Spotlight
Garett Lee: Houston,Texas
Never Forgetting What It Is To Be Born A Texas Karate Warrior

SPOTLIGHT
GARETT LEE: HOUSTON TEXAS
Never Forgetting What It Is To Be Born A Texas Karate Warrior

Garett Robert Lee was born in Houston, Texas on January 10th 1992 into a family of Martial Artist. His father is well known across America as an excellent competitor, knowledgeable Black Belt and founder of the Living Legends Celebrity Roast. Garett’s mother holds a Black Belt and she was a winning competitor during her competition years as an under belt and Brown Belt. Long time friend and World Full- Contact Karate Champion Ishmael Robles said at Garett’s Black Belt Test, “ Garett is destined to be the next layer of champions Texas produces, but the main reason he is going to be a champion is because he was born in Texas!"

Garett earned his black belt at seven years of age. That was unheard of in the real karate world and thought to be of a farce. No child was seen as capable of breaking boards, fighting, self-discipline, attitude, bunkai, kobudo weapons, and do, ku san ku, jion, ni shi sho ho, unsu, sesien, sanchin sapei (these are all Black Belt Katas), all the wazas, and of course the basic kion katas that are required in Okinawan Karate. He also endured the pressure of a panel of thirty living legends in the martial arts who graded him. This had never been done before, but that is what makes Garett very special. They passed him and signed his certificate endorsing his skills as a Black Belt. The reason Garett has excelled in the martial arts and has done almost impossible feats in traditional and sport karate is the fact that he has many teachers!

Garett has performed in many places and in front of thousands of karate spectators but his most cherished memory is when he did his routine at The Bob Wall’s Celebrity Roast in front of Chuck Norris, Roy Kurbon, Richard Norton, Jeff Smith, Troy Dorsey, Raymond McCallum, Steve Fisher, and the great Lou Casamassa.
Grand Master Casamassa had given Garett's dad the sword Garett used in the demonstration that night.
and it gave Garett goose bumps because he knew how much his dad loved and respected Grand Master Casamassa.

Another memorable event was performing on the Super Grands stage at two years of age and breaking a board over his father’s head. When he was four years old Bernie “Pops Kransnoo" put him on the Sherman Oaks Raiders National Karate Team and his sport karate career begin. He would perform wherever his father would have a performance; it was like “Have Blackbelt Will Travel". Garett has had an incredible traveling career but because he pursued many goals in 2005 we are sharing about that year.

He Who Travels Sees The Water Fall Differently Than Others Who Don't
School, family and other things in life are important but sport karate and performing is in Garett’s destiny, as you probably already understand by now. He has a wish to be the best he can be. His favorite saying comes from Rick Clunn, World Bass Fishing Champion and Five Time Winner Of The Bassmaster Classic;

"There Are No Limits To Reaching Our Goals With A PMA
(Positive Mental Attitude)"

In 2005 Garett started out chasing the A.O.K, the Texas karate circuit. He finish with a number one seed in the east and went in to the State Championship with eight first places in a row in kata and fighting. After a tremendous year in this circuit, and being picked as the youngest member on Team Focus, he won two state titles; one in 12-13 Black Belt Kata and the other 12-13 Black Belt Fighting.

Then he went to Columbus Ohio for Arnolds'd Martial Arts Festival as the special guest performer for Black Belt Television. He performed to the title song for the movie “Black Salt” in front of an array of the following VIPs:

• Jim Harrison
• Bob Wall
• Wesley Snipes
• Bill “Superfoot” Wallace
• Ken Knudson
• Don “The Dragon” Wilson
• Chuck Zito
• Michael DePasquale Jr.
• Steve Sanders

The legendary Tokey Hill sponsored Garett at the World Karate Federation event, at the festival, where he won kata and fighting.

Sometimes, opportunity comes once in a life time and if you don't take advantage of it, it may never come again. This is what Garett experienced in Houston one Saturday. Stan Witz, a producer from Las Vegas introduced his event in Houston at the Fonde Recreation Center. Ms. Linda Denley was his sponsor and Garett entered all divisions winning everything including the Adult Black Belt Kata division. Then it was on to The Battle of H-town, across Houston to the north side of town, where he won Kata and fighting. Garett had won two major karate events in one day!

