It may wind up being a story of one community’s pain turning into another’s gain.
But for the neighbourhood surrounding Tsunami Academy’s former home just north of Montreal Road on St-Laurent Boulevard, the sudden closing of the youth-oriented martial arts and wrestling club is a significant loss.
Owners Derek and Claire Kossatz had built Tsunami Academy into a wrestling force, developing numerous national medalists, leading the Samuel-Genest high school team and starting a club program at the University of Ottawa.
“It’s such a shame,” Claire says. “When everything started to click and it looked like there was a future, it all comes down to money, and that’s sad.”
In the fall, Tsunami was informed their rent would be doubled for 2012 – the result, Derek says, of another tenant willing to pay that price for the space they’d occupied for five years. There was frustration that their landlord would use “the small print” to justify the increase, but instead of spending “thousands and thousands” in court to fight it, they immediately began scouring the area for a new location to rent.
The search for a safe space, at a reasonable price, proved fruitless in an area where small businesses often compete with big government dollars for a shrinking amount of retail space, Derek explains.
“We would have had to double our registration fees to stay there,” adds the instructor of 20 years. “We’ve always prided ourselves on being the most affordable sport for the underprivileged. If we raised the prices, we’d lose the kids that need it so much.”
Although closing the business they’d built from the ground up was understandably heartbreaking, what made the reality all the more difficult was that they’d no longer be able to make an impact on young people’s lives.
“In this part of town, there’s nothing for the kids. There’s no high-performance sport, there’s no venue for a child to start up,” Derek highlights, noting that available sports such as soccer and rowing can be far more costly ventures. “It’s a fantastic sport and we’ve got a lot of kids in the neighbourhood who have just never been exposed to anything quite so empowering as wrestling.”
Watching the “metamorphosis” of young athletes is what drives Derek, he explains. Young teenage girls gain confidence, while boys of the same age learn girls are to be respected; kids who are overweight and unmotivated suddenly discover a passion for sport that can lead them to university studies; and kids who are surrounded by classmates who are into drugs and have criminal records find a better way to spend their time.
“We keep them out of that. We give them that place to go to at night,” Derek describes. “There’s many kids who would be in a world of trouble if this hadn’t come along.”
Not running Tsunami as a full-blown commercial entity was a major key to success, adds Derek, who credits the family atmosphere the club brought as the biggest reason its programs thrived.
“Our team is very welcoming and helpful,” says Derek, whose club had around 150 members, including two dozen with a competitive focus in wrestling. “Everyone’s got their story here and their troubles and a situation that’s maybe not entirely ideal at home, so as a result, there’s a tremendous amount of understanding for the person who comes in next.”
A light at the end of the tunnel
While it wasn’t Option A, Tsunami has found a way to stay alive thanks to the Takahashi Dojo on Melrose Avenue in Hintonburg, where they’ll now run a wrestling program three nights a week.
St. Paul High School students Torin and Adam Macfadyen, whose mother is part of the Takahashi family that has produced multiple Olympians in judo, won the right to represent Canada at the cadet national team trials last year as members of the National Capital Wrestling Club. The brothers then began training at Tsunami in the lead-up to the cadet world championships, which helped facilitate the new partnership.
“The Takahashis have given us almost an ideal situation,” says Derek, who felt fortunate to find new business partners that they also truly like as people. “It’s a great opportunity for them and us. They are No. 1 in the region for judo and we are certainly No. 1 in Eastern Ontario for wrestling.
“It’s a good fit, and it could possibly be great for both of us, but it’s a scary prospect because we essentially have to move across town and start over.”
There will no longer be a Tsunami karate program, but the arrangement will allow the club’s top wrestlers to continue training as they usually would, albeit quite a bit farther from home. The wrestling group was particularly disappointed to hear the news of the closing, but like they do on the mat, Derek notes, there was a quick moment to sulk and now the focus is on getting back to work to improve for the future.
“For us, it’s the same core, the same athletes, the same coaches, the same mats, we’re just in a different room,” maintains Derek, whose athletes are entering prime competition season come February. “It’s been a lot of hard work and sleepless nights just to keep this team going and to keep the club alive. It’s been a very challenging time.
“Now we just need to win some medals and put the past behind us.”