A true karate kid
Courtesy photo Incoming Holy Family Catholic School fifth-grader Kyle Rohlinger performs some impressive karate moves at the Amateur Athletic Union Karate National Championships and International Cup in Raleigh, N.C. last month. Kyle, 10, a black belt, will compete in the West Coast Junior Olympics in Los Angeles on July 30.
Courtesy photo Kyle Rohlinger, 10, of Coeur d'Alene, will compete in the West Coast Junior Olympics in karate on July 30 in Los Angeles. Kyle has been training at Warhorse Karate in Post Falls for five years and is on the Inland Empire Regional Karate Team that trains in Clarkeston, Wash. He's pictured here last month at the Coeur d'Alene resident, 10-year-old Kyle Rohlinger, will be competing in the West Coast Junior Olympics in karate on July 30th in Los Angeles. Kyle has been training at Warhorse Karate in Post Falls for 5 years and is on the Inland Empire Regional Karate Team that trains …
He's a black belt in defense karate, a brown belt in competition karate and he's on his way to competing in the West Coast Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games.
Did we mention he's only 10?
"I've competed so much this year," Junior Olympian-to-be Kyle Rohlinger said Friday during a phone interview with The Press. "I'm not nervous at all."
The incoming Holy Family Catholic School fifth-grader has been practicing the art of karate at Warhorse Karate in Post Falls since he was about 5.
"He was this tiny little boy in his white outfit," said Kyle's mom, Linda. "He was so little."
Kyle's dream was to follow in the footsteps (or pawsteps) of one particular cartoon panda.
"I like competing most, and I like doing weapons," Kyle said. "I started because I watched 'Kung Fu Panda' and I really wanted to be like the panda."
He is presently on a family trip in San Francisco, but in about a week he'll be in Los Angeles to compete with his peers of the Inland Empire Regional Karate Team to win the West Coast title. Kyle is the youngest on that team.
"This is a pretty unique opportunity for him," Linda said. "I'm proud to see him grow in this sport and have the opportunity to experience this kind of camaraderie and to be able to go to this kind of competition."
As he said, Kyle competed several times already this year. At a late spring competition, he placed in the top three. Soon after, Inland Empire Karate asked him to join the team. This meant driving more than two hours each way to Clarkston, where the Warabay Karate school is located, at least twice a week.
And it's worth it.
"You can probably hear that I'm tearing up," Linda said. "It's a very special, emotional time because, first of all, we're so proud of him.” "Secondly, he's going to be competing against the best in the country, and they're good, and they're strong. It gets a bit unnerving for me as a parent, but I also know he's had great training and he's worked hard to get to this level and I trust his skills."
Kyle and his 12 teammates — six of them girls — will battle it out with other regional teams for the honor of representing the AAU West Coast in international competitions.
"It's a formal competition setting. To see him get out there and perform at his best, it's so exhilarating," Linda said. "It's really fun to watch."
When he's not competing or practicing his karate, Kyle enjoys art, skiing, baseball and watersports. He plans to build on his karate skills, including his work with nunchuks, and hopes to earn his master black belt when he's 18. He's debating doing it professionally, but he's got time to think about it.
"I never knew it was going to be, like, the defensive part. I thought it was all cool kicks when I was 5 years old," he said, adding that karate is so much more than the fights.
"He's kept it up and he just loves it," Linda said. "He's a pretty confident little boy."