Then he was on his way to Pittsburgh to the National Black Belt League qualifying event for Super Grands in Buffalo New York. He competed in Japanese Kata in a field of thirty competitors. He finish third, securing him a seed at the World Games at the end of the year. He was on stage as guest performer for ESPN 2, where he performed spectacular feats with Young Sung Lee and Dr.Patrick Price. Garett came back home to Victoria, Texas and competed in the NBL Conference Event, where he won both his divisions in kata and fighting, giving him his fighting seed at Super Grands.

One of Garett’s favorite events is Wayne Nyugen’s TKO’S Ocean State Nationals in Galveston, Texas. Wayne, better known as the “White Ninja” from the movie "Sidekicks", has watched Garett grow up and sponsors him every year at his event.

This year Garett won his fighting division and kata division and he won his very first Grand Championship. It was very special when Master Nyugen gave Garett a samurai sword for winning his event. In the old days the ultimate gift was getting a sword from your teacher.

The Black Belt Magazine Reunion and Festival was a huge event in Hollywood, California. All the stars came out for this one and Garett was right in the middle of the action. He was there to audition for a part in the new show "Are You the Next Martial Arts Superstar?", and to perform on stage for Black Belt Magazine.

He did get to hang out with Gene LeBell, Chris Casamassa, Michele "The Mouse" Krasnoo, Bob Wall, John Chung, Eric Lee, Dan “The Beast” Severn, Young Sung Lee, World Karate Champion Linda Denley, Leo Fong, George Alexander (Master Alexander was so impressed with Garett's skills that he asked him to be his Uki for his performance on stage, what an honor!) While he was there he got to work out with some great martial artist like STUWART SHUMANN AND KEN FIRESTONE. Garett is a season traveler and has done more in the past few years in his karate than most people have done in a lifetime.

The Test and Four Hours Later
Garett’s Black Belt exam was “an old fashioned BLACKBELT test (meaning something most adults would fail) under Allen Steen, Ed Daniel, Skipper Mullins, Fred Wren, Jim Toney, Jim Butin, Al Garza, Dan Anderson, Royce Young, Linda Denley, Zulfi Ahmed, Jim Harrison, Jimmy “Gato” Tabares, Ishmael Robles, Stacy and Pablo Mejia, Tim Kirby, George Minshew, Glen Wilson, Larry Ritchie, Richard Jenkins, Ronnie Al, Daryl Stewart Matubushi Ward, Head Of The Okinawan-Japanese Karate Federation, (just to name a few). Garett performed his basic and advanced techniques, then several weapons kata, then went through his ten forms, fought ten rounds (not including the multiple attacker rounds). When the dust had settled all the above named Black Belts signed Garett’s Black Belt rank certificate and at age seven Garett was the youngest child and very first child Allen Steen And Jim Harrison ever put their signature on. That made history!

His favorite fighters are Ray McCallum, Tim Kirby, Linda Denley, Wade Kirkpatrick and of course Demitrius (“the Golden Greek”) Havanas, and his dad. His favorite forms are Tetsu, Ni Ji Shi Ho, Eagle and Usu.
His Godfather Dr. Mauny Gyi, Founder Of Bando Said "He is a worker and future champion of the world, a real champion not a paper tiger. He is a kata machine and fights like the old days, hard and fast!"

Having been brought up in Texas Garett has heard all the “war stories” about the great Texans Demitrius Havanas and Raymond McCallum. His dad took Garett to a tournament in the Austin area when he was in the peewee divisions and they spent the night with fellow Texan Black Belt Tim Kirby. Garett fell asleep to the stories of Havanas for a lullaby. After being asleep several hours Garett rose silently, Tim and Garett’s dad watched in quiet surprise as Garett performed “sleep kata”, he then went through a few sparring combinations and then fell back into bed breathing deeply again in a heavy sleep. The next day as the tournament got under way, Mr. Kirby gave Garett a patch, not just any patch, this patch read “The Golden Greek”. This was given to Tim Kirby (from the A.O.K) for being the best all around male Black Belt in Texas in 1981 the year Demitrius Havanas died in a tragic plane crash.

