It's been a great season and I had a fantastic time being president. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. It's also been quite challenging especially with both the league and the club changing so much this last year.

We came into the season with a very young and inexperienced team after losing about 20 black belts due to graduation that May. Our stage was really empty at the start of the year whereas it was usually packed last season. We also had a brand new grappling curriculum to learn. The fall was definitely a semester of rebuilding and we knew we had to train our lower ranks better and faster than ever. It was good to have Paul back from Australia but on the flip side, we lost Ben early on due to a knee injury. Given our relative inexperience we still managed to place three All-Stars (Tanya, Paul, and myself), and win the West Point Pre-Season Tournament right off the bat.

We lost NYU Tournament, but then we won U Penn Tournament. MIT then started their shock and awe campaign by beating us on our own turf (literally!). After three tournaments, it was also clear that their B-Teams had dominated the division by placing three or four teams regularly.

Unfortunately, the spring semester started off with two new knee injuries. Our men's A1 heavyweight, Paul McCord injured his knee during the INTCL All Star Trip, and Jenn Burg, our A-1 heavyweight also injured her knee early on in the spring semester. Regardless, we still had confidence that we could bring home the gold at Princeton Tournament in March. Luis Izquierdo took Paul's heavyweight spot, and middleweights Mary Corbett and Anastasia were bumped up and took turns sparring on the women's A1 heavyweight spot.

We underestimated MIT as they brought an even stronger team and continued their domination of the B-Team sparring division as well as the poomse competition. They won Princeton, but we were still ahead by 50 or so points. This loss, however, only strengthened our resolve. Hearing the news, Sabumnim decided to get involved in tournaments once again, starting with the coming Yale Tournament. In other news, Paul "Wolverine" McCord showed some amazing healing powers as he recovered from knee surgery in a matter of days and was all ready to spar at Yale.

Sabumnim's presence at the Yale tournament really energized our team as people began sparring better than ever. Despite our best efforts though, MIT brought home another gold and finally took over the lead for the INCTL Cup. Sabumnim once again made a commitment to come to the next and final tournament to be held at Columbia.

Down by 22 points, our team realized that without making some additional sacrifices, we would surely lose the cup. People who had all but quit taekwondo came back to spar for Cornell. People made extraordinary sacrifices with their schedules to fit in the tournament. We began to look like the team we once were. I almost thought that we'd once again have a deluge of e-mails on our mailing list with people saying how they're failing all their classes and haven't slept in the last 48 hours but are still coming to the tournament. Well we didn't quite have a deluge, but I personally know that many people sacrificed more than I could have asked of them just to come to the Columbia Tournament. It made me really proud to be on this team regardless of the outcome. We did end up losing the tournament and the cup to MIT that day but I knew we would return next year stronger than ever.

Now that I've recapped the whole season, let me jump into the present tense to finish off this summary. MIT beat us at our own game: coming strong to every tournament of the season. That has been the secret of our success for the past 15 or so years and if every team in the league brought their full teams every tournament, the league would be much different. Next year will be very different. First off, we have some new black belts. Congratulations to Evan Hopkins, Corinne Durand, Meghan Lembeck, Allen Chang, Bing Zhou, and Jen Howard. We have a senior class of only five: Ben, Bing, Evan, Meghan and Simon Leet. Of those seniors, Bing and Evan are returning for another year of TKD and ummm\u2026 school too. We're losing a small amount and we'll be gaining Jenn back this summer as soon as she recovers from knee surgery. This along with our crop of now experienced color belts will make us a powerful force within the INCTL once again.

MIT watch out!