Cold Lake siblings bring home the hardware from the Open Falls Brazilian Jui-Jitsu Championship in Calgary

The Papalia family is going to need some new shelving for all the medals they brought home from the Open Falls Brazilian Jui-Jitsu Championship, which was held November 19th in Calgary. The four siblings, Riley (13), Adrianna (11), Lila (9), and Carter (7), brought home four bronze medals and three gold medals.

The family has been training at Kempe Fitness & Fighting for the past two years, under the guidance of coaches Bernie Antle and Mitch Gillis. “And of course they train with their Dad every day in our garage,” added mom, Andrea Papalia jokingly.

Andrea explained it’s really nice to have the family training together, along with the benefits of all four kids at the same place at the same time, “they can all practice and train with each other at home.”

Youngest sibling, seven-year-old Carter said his favourite thing about Brazilian Jui-Jitsu is that “I get to wrestle, it’s fun and I get to learn a lot.”

Nine-year-old Lila has two medals from Open Falls and had the third-fastest submission at 12 seconds. She is quite the athlete, on her off days she takes to the ice as the goalie for the U11 Jaguars, where she just earned her first shutout and a gold medal from the Sizzle Sticks Tournament this past weekend in Calgary, but that’s a story for another day.

“I like doing this with my family,” said eleven-year-old Adrianna, who added her favourite position is Guard, “it’s a strong position, you can do a whole lot of stuff from there.”

The eldest sibling, 13-year-old Riley, not only brought home hardware from the Open Falls Championship, she also placed third at the ADCC World Championship in Las Vegas.

Riley’s earned her grey belt in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu, whereas her siblings each have a grey belt with a white stripe. The belt colours determine placement and level of skill. The most advanced is a black belt.

“A black belt means you know a lot about [the sport] and it’s the most complex. It takes a long time to earn it,” explained Adrianna.

Coach Bernie Antle holds his black belt in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu. Along with that, he is a former Pro MMA Fighter,  Brown Belt in Judo and an apprentice instructor in Russian Sambo.

Coach Mitch Gillis is a blue belt 1.

Adrianna and Riley both train as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters and help in the younger classes.

About Kempe Fitness & Fighting

Kempe Fitness & Fighting is Cold Lake’s only official Brazilian Jui-Jitsu club. They offer youth and adult classes, as well as youth MMA classes.

“We want to bring youth together in a safe, healthy environment, and give them an outlet for what’s going on these days,” said owner/instructor Debra Antle, adding that everyone is welcome at the club.

Located on the second floor, above the library in Cold Lake north, Kempe Fitness & Fighting programming can be found on their social media pages, as well as online at https://www.fitnfight.ca/