Tim had carried the patch all these years when he would fight out of state and it was priceless to him, but Garett had touch his heart and Tim was compelled to give him the famous patch. His dad won two Golden Greek Awards in '97 AND '98, so Garett knew how important this was even at his early age.
Tim told Garett that morning, “I carried this patch everywhere I fought after Greek died and I felt his spirit with me every match, I want you to have it and remember Greek is with you”. Garett makes sure this is on his uniform when he enters the ring.

He does have a life outside of karate, his mom makes sure of that. Garett maintains an A average in school and enjoys playing “video games” of all sorts. He enjoys fishing; another activity Garett and his father spend time doing together. Garett looks forward to competition but admits its not all about trophies, he enjoys sparring and the “challenge” it brings. Garett’s favorite technique is the Texas chamber sidekick and the ridge hand. Garett says “The Sidekick I love because I can stop anyone with it and the ridge hand because of its history! J.Pat Burleson and Mike Stone invented the ridge hand but it was Jeff Smith, Linda Denley, Steve Fisher and Garett's dad who perfected it for sport competition"

• His favorite colors are black and red.
• His favorite food is steak.
• He loves to dance and enjoys today’s music.
• His favorite martial arts film is THE LAST SAMURAI and KILL BILL.
• His favorite movie star is SCORPION from Mortal Kombat, Chris Casamassa
• His favorite time of the year is CHRISTMAS.
• His favorite on screen girl is the girl garth fell in love with from WAYNES WORLD .
• His favorite off screen girl is his MOM
• His favorite sport KARATE

Garett has three main sponsors, World Blackbelt, Team Focus and of course Hawaiirock Productions. He has had offers from Kellogs of Battle Creek, Ford, Infiniti and Fox TV but his family wants him to concentrate on his education first and his youth. Garett has never forgotten the famous last words at his test by Grand Master Allen Steen, “Your education is your most important journey without it you will not have the vision to carry out the opportunities that await you in the future."

Currently Garett is training for his third Dan Black Belt exam and looking forward to seeing all the Martial Art Living Legends at the Michael DePasquale's Roast his father is hosting in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Garett is considering “invading” the WTF and USTU in hopes of fighting his way to the Olympics. He wants to represent the United States in Karate competition like his dad did all the years he competed. What's in his life for the future? He smiles and says with a big, big grin, "girls and cars and all the fun stuff adults get to do!"

Update 2009
Garett is 17 years old now, it is hard to believed he has been a Black Belt karate fighting champion for ten years. Traveling different  national  karate circuits , Garett "Spaz" Lee has define the words "Have Black Belt Will Travel", however he is doing fine and still having fun!

In Kata he runs Sepai and in fighting he has been picked up by World Champion Jason Holmes (JDog) and the PKKA National Karate Team.

He has won every tournament  he has entered  3rd place or higher except for SUPER GRANDS in 2008, for the past two years, pretty impressive because he fights everywhere, any group, any rules. NBL,
AOK, TNT, SKI, WKA, PKC, USKA, International rules, Texas rules!

He has won two Texas State Titles in fighting and one in Kata. Just recently he won and placed in The Back Alley Bash, a fight club in Houston, Texas.

To let you know how much intensity this young Texas Warrior has toward sport karate, even now after ten years of living off the road with his father and doing show after show, in town after town, he still loves sport karate!!!

In 2008 at the Masters Hall of Fame he was asked to perform his flawless Japanese Kata "Sepai " in front of the Living Legends of the martial arts and help open the history making event .

On his 17th Birthday, Garett fought as an adult in the first P K C National Karate event in Texas at the Alvin Community College in Alvin Texas.

Garett entered the mens heavy weight division and won. He then entered a new sport where you score only  one point and then all five judges score you at the same time. No time limit, the Ippon Kumite will be the talk of the sport circuit for true one punch or kick fighters! Garett won that division.  Then he won the Grand Championship in fighting. He has now been chosen to be on the Texas  P K C National Team to fight. 

Ask what the future is for Garett and he says "traveling,  meeting new friends and seeing old ones but if I had to say one thing to someone, 'Look Good , Fight Good'".

This article was wriitten while World Champion Jason Holmes and his new protogee, Garett "spaz" Lee were getting ready for their next event, the P K C Championship in September.
Kabuki Warriors Tales