Martial arts competition returns to Campus High

By Chris Sykes, Staff Writer
Councilman Ted “The Green Dragon” Green recently put aside the hat he wears as a city councilman and donned the gi that accompanies his title as “Shihan” to present the 14th annual Best of the Champions: Future Leaders of America martial arts tournament in the East Orange Campus High School gymnasium.
Shihan-sensei is a Japanese term for teacher or instructor. During nine hours of competition, Green and his colleagues and students from his Green School of Martial Arts presided over the tournament. More than 100 competitors from 39 schools participated.
The common thread of all the competitors was a love of the physical, mental and spiritual disciplines of which they are disciples. Green said approximately 1,900 people attended the competition.
This year’s event also brought honors to two members of the local community: Baruti Kafele, principal of the Newark Technical School and a former East Orange middle school principal, and Marion Bell, head coach of the Campus High football program which competed for a second sectional championship during the fall.
“This was our 14th year featuring future leaders of America and featuring martial arts as a way of life with our young kids and teenagers,” said Green, who also is known as the “Fighting Councilman.” “Over the years, through our martial arts program, we’ve seen many young people who are not getting into trouble, who are going to college, getting their degrees, getting involved in trades, and even opening karate schools.”
Green said his personal love and study of the martial arts runs in his family and was something he inherited from his father, Theodore Sr., and teacher, Richard “Rick the Brick” Mayers.

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