Mr. J.R. Hutson has lead a very interesting life. In High School he competed in football, track and wrestling and was named a High School All-American in Wrestling in 1978. He competed on several national teams in wrestling and qualified for the Olympic trials twice. He was a seven time Greco-Roman state champion and three time freestyle state champion in Florida. He also holds the distinction of winning three different weight classes in one day at the Florida State Games Qualifying tournament, and recording the most pins with seven. In 1979 he became the youngest head wrestling coach ever hired in the state of Florida at 19 years old, by Jesuit High School.
Mr. Hutson tested for his 1st Degree Black Belt in September of 2000 and currently holds the rank of 5th Degree Black Belt and is a Krav Maga Certified Instructor. He is an excellent Instructor and he holds the position of Operations Director for the IL National Karate Schools as well as sitting on the National Karate Board of Directors.
Mr. Hutson started his Black Belt sport karate career by winning the Illinois State Heavyweight Championship in fighting in 2001. He served as National Karate of Chicago’s first competition team Coach/competitor, ranking as high as 4th in the nation. His favorite tournaments are the Diamond Nationals and the Compete Nationals in California where he placed 3rd in one of the most competitive divisions in the country. In 2003 he received the “Top Competitor” award for fighting, and in 2004 earned the prestigious “Instructor of the Year” award.
In addition to his duties at National Karate he is also the owner/operator of the Village Tavern & Grill in Schaumburg, IL. He is also very passionate about helping people through disaster relief and in 2014 he was appointed to be the U.S. Disaster Relief Coordinator for Christ Community Church. He has traveled to Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and again in 2011 with his daughter where they taught self-defense to orphans and underprivileged children and young adults. He also lead a disaster relief team that responded to the devastating tornados in Moore, OK and Washington, IL in 2013.
You may see Mr. Hutson teach a guest class at your school or an anti-bullying and child predator education class. In his community service work to help educate families about child predators he has worked with many police departments including Schaumburg, Elk Grove and South Elgin police departments in Illinois, as well as the New Berlin police department in, Wisconsin. Mr. Hutson also holds a Homeland Security/FEMA certification for “Workplace Violence Awareness Training”and “Active Shooter Training”,