THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507010192
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: CARROLLTON LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Maurice Urquhart was about 5 years old when the Karate Kid and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were chopping, kicking and spinning their way across America.
Like many kids his age, Maurice caught karate fever. His mother, Nancy, thought it was just a passing fancy, that he would soon forget those heroes and go on to something new.
She was wrong.
At 6, he was still talking about it. At 7, he was a karate champion in his own right, taking his little brother, Jay, along for the ride.
Recently, both boys won national titles at a karate competition in Greenville, S.C. And soon, the Urquhart boys of Carisbrook, their subdivision on U.S. 17 in Carrollton, will appear in a karate movie, ``The Adventures of Dragon Force,'' scheduled to land in video stores by mid-July.
Maurice, 10, and Jay, 9, burst into giggles when you ask them about their short stints as movie stars. It was exciting.
The video was shot in Virginia Beach and Norfolk by an area video production company for release in video stores. The boys are in just a couple of scenes, but if this video is successful, it could become a series, says their karate instructor, Charles Scott.
``When Maurice started talking about taking karate, I thought, `Well, I'll give him a year,' '' the mother said in a recent interview. ``If he was still talking about it when he was 6, I said I'd let him try it.''
When he was doing just that, Nancy, who works at Virginia Power's Surry Nuclear Plant, and her husband, John, a pipefitter at Newport News Shipbuilding, started looking for a karate school.
``Jay decided he wanted to get into it, I think, because he didn't want to be left behind by his brother,'' Nancy said. ``We took them around to about four schools. We wanted to see what they had to offer, and we wanted to let them have some choice of instructors.''
Her husband was most impressed with Charles Scott of War Dragon Taekwondo of Newport News. The boys liked Scott, too.
``I liked the way he worked with the kids, the way he disciplined them,'' John said. ``He likes to check on the kids' grades at school, their behavior. He makes sure they're doing things around the house, keeping their rooms clean.''
Maurice liked taking karate as much as he thought he would, Nancy said. For Jay, their younger son, it seemed to come naturally. Both boys advanced to each new level with ease. When they took their tests for black belts, though, it was a little hard on dad.
``Mr. Scott let them out at about 5 o'clock in the morning at the James River Bridge,'' John said, grinning. ``They had to run about five miles back down Mercury Boulevard. Somebody had to run with them. I guess I'm in better shape physically because I've been there for them.''
Scott was able to get his star students parts in the video. He played the ``head ninja bad guy.'' The boys were part of the ``good guys.''
``The bad guys are these ninja pigs,'' Maurice said.
``They wear a costume kind of face they have to put on,'' Jay said. ``They are supposed to look like pigs.''
The boys, because they were in just a few scenes, still haven't seen the entire movie, their mother said. So they are as anxious as anybody for it to be released.
And their whirlwind karate lives continued two weeks ago at the AAU National Karate Championships in Greenville, where 4,000 youngsters from across the nation competed in martial arts skills.
Through it all, both young Urquharts manage to stay at the top of their classes at Carrollton Elementary School. Jay, a rising fourth-grader, makes straight A's. His brother, who will be in sixth grade this fall, is an honor student.
Scott said he feels either of them can go as far as they want to go.
``Maurice told me just the other day that he would like to try out for the Olympics. I told him, `Fine, we'll set it up.' Taekwondo will be a full medal sport at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in 2000. By then, he'll have the skills.''
And Jay, a natural at the sport, may go right along. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Linda McNatt
Jay and Maurice Urquhart are national karate champions and
soon-to-be actors in a movie.
by CNB