The final weeks of August will likely be ones that Claire Overfelt won’t forget.
On Saturday, the 15-year-old leaves for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to compete at the Junior Pan American Games. She’s one of two United States representatives in the 14-15 female elite kata division after qualifying last month at the USA National Championships and Team Trials in Reno, Nevada.
Once home, Overfelt, a homeschooled sophomore whose family lives in Greenwood, takes her test to become a second-degree black belt in Shotokan karate.
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Overfelt, who trains with sensei Ricardo Guerrero at Shodan Academy at The Gathering Place in Greenwood, looks forward to her first international competition with the USA Karate junior national team.
“I think the thing I’m most proud of is, obviously, representing my country, but also the hard work I’ve put into it and how much my family and friends have given up for me,” she said. “I’m happy to see the results from that and just have fun, too.”
Overfelt attended Clark-Pleasant Community Schools from grades K-9, excelling for the Whiteland cross country and track teams as a freshman. The diminutive (5-foot-1 and 98 pounds) Overfelt extended her cross country postseason to the Shelbyville semistate.
She’s sitting out this cross country season, but could run track in the spring should she return to Whiteland High School for the remainder of the school year.
“Actually, I miss it a lot,” Overfelt said. “I still try to keep in touch with my cross country friends. It’s such a friendly sport. It’s like a big family where everybody supports you, no matter ranked first or ranked last on your team.”
But karate has been Overfelt’s primary athletic passion almost half of her life. She’s been one of Guerrero’s students since she was 8.
“My dad enrolled my older brother in karate, and I remember watching and being interested in it,” said Overfelt, the second of Eric and Michelle Overfelt’s five children. “I like karate because you can always improve and you feel good when you see results.”
Kata routines are a 90-second to 2-minute sequence of karate moves against an imaginary opponent. Blocks, kicks and punches are part of the demonstration, with competitors at the Junior Pan Am Games attempting to work through the bracketed format.
Overfelt has six katas she practices. The goal in Rio is to use all six, as that would mean Overfelt had advanced to the medal round.
Her kata division is Aug. 22, the first day of the games. Overfelt is meeting with Guerrero the day before to plot strategy based on which routines to use in the early rounds and possibly beyond.
“I’m not going to decide which ones I’m going to do until I see the brackets,” she said. “Some forms I’m a lot better at that have a lot more power and are more flashy. Some don’t really have kicks or jumps, so I try to do those against people I feel more confident against.
“The people I feel who are really good, I want to save the more flashy forms for.”
Guerrero estimates Overfelt practices karate three to four hours daily. When she’s not rehearsing moves and technique at Shodan Academy, she’s at home practicing in the family garage.
“First of all, Claire is a perfectionist,” Guerrero said. “That, and she is super disciplined and a super hard worker. You don’t have to tell her to practice because she’ll do it herself.”
Guerrero feels Overfelt has the potential to make the U.S. Olympic team for the 2020 games in Tokyo or the 2024 games in Paris, France — or both. Being exposed to the world’s best karate competitors in Rio will be an invaluable learning device as she moves forward in her karate career.
And while it’s satisfying watching the oldest of his four daughters succeed on the mat, Eric Overfelt said he and Michelle are more proud at what karate has done for Claire away from the quest of trophies and medals.
“Her self-confidence has been boosted tremendously,” he said. “When she first started, there were times we were trying to get her prepared for tournaments, and she wasn’t practicing. I held her out of tournaments because of that.
“It’s definitely more about how she’s grown as a person. The way she puts herself out there in front of a lot of people to perform with a lot of pressure.”
