20th Anniversary Letter to the World Class Family!
Hello, World Class Families!
I can’t believe we are celebrating our 20th Anniversary of World Class Tae Kwon Do in Birmingham! Sometimes I feel like I’m only 20 years old, so I don’t even know how it’s possible to have spent 2 decades as a part of this amazing community.
I wanted to take the time to write to you, our World Class family, about the last 20 years and give you a glimpse into our history!
Thinking about where to start, I had to go back farther than 20 years where I was born and began my Tae Kwon Do training. I was born in a city called Lackawanna, just south of Buffalo, New York.
WHY DID I START TKD?
For most of my childhood I was extremely small for my age. I actually hit the weight of 100 pounds and height of 5 feet tall when I was in 10th grade. With me being so small for most of my life, I was lacking some emotional confidence and self-esteem. I wasn’t great at making friends, speaking up for myself or being social. I had a speech impediment and never really fit in with kids around me. As you can imagine being that small, sports teams weren’t a great fit for me either. I loved playing sports but wasn’t ever tall enough, strong enough or fast enough to make a team or be decent in that setting.
One thing that I’m extremely grateful for is that even though I had a tough time competing against other kids my age, it forced me to out-work everyone else. For me to try and compete I had to push myself harder than the kids around me. I do believe that the work ethic I learned then is still ingrained in who I am even up to this day.
My mom, like lots of moms, wanted the best for me and give me the ability to make friends. She knew she needed to get me into something to help me.
My mom walked into World Class Tae Kwon Do.
She spoke with a gentlemen about the program and learned that martial arts can work to develop confidence and focus through the training. At the age of 12 she enrolled me in 1996.
Tae Kwon Do equipped me with skills so far beyond kicking and punching. From a kid that was picked last in PE class, to someone that volunteers for demonstrations and gained confidence to perform in tournaments and demonstrations. Tae Kwon Do changed me. It changed me so deeply that I still feel I owe it to every student I work with to give them the life-changing benefits I received. I wasn’t just a student, but I truly felt like the Tae Kwon Do school was my family. The classmates and instructors made me feel great to be me.
Fast forward a few years – I achieved my Black Belt and became an assistant instructor. I was trained by the founder of World Class Tae Kwon Do, Grandmaster Sun Ki Chong. Grandmaster Chong was former Korean National Champion, US National Team Coach and the visionary behind the now 50 plus World Class affiliates.
In 2004, one of the World Class instructors in Buffalo, under Grandmaster Chong was preparing to leave and open an affiliate somewhere else in the country. He choose Birmingham, AL.
At this time, I was 19 years old. My mom was slightly flipping out because her oldest son was about to move across the country to Birmingham, and all we knew of at this point were the Alabama stereotypes. But after one visit, we LOVED the area – the weather (no snow), the people, and the opportunity.
For years we grew the school together. In 2011 my wife, Jessica, and I had the opportunity to purchase the school and that started me on the path of being an entrepreneur.
Our original location was in Lee Branch near the AMC movie theater (it was RAVE back then). Once our first lease was up, we moved our school down 280 to Inverness Corners. We had so much fun working with hundred of families and immersing ourselves into our community through schools, churches and events.
We were able to grow our school from about 105 students to 375 students, to the point that we outgrew our facility. We focused on developing our assistant instructors and went on a search for a new, bigger home for our World Class family.
In 2015 we were lucky enough to find a plot of land and had the pieces fall in place to build our own stand-alone school – one of the biggest Tae Kwon Do schools in the country.
We wanted our facility to match the quality of our teaching, and we invested everything we had to make it happen! We were so proud of our school and our team!
Our new facility allowed us to develop a kickboxing program called FGHTR Fitness, which is also licensed out to other World Class schools across the country!
Six months before Covid, we developed a team strong enough to expand to a second location in Hoover! Great leaders don’t react, they anticipate, but I don’t think anyone saw Covid coming and what it would do to businesses. As a team, we pivoted every way we could to continue teaching Tae Kwon Do, from virtual classes, to drive-up belt tests and promotions, to video content. We were determined to rise up and through the challenge the world was facing!
Once things seemed to get back to “normal,” we were able to start our 4 month reconstruction (due to bad original construction) of our Inverness school. As many of you know, we were in our completely rebuilt building for 3 weeks when an electrical fire destroyed much of our internal walls, mats, flooring and inventory. For the next 6 weeks, we taught on concrete floor in the Church of Brookhills while we restored our Tae Kwon Do home.
Over the last 20 years, challenges have come in all forms! I don’t know anyone that is successful that will tell you it was easy to get there. In life I do believe that our success is directly related to the size of the problems we can overcome.
Thinking back to the challenges and knowing the stats of business in the country like:
- 20% of all businesses close within 1 year
- Only 34% of businesses make it to 10 years
- And only 13% of businesses make it to the 20 year mark
I am extremely proud of what we’ve been able to do in Birmingham. I attribute success of 20 years to many things, but one of the main driving principles that our team is committed to giving as much value to our students as we can.
Some of the stats I love to reflect on are:
• More than 1,000 students have tested for Black Belt
- We have 7 Full-time career instructors
- Our team of instructors are products of the program (many of your instructors have been training since they were 4, 5, or 6 years old!)
- Our school has donated and raised more than $150,000 to Hope For Healing Scars, Children’s Hospital of Alabama and Camp Smile-a-Mile
- We are honored to have more than 600 current active students learning our great art of Tae Kwon Do in our 2 locations.
- More than 1,000 women have learned basic self-defense skills from our free seminars.
- Countless students have become more empowered to handle the challenges that they will face in life.
What’s to Come?
I want you to know that I personally feel like we are just getting started! The vision I have for our schools, students and program is only going to continue to improve. With all of our endeavors through World Class Tae Kwon Do, FGHTR Fitness, and Hope For Healing Scars nonprofit, we are going to continue striving for excellence. Excellence in the form of teaching, life skills, community involvement and results to our Birmingham World Class family!
Final Thoughts
I am grateful for Tae Kwon Do. It has given me so much on every level imaginable. I do feel indebted to what it’s done for me and that drives me to give it to you through our team!
I am grateful for our team, both past and present. I believe our team of instructors is truly one of the strongest martial teams in the country. Their passion, dedication and skills to work with students of all ages is incredible!
I am grateful for my wife, Jessica Scarsella. She has supported me and the many chances I have taken to follow my dreams and passions. She’s understood the long hours and has taken a deep dive into aspects of business and Tae Kwon Do she never dreamed of. Our school wouldn’t be the same without her.
I am thankful for you – our World Class students and families. Both past students and present students – Thank you for the opportunity to be part of your lives. You make teaching fun and fulfilling. Without your support we wouldn’t have survived Covid, rebuilding, or 20 years in this community! You are amazing, and we are looking forward to being part of this community for decades to come!
Link to our 20th Anniversary Slideshow
