Every year, Judo BC selects an individual to receive the Steve Sasaki Memorial Award.
Named after the founder of judo in Canada, the Sasaki award is given to a person who best exemplifies the principles of Kodokan judo.
Aline Strasdin, picked as the 2017 award recipient, has adopted that Kodokan philosophy as her guide while teaching her students as head sensei of the Prince George Judo Club.
Strasdin is the first Prince George winner of the Sasaki award since John and Geraldine Huntley of the Aberdeen Judo Academy shared the honour in 2000. John Huntley is a former coach of Strasdin's. The award was first handed out in 1995.
"I felt very honoured - I was speechless, it was totally unexpected," said Strasdin. "They hand this award out at Judo BC every year and the input comes from the board of directors, so they don't ask others for input. I honestly thought they would give it to (Prince George's) Bruce (Kamstra) because of his many years of coaching Team B.C."
Strasdin, a longtime B.C. provincial team coach, took up the sport as a 13-year-old athlete in 1975 while living in Mackenzie, with Butch Sloan as her sensei. She moved to Prince George in 1977 and by 1980 had earned her first-degree black belt. She competed in several national championships and won silver and bronze medals as a 16-year-old competing in Oshawa, Ont.
"Mackenzie was pretty small back then, 5,000 people, and it didn't have many sports to offer and I thought I would try it out," said Strasdin.
Now a Level 3 NCCP coach, Strasdin has coached at six Canada Winter Games and at the junior national championships. In 2015 she served as judo sport leader for the Canada Winter Games.
Katie Loehndorf Edgson, a 25-year student of Strasdin's, presented the award to Strasdin at the Judo BC annual general meeting last weekend in Richmond.
"It's her drive and passion for everybody - she wants everybody to succeed," said Loehndorf Edgson. "She's committed to everybody, she's on our technical committee for Judo BC and it's not just the Prince George kids she looks out for, it's everybody. As long as you have the passion and the drive she'll do everything in her power for you to get where you want to go.
"She's one of the forerunners for females in judo. She probably puts in 40 hours a week for judo just volunteer-wise."
Strasdin, 55, began coaching kids classes when she was 18 - unable to compete after she injured her arm the previous year at the Pacific Rim tournament in Hawaii. While competing at the tournament in Vancouver in the late 1970s, she met Sasaki, who died in 1993.
Sasaki studied under judo founder Professor Jigora Kano in Japan and established the first judo club in Canada when he opened Tai Iku Dojo in Vancouver in 1924, two years after he left his home country. In the 1930s, Sasaki became the first judo instructor for the RCMP and in 1955 he formed the organization which became Judo Canada.
Strasdin will be in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., July 19 for the U.S. national championships to coach B.C. team members Tami Goto of the Prince George Judo Club and Lochlan Young of the Hart Judo Academy.
