The beginning.

The Club began in May of 1990. Prior to that my father, Mario Nozzarella Sensei, was teaching one night a week in his garage in Kings James Colony in Chesapeake. He had two main students, Wayne Brewer and Robert Hill. The garage was spacious enough, but not terribly comfortable in the dead of winter, and summer occasionally included making sure no snakes had gotten in before a workout. Mario Sensei approached Reverend Jim Mahaffey at Salem United Methodist Church about possibly teaching in the church social hall. Reverend Mahaffey approached the district board about the proposition and after some deliberation and an explanation from my father as to what he was planning on teaching there they finally approved.

The Salem Karate Club started. There were a generous amount of youth that were interested, so the kids class was off to a great start. My brother, Matt, and myself returned to training, joining Wayne and Robert as well as my cousin Carrie McGranahan and Mrs. Rose from the church.

The social hall looked much different than it does today. The air conditioning was courtesy of a set of window units. The floor was covered in linoleum held down in strategic locations by duct tape. We shared the space with one of church's grand pianos. Also about a third of the space was taken up by a raised stage blocked off by a curtain.

Mario Sensei was teaching Shorin-Ryu Karate which he had learned from Don Page Sensei and "Chito" Fernandez Sensei. It was much different from the Karate we are teaching now, but same good principles have always been there.

And that's how a bunch of folks started spending time in church beating each other up and praying for each other to get better.

-Sensei Marty