About the Lycoming College Shotokan Karate Club

 Founders:

George Vance, Yondan
William Bubb, Nidan

Lycoming College's Club Officers

President: Samantha Volz
Vice-president: Heather Rardin
Secretary: Adam Hughes
Treasurer: Ashley Campbell
Webmaster: Tiffany Zappulla & Dzung Tran

In 1973, Sensei Charles Russert a member of the Japan Karate Association's, All New York Karate Association located in New York City moved to the Williamsport area, where he introduced the art of Shotokan Karate-Do to it's residents. Because of unforeseen health related issues associated with his wife, Sensei Russert moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1978. Following his departure from the area, Sensei George Vance and William Bubb founded the Lycoming College Shotokan Karate Club. For over twenty-eight (28) years, we have committed ourselves to passing on the high standards that the Japan Karate Association expects of their instructors. This commitment is evident not only in the proficiency of our students, but also in the quality of their character.

Following the successful introduction of shotokan karate-do to Lycoming College, we were invited in 1986 to organize a club at the Williamsport Area Community College now known as the Pennsylvania College of Technology. Along with the shotokan karate clubs, both area college's in 1994 approved Ph Ed Shotokan Karate Course's for its students.

Both Lycoming College and the Pennsylvania College of Technology are associated with the International Shotokan Karate Federation's East Coast Collegiate Karate Union, which includes over seventeen (17) collegiate clubs including Bucknell University, Cornell University, Drexell University, Georgetown University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, Lycoming College, Neumann College, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Penn State University, University of Massachusetts, Temple University, West Chester University, College of William & Mary, University of Maine, University of Rochester and West Virginia University among others.

The Lycoming College Shotokan Karate Club trains according to the principals of our founder Mr. Gichin Funakoshi, the "Father of Modern Karate". We practice the traditional Japanese art of empty hand self-defense which has evolved over many years and refined by modern scientific principals. We take our training very seriously, taking a no nonsense approach which develops very committed karate-ka. Although our training maybe physically intense, we are still guided by Master Gichin Funakoshi's principal of "the ultimate goal of the art of karate-do is not victory or defeat, but in the perfection of character of its participants."

For more information about our club and its laws,  go here.

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