World Martial Arts Celebrity Visits Smithville

May 7, 2022
By: Bill Conger

The highest-ranking female in Tae Kwon Do in America and the second highest in the world recently visited DeKalb County for the Tennessee State Championship of Tae Kwon Do. Grand Master Brenda Sell, a 9th degree Black Belt and President of the U.S. Chung Do Kwan Association, America’s oldest TKD Association spoke to students and families at the DeKalb County Complex during the event that Middle Tennessee Tae Kwon Do in Smithville hosted.

“Our association is a family,” Brenda Sell said during an interview after her speech. “We have chartered schools all throughout the country and Middle Tennessee [Tae Kwon Do] is one of our charter schools. When they get to a certain size and there’s enough people to be able to have competition in the different rings and all, then they can petition to host a sanctioned event.”

M-T-K’s owner and instructors George and Amy Lloyd petitioned to host the state championships. Students from Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee competed April 30.

“Middle Tennessee Tae Kwon Do has inside their patch the word champion, and I have discovered that champions are not born; champions are made,” Sell explained. “And I think that’s important for everybody to understand. You can be a champion. Maybe not a champion in Tae Kwon Do but through the Tae Kwon Do training, you can definitely be a champion in life.’

Sell touts the many benefits of Tae Kwon Do including that it’s an individual sport.

“Everyone plays. There’s nobody sitting on the bench. There’s nobody well, I ‘m not good enough to be out there today. In Tae Kwon Do we work on building character with the students. We have a set curriculum. There’s six parts of every class, and the third part of the class is what we call forms or patterns. They have to memorize moves in a set order. By the time they reach black belt, they’ve memorized over 2,000 moves in a set order, and at every belt testing they’re graded on this. They’re graded on memorization; they’re graded on technique; they’re graded on balance; they’re graded on dances; they’re graded on enthusiasm, power; there’s a whole list of things they’re graded on. With each belt rank, we add more movements to that.”

Sell adds that the sport provides for a lot of self-reflection and a place for children to positively focus their energy.

“People with anger issues will come in and they have to develop patience because they’re not moving forward if they don’t be patient with themselves in the memorization and the progression of moving forward with training their body to move.”

“We’ve seen a lot of children who have ADD, ADHD come in and we keep them active, and they learn by watching and learn by doing, and that’s a very good learning mode for children with those disabilities. It’s wonderful to see them because they can channel that energy now, and they have a place to put it. We’ve seen their grades go from nearly failing up into the honor roll. We don’t require them to be high on the honor roll. We just require them to be improving.”

Sell, who has been training in Tae Kwon Do for 52 years, first began her journey in the sport at age 14

“I had moved to a new city. I didn’t know anybody. Somebody at the bus stop said how would you like to join Korean karate. It wasn’t even called Tae Kwon Do back then. There were primarily late teen men and young adult boys getting ready to go into the military. The draft was in place then. And very few females and no children.”

She says with a big family of six children, she never thought about a gender gap.

“We just all did everything together. We played together. We wrestled together. I really didn’t even notice that there weren’t a lot of women until it was pointed out to me because I was just having fun. My parents … said to all of us kids, ‘You can do anything you want to except quit. You’re not allowed to quit.’ That discipline of learning the commitment factor has been a driving force in my entire life. With Tae Kwon Do, I enjoyed it so much, I just never saw an end to it. I guess I’ll be kicking until the day I go meet the Lord,” she said, laughing.

May 6, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

A Thursday afternoon fire destroyed the home of Roger Tramel at 702 Cill Street as well as a garage on property behind the home off Charity Lane belonging to Danny Adams.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation according to Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker.

The call came in around 4:15 p.m. No one was injured.

Contents of both the house and garage were lost along with a dog. Canopies and vehicles on the properties including a pontoon boat were either threatened, damaged or destroyed.

Heavy black smoke from the fire could be seen rising into the sky for miles and neighbors reported hearing an explosion believed to be from a couple of propane tanks which ignited during the fire.

The Smithville Fire Department arrived on the scene and also deployed the ladder truck to help fight the blaze.

Chief Parker said he wishes to thank neighbors and a rehab team of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad who brought drinking water to firefighters. The Smithville Police Department was also on the scene.

Members of the local chapter of the American Red Cross came to assist with immediate needs of the fire victims.

May 5, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Four years ago, ten new members were elected to the fourteen-member county commission. There will be at least six changes on the commission this year and perhaps more depending upon the outcome of the August 4th General Election.

As of this date, there will be one new member elected in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and two new members in the 5th district.

The makeup of the commission as of September 1, 2018, was Dennis Slager and Julie Young in the 1st district, Myron Rhody and Sabrina Farler in the 2nd district, Bobby Johnson and Jenny Trapp in the 3rd district, Janice Fish-Stewart and Dr. Scott Little in the 4th district, Jerry Adcock and Anita Puckett in the 5th district, Matt Adcock and Jeff Barnes in the 6th district, and Bruce Malone and Beth Pafford in the 7th district.

Only four members from 2014 were re-elected in 2018 including Jerry Adcock, Jeff Barnes, Anita Puckett and Julie Young.

In January 2021 Shaee Flatt was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Dennis Slager who resigned in November 2020 as a 1st district member. Flatt did not seek election this year.

Susannah Cripps Daughtry was appointed to the commission as a 3rd district member in April 2021 after the resignation of Bobby Johnson the month before. She is now running for her first elected term.

In the primaries on Tuesday of this week, 3rd district member Jenny Trapp and 5th district member Jerry Adcock lost their bids for re-election and will be replaced by new members in the August election.

Fifth district member Anita Puckett and Commissioner Matt Adcock in the 6th district opted to run for County Mayor rather than seek re-election to the commission and will be replaced by new members this fall. Matt Adcock is still in the race for County Mayor and will be running against Mike Foster for the position in August.

Fourth district member Dr. Scott Little chose not to seek re-election to the county commission this year but will be a candidate for the Board of Education in August along with two others, Eric Ervin and Tony Poss.

The remaining commissioners from 2018 still serving, Young, Rhody, Farler, Stewart, Barnes, Malone, and Pafford are all seeking re-election, but all are facing contested races in August. The only sure thing is that Larry Green and Glynn Merriman in the 5th district, who won their primary races Tuesday will be joining the commission this fall as they have no opponents in the August General Election.

The field of county commission candidates in each district for the August General Election are as follows:

First District: Julie Young (Democrat), Bennett Armstrong (Republican), Tom Chandler (Republican), and Daniel Cripps (Independent). Two are to be elected.

Second District: Myron Rhody (Democrat), Sabrina Farler (Republican), and Jim Pearson (Republican). Two are to be elected.

Third District: Susannah Cripps Daughtry (Democrat), Jack Barton (Democrat), Tim Perricone (Republican), and Tony Luna (Independent). Two are to be elected.

Fourth District: Janice Fish Stewart (Democrat), Greg Matthews (Republican), Tony (Cully) Culwell (Republican), and Wayne Cantrell (Independent). Two are to be elected.

Fifth District: Larry Green (Republican) and Glynn Merriman (Republican). Both are to be elected unopposed

Sixth District: Jeff Barnes (Democrat), Danny McGinnis (Democrat), Doug Stephens (Republican), and Justin Douglas Adcock (Republican). Two are to be elected.

Seventh District: Beth Pafford (Democrat), Bruce Malone (Republican), and Timothy Reynolds (Republican). Two are to be elected.

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