Team USA Olympian Tom Scott was a featured instructor as Pennsylvania Shotokan Karate Club hosted the 21st annual USA Elite Training Camp June 9-11, at the Sheraton Hotel in Moon Township.

This event routinely features history makers every year in the sport of karate, said Dustin Baldis, the camp director and coach for Team USA’s national team.

Scott was joined at the Tokyo Olympics by fellow Team USA karate athletes Ariel Torres (Florida) and Sakura Kokomai (California). Kokumai was a featured instructor at the USA Elite Training Camp in 2016.

The USA Elite Training Camp has been recognized as a leader in the grassroots to Olympic level karate practitioners development, Baldis said.

Participants range from novice to elite level. An average of 20 athletes a year make the USA Karate Team which is recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

John Fonseca also served as an instructor. Fonseca and Scott are the only two male athletes to win two gold medals at the Pan American Games. Scott won in 2015 and ’19 and Fonseca in 1999 and 2003.

Scott will be competing at this year’s Pan American Games from Oct. 20-Nov. 5, in Santiago, Chile. The Pan American Games are the largest multi sport event in the world second only to the Olympic Games. Baldis was part of the first karate team to compete at the Pan American Games in 1995. He competed again in 1999 and was the first in U.S. karate history to medal at the games as an athlete (1995) and again as a coach when he coached the 2011 Pan American Games.

Also instructing was Chad Eagan who has coached several world medalist in Kata (forms).

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, State Reps. Valerie Gaydos and Emily Kinkead and Moon Township supervisors John Hertzer and Al Quaye also were in attendance.

Pennsylvania Shotokan Karate Club has dojos in Leetsdale and Levelgreen.

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