After years of training martial arts and Taekwondo, Alessa Williams will represent the United States in the Fourth Unified Taekwondo World Championships
Although only being a sophomore at Triton Regional High School, Alessa Williams is not someone you want to mess with.
Over the past eight years, Williams has trained in numerous forms of martial arts, such as kickboxing, Hapkido, MMA and more, while focusing most extensively on Taekwondo. After years of hard work and dedication, she stands as a third-degree black belt.
Williams was introduced to martial arts while she was actually in the Girl Scouts, going to a tumbling karate class, which quickly got her hooked on the sport.
After about a year of begging her parents, according to Williams, she left the Girl Scouts and took up martial arts. Instantly, she fell in love with the competitiveness of martial arts.
“I’m a very competitive person, and Taekwondo and Karate are just very competitive so they just stuck with me,” Williams said.
She’s traveled all over the East Coast to compete in tournaments in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York and more over the years, however an upcoming location for her is uncharted territory: Brazil.
Williams qualified and was selected to represent the United States in the Fourth Unified Taekwondo-Do World Championships in Iguazu Falls, Brazil over the summer in August, where she will compete both as an individual and as a member in the girls combined team.
Williams has been a member of MacKenzies Martial Arts in Voorhees for approximately eight years. Other members of the martial arts school traveled to Argentina in 2017 to learn more techniques and train and compete, prompting Williams to want to take a similar trip in the future.
“I just bonded with everyone and got introduced and into competing even more than usual,” Williams said. “I just wanted to keep training and training.”
Qualifying for Brazil had been a goal for Williams for nearly two years.
“I had one of the masters tell me that I should be going for Brazil,” Williams said. “I used to tell my mom every time we had training — Brazil, Brazil, Brazil.”
Williams is excited to go to South America and start training with others from around the country and world, although she does not yet know specifically what events she will get to partake in.
“I’m ready to go tomorrow,” Williams said.
Gloucester Township Mayor David R. Mayer met with Williams and her family in February and congratulated her on her hard work and what lies ahead.
“It is young people like Alessa that truly make Gloucester Township a great place to live. We are so excited for her to represent our community at the world championship this summer,” said Mayer.
Her family is collecting donations to help deter the cost of Alessa’s expenses to Brazil, as all travel is to be paid for by the families. All donations can be directed to https://www.paypal.me/alessabrazil2019?locale.x=en_US&fbclid=IwAR1YCNlzr9gPedDgJls5qvCnPZ3OzlAip6cd8SFIHdqCWBaShWuePaYW9SU.
