So, who is the tougher sibling, Kathy Reynolds or her older brother, Brad?

“Me,” said Kathy, 15, a sophomore at Woodmore. “I'm quicker and I train more than he does. He's so busy with a full-time job, and he goes to school. We fight every Wednesday at the Dojo. It usually ends up where I accidentally hit him too hard in the face and he hits me back, and it just goes back and forth.”

Brad, 19, began taking karate classes at age 5, and his precocious younger sister got involved with karate four years later.

The medal winners from the USA Team Trials. Kathy Reynolds is on the far left.

“She always went with him,” said Kathy and Brad's mother, Jenny. “She always had to go to his classes. When she got old enough, she started asking to go with him. Brad is now a third-degree black belt and Kathy is a second-degree black belt.”

Kathy is becoming quite the world traveler, as well. Last Easter, she won a silver medal at the USA Open Karate Championships, an international tournament that was held in Las Vegas. In July, in Arlington, Texas, she competed in the USA National Championships and won her third national karate title.

Reynolds also earned a silver medal at the USA National Championships team trails in Arlington, with the top two placers advancing to the Pan American Karate Championships Aug. 28-Sept. 5 in Fortaleza, the fourth largest city in Brazil. The 5-foot-3 Reynolds was to compete for the USA Karate Team's junior squad (ages 12-20) in the 14- and 15-year-old division.

“There will probably be around 25 girls in my division,” she said. “I want to win really bad.”

“There are 80 athletes on the (USA) junior team, who receive no funding and you have to take a mandatory chaperone,” Kathy's mother said. “The trip is going to cost about $5,000 for the chaperone and the athlete. Kathy is also the first alternate to go to Junior Worlds in Malaysia during the first week of October. The Junior Worlds in karate is held every two years.”

Two years ago, at age 13, Kathy competed in El Salvador and won a gold medal at the Junior Pan American Karate Championships.

“I like being able to go to tournaments and do well and know that I can push myself to work hard,” said Reynolds, who trains six days a week. “I like meeting new people, and that makes it fun.”

Reynolds' local sensei, or teacher, is Mike Jacobs of Shinsuikan Dojo in Genoa.

“He has been her instructor since her and Brad were both 5,” Jenny Reynolds said. “That's who they train with locally, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they teach there on Wednesdays.”

Kathy is also coached by Dustin Baldis, who was recently named a USA National Coach of the Year. Baldis operates the Pennsylvania Shotokan Club (PSKC) near Pittsburgh and has been one of Kathy's instructors for the past year.

“We usually drive there on Saturdays, for four or five hours,” Jenny said. “They are now training for the Pan Am games and she's going and staying (in Pittsburgh) for three and four days at a time. We make the trip to Pittsburgh a lot.”

Kathy said she is grateful she had the chance to train with Baldis.

“He basically took me in as part of his team's family,” she said. “He was willing to train me and push me to do the best I can do. He sees potential, so he really works me hard. They're all so nice in the club and they are all willing to do everything to help me get better.

“There's a girl there, Sereen Askari, on the senior national team (18 and older) and they are all so helpful. She's usually my training partner. She's 20 and she's extremely fast. When we are working with each other, she'll be like, 'Come on, step it up.' Her speed pushes me. I want to be just as fast as she is and I want to match what she does.”

Kathy made it clear she isn't just going to Brazil just to see the sights later this month.

“Everybody's goal is to get the gold,” she said. “Really, I just want to go down there and do well and fight smart and do what my coaches have been telling me to do. Overall, just do well and hopefully win.”

The Reynolds family has been holding fundraisers to help defray the cost of Kathy's trip to Brazil. McDonald's coupon cards can be purchased by contacting Mike Jacobs at 419-855-1400, and the Shinsuikan Dojo in Genoa is also taking donations.

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