4 Westmoreland athletes will represent U.S. at junior world kickboxing championship in Hungary

Xander Eddy’s friends at Norwin High School don’tbelieve him when he talks about the eight national and world kickboxing titles he holds.

Eddy, 15, a sophomore at Norwin, started kickboxing when he was 4 years old. He dedicates 15 to 20 hours per week to training with his teammates, conditioning in the gym and coaching young athletes.

Eddy won the 2017 North American Kickboxing Open, and he was the youngest U.S. athlete to win gold at the 2018 Pan American Kickboxing Games in Mexico. Competing on the international stage is an out of body experience, he said.

“Not a lot of people would believe it, because I’m out of a public school in Western Pennsylvania. None of my friends believe it,” said Eddy, of North Huntingdon. “There’s nothing that I could compare it to.”

But Eddy is not resting on his laurels. He and three of his teammates — Carter Griffith, 12, Gabby Viola, 13, and Riley Evans, 17 — will represent the United States at the Junior World Kickboxing Championship in Budapest, Hungary, this fall.

This is the first time an athlete from Western Pa. will compete at the championship, said Coach Bill Viola Jr., father to Gabby Viola.

“It’s not common at all,” said Viola, 46, of North Huntingdon. “That’s why it’s exciting.”

Viola coaches athletes across Western Pa. at Allegheny Shotokan Viola Karate. He teaches karate, kickboxing, self-defense, jiu jitsu and “everything martial arts,” he said.

His father, William Viola Sr., started Viola Karate as a martial arts program at East Allegheny School District in the 1960s, transitioning into the North Huntingdon dojo in the 70s. The business has been in the family ever since.

The athletes qualified for the junior world championship, hosted by the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations, through a team trials competition held February in Orlando, Fla. It was the first time Griffth, a sixth grader at Trafford Middle School, ever competed in kickboxing.

‘I ended up loving it’

Griffith, of Penn Township, started karate about seven years ago. He has achieved a purple belt in the sport — just two belts down from the coveted black belt certification.

“I just wanted to try karate, and I ended up loving it,” he said.

He started learning kickboxing two years ago, drawing upon his experience with sparring opponents at karate competitions.

“I wanted to try to make Team USA. I was pretty skeptical. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it,” Griffith said. “So all of the work and the training we had to do for it, preparing for it, it was hard, but it paid off, and now I get to go to Hungary for another great experience.”

The world championship will be his first international competition. He aims for the gold medal in his weight category.

Griffith’s schedule is packed with training, including private lessons from his teammate, Eddy. Griffith himself coaches beginner and intermediate athletes two days a week.

“He has a passion for helping the younger kids,” said Griffith’s mother, Sarah Griffith. “He doesn’t have to teach. It’s not a requirement at his belt level, but Carter goes above and beyond.”

Consistency and focus in training over the next few months will be key to performing well at the junior world championship, Viola said.

“You can’t take your foot off the pedal now,” he said. “You have to stay extremely focused on the goal at hand.”

Each athlete is responsible for raising thousands of dollars to travel to Budapest for the championship, Viola said. The trip can easily cost $10,000 — even more so if the athlete wants to travel with their parents.

Although there is a chance the athletes can compete in a higher weight class for some events, most require them to maintain the weight class in which they qualified for the junior world championships — a quite difficult task for growing children, said Sarah Griffith.

“It seems very odd to be wanting your 12-year-old to not gain weight,” Griffith said. “But at the end of the summer, Sensei Bill will be working to make sure they all meet that weight.”

‘It is a privilege’

Evans, a sophomore at Westmoreland Christian Academy in South Greensburg, is most concerned with maintaining her stamina and endurance to prepare for the multiple matches she will face at the championship.

Evans first competed in kickboxing in 2018. She took home silver and bronze medals from the World Karate Commission tournament in Killarney, Ireland in 2022.

Although she is nervous for the junior world championship, Evans, of Irwin, is excited for the new challenge.

“It is a privilege to do such a thing,” she said.

No matter how his athletes perform at the competition, Viola will be most proud of his athletes’ hard work in training.

“We may win. We may lose,” he said. “But there’s no one we are going to step in the ring against who is more prepared than us.”

Coach and father

It has been a special honor for Viola to coach his daughter, who won three gold medals at the 2023 World Karate Commission tournament.

Gabby Viola, a 7th grade student at Norwin Middle School, has grown up at the dojo. She has competed in martial arts since she was about 3 years old.

“That is definitely something special. This has been my life. I followed the same path that Gabby is following now, so as soon as I could walk, I was in the dojo training,” Bill Viola said. “I have a unique perspective and relationship with her … I get to coach her and be her dad in the same role.”