Tom DeBlass has decided to step down from his role as the organizer for the ADCC East Coast Trials.
Having been associated with ADCC for over a decade, DeBlass first made his mark by winning the ADCC Trials in 2009, and later in 2014 and 2016.
Transitioning from a competitor to an organizer, DeBlass played a pivotal role in the growth and development of ADCC in North America.
Under his leadership, the North American East Coast Trials witnessed exponential growth. From a mere few hundred participants, the trials ballooned to around a thousand grapplers in recent editions. Some divisions even reached their cap of 256 competitors.
The ADCC shared a host of appreciation for what DeBlass had done:
ADCC would like to say thank you to Tom Deblass as he departs from organizing the ADCC East Coast trials.
Tom is a 3X ADCC trials winner, 3X ADCC world championship veteran who helped push the ADCC North American trials to become the biggest trials in ADCC.
From all of ADCC, thank you Tom for your contributions to ADCC and the sport.
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Mo Jassim, ADCC Head Organizer, pitched in with a comment of his own:
Me and Tom started organizing ADCC USA trials in 2017 together. I handled West Coast trials and he handled the East coast trials and when we started ADCC US trials was getting around 200 people total.
Now the US trials are getting over 1,000 and 256 capped for a single division.
Going to miss Tom doing the trials but he will 100% be involved with ADCC opens in the northeast area.
