Rick Stiebel/News Gazette staff
Two Langford brothers who excel in martial arts have set their sights on loftier pursuits once they finish high school. Although Isaac Ickovich, 17, and Ben, 11, have brought home a haul of hardware from a couple of recent competitions, both brothers have given considerable thought to the career paths they aim to follow.
Isaac lists historical reading as one of his favourite activities and plans to focus on political science or business when he starts his post-secondary education. “Then I’d like to go on to law school,” he added.
Isaac, who plays on the Belmont Bulldogs senior basketball team, earned a bronze medal in sparring at a tournament earlier this month in Port Alberni. That followed on the heels of golds in point sparring in two age classes, and a Grand Championship in forms at a major martial arts tournament. He also worked as a judge at that event, which took place in May in Richmond.
“I started doing a little judging last year,” Isaac said. “You have to be able to separate personal feelings and focus on being objective,” he said when asked about the challenges of judging athletes you may have a personal connection with. “You want the best competitor to win the top prize, and that’s the mind set you have to have.”
Ben did well in both tournaments as well, garnering a silver in forms and a gold in point sparring in Richmond, and a bronze in sparring in Port Alberni. He recently received a certificate for scoring above the national average in mathematics, and plans on focusing on biology before pursuing a career in medicine.
“It’s nice being able to learn from my brother,” said Ben, who plays basketball for the Spencer middle school Wildcats. “He’s really helped me with sparring, and his method of teaching is very effective.”
He credited his bother’s coaching for making a recent tournament in Kelowna “a lot of fun.”