This past Saturday, December 9th, Paramount held its 2017 annual Awards and Year-End belt promotion ceremony. 3 students were recognized for exceptional achievements and 12 were awarded a new belt.
THE AWARDS
For the first time ever, 1 student earned 2 awards. Abi Pacinelli took home both the Performance of the Year and Competitor of the Year.
The Performance award was in recognition of her accomplishments at the IBJJF Atlanta Summer Open, where she won 3 Gold medals and a Silver. In addition to this achievement, she also earned 2 medals at the World Masters Championship, Gold at the DC Open, Silver at the NY Pro, had 2 impressive armlock wins at Fight to Win Pro
Instructor of the Year went to Phil Mento, who is the head instructor of the Children’s Program, assistant instructor in the Boxing classes, and also assists with adult BJJ classes.
Hrithik Sangani was awarded Student of the Year. Still in highschool, Hrithik is taking AP classes and getting straight A’s. This year he began competing in the adult divisions, winning our in-house tournament and medaling at the New Breed and Tap Cancer Out (TCO) tournaments. He was also the top fundraiser for the TCO event, raising over $10,000! On top of all of that he was awarded his blue belt.
BELT PROMOTIONS
Twelve very deserving students reached a major milestone. All of them are great representatives of Paramount and, if they continue on their current trajectory, will someday become great black belts.
Blue Belt
- Rob Nirenberg
- Jason O’Neill
- Mike Discianni
- Rich Brzezinski
- Hrithik Sangani
- Jocelynn Palmer
Purple Belt
- Artem Bohovko
- Branden King
Brown Belt
- Jim Mattson
- Ryan O’Connell
- Greg Hagner
- Chris Traini
