Red Deer Judo Club
The Red Deer Judo Club started in about 1968 under the guidance of two brothers, John and Ron Cusins. Both John and Ron were from England and had trained at the Budoqwai. The club was named AKA SHIKA which loosely translates to Red Deer in Japanese. Ron actually traveled to area schools such as Innisfail and gave introductory lessons to interested students. John was the primary instructor in Red Deer.
Later Instructors included Jim Runzor, Rob Ferguson, Brian Fujimoto, Donna Hansen and Ken Sukishima. In approximately 1990 Al Schaefer joined the club as an instructor followed by Mark Saxon, Bryon Farguson and Cobi Brochu. The club has also had numerous guest instructors over the years including Dean Myriama from Lethbridge and Dave Patton from Prince George. In 2013 the Red Deer club benefited from the addition of Will Rodger, an instructor from St Albert and we now are proud to include local talent from Red Deer instructors including, Jerome Roth, Ben Guenther, , Eric Mbrugu, Davin Simao.
The club has operated out of numerous Red Deer facilities over the years from warehouse and work bays to the Mitchener Centre, local school gyms and currently in collaboration with Goshikan JuJitsu in Gasoline Alley. The club membership is typically between 50-80 members ranging from 4 to over 60 years of age. This includes both male and female athletes of all walks of life and abilities.