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Haugeberg represents Magic City at Taekwondo World Championships (Minot
Haugeberg represents Magic City at Taekwondo World Championships
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By RYAN LADIKA
Sports Writer rladika@minotdailynews.com hen Minot native Heatthyr Haugeberg took up kickboxing back in 2015, she was simply looking for a new avenue leading to improved fitness and physical health and fitness. What she would find six years later, she could never have dreamt of.
Haugeberg, currently serving as the Director of Nursing at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, recently wrapped up competition at the American Taekwondo Association’s (ATA) World Championships held in Phoenix, Arizona July 29-30. There, she cemented herself among the country’s current top female Taekwondo competitors just six years after she threw herself into the activity on a whim.
Currently 36 years old with her husband, Kyle, and eight-year-old son, Blake, who completes her family of three Taekwondo black belts, Haugeberg began her journey into the martial arts realm in 2015 at the ATA school, owned by Dan and Tina Merck, in the southern segment of Minot.
“I joined the kickboxing program there just to get in better physical health,” Haugeberg recalled. “A lot of my friends were doing it and I just wanted to see what it was all about. I signed up just to see what it would be like, and I’ve never left.”
She spoke highly of her experience with Tina, who runs the kickboxing sessions at the school and subtlety incorporates different elements of Taekwondo into her kickboxing classes, but two years later in the winter of 2017, Haugeberg’s curiosity once again got the better of her.
“Naturally, when you’re at kickboxing at ATA, you can’t help but notice the other activities going on,” she said. “So I took notice of Taekwondo and Jiu-Jitsu, and seeing what that looked like, I thought ‘I kind of want to try that too.’”
Haugeberg first decided to have then-four-yearold Blake partake in Taekwondo sessions, because in addition to the physical training, the life skills he would glean from the classes would serve him well as he grew up.
“A lot of the kids have significant success, and they learn a lot of really good basic life skills, like respect, honestly, perseverance and humility,” she added. “I wanted that for my son Blake, so that was something we put him in.”
Haugeberg soon followed her son into the world of Taekwondo and never looked back. She immediately fell in love with her new art, and found her past in kickboxing quite helpful in quickly learning Taekwondo.
It was not only the activity itself that welcomed her with open arms, but the new community of which she found herself a part. She was treated with such respect and kindness, and soon she had discovered she now had a second family.
Of course, her transition to Taekwondo was not without a degree of difficulty. She pointed out that the school’s instructors do the best they can with mixing adults with younger teens and adolescents, but Haugeberg, in her 30s, still found herself occasionally sparring and training with teens.
Haugeberg’s new activity also tested her mentality and self-confidence, an area in which she admitted she was not quite as strong then as she is now.
“You have to use a loud voice and you have to be comfortable getting up in front of people and talking and performing your routine,” she said. “Gaining that confidence was a challenge for me, but it’s something that has really benefitted me both personally and in my professional life as well.”
After she accrued a few years of building her physical skills and level of confidence in Taekwondo, she took the plunge into competition in 2019.
For those interested in competing in Taekwondo, there are two levels one must advance past before reaching the prestigious World Championships in Phoenix. Haugeberg began her climb at the state competition level.
The initial step is not one set tournament that takes place on a specific date, rather it is a series of tournaments over a period of time. To win at the state tournament level, one must gain the most points throughout the tournaments by performing their moves.
The next level is the district tournament, which, unlike state, is one set tournament in Sioux City, Iowa where the state winners will compete against each other with a trip to Phoenix on the line. Haugeberg prevailed at both levels in traditional sparring, combat sparring and the forms competition to earn the experience of a lifetime. “Forms is where you do a pattern of movements,” Dan would find six years later, she could never have dreamt of. Merck explained. “They’re judging the quality of your kicks, MINOT punches, stances and the quality of your moves. Sparring is when you’re punching and kicking toward another person and scoring points. Combat sparring is where you have a padded stick and you’re actually sparring, scoring points by hitting the other person with the stick.” Haugeberg’s time in Phoenix vastly exceeded her expectations, to the point where she even felt a bit intimidated being surrounded by the some of the greatest participants in martial arts today. She initially began competing just for fun, and soon discovered that she was good enough to move up through the ranks of competition. “I am truly honored that I was able to represent Minot ATA at the World Championships in Phoenix,” she said. “There’s a high caliber of martial artarts realm in 2015 at the ATA school, owned by ists throughout the United States, and I was able to compete against the best of the best and see what’s out there. I was also able to network with these ladies to figure out what they’re doing for training and what they do to stay physically fit.” Haugeberg finished in fifth place in the forms competition, fourth in traditional sparring and 10th in combat sparring, but the time she spent there and the opportunities the experience presented to her meant just as much as, if not more than, her final placing in the events. She even has plans for her next tournament in the works only a week after her return from Phoenix. She planned to continue competing at the regional tournament held in Fargo Aug. 20. Haugeberg is not the only member of her family who has entered into Taekwondo competitions Submitted Photo either. Kyle and Blake have both competed in the Heatthyr Haugeberg poses with her husband, Kyle, and son, past as well, the former winning the North Dakota Blake. All three members of the Haugeberg family have earned state competition in 2020 in the male division but their black belt in Taekwondo. declining to pursue further competition. None of her family’s experiences in Taekwondo would have been possible without the instructional staff at ATA, she says, including the head instructor, Jesse Ward. “He is fantastic,” Haugeberg said. “I cannot say enough good things about him. He is a young man who puts his heart and soul into the training at ATA, and he has been a positive influence on everyone in my family, probably mostly Blake, who really looks up to Mr. Jesse Ward.” Haugeberg and her family have no intentions of stopping, and all look forward to continuing to grow in the craft they all have come to love and share. “All around it was a really positive experience,” she continued. “It certainly boosted my confidence a little bit in letting me know this is something that I can do, this is something that I’m good at, and it’s something that I for sure want to keep doing.”
