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This karate kid is no act photo by Bob Pennell Adams goes to extremes in living out her dreams By Kris Henry Like many other teenagers, Shantell Adams enjoys hanging out with her friends and going to the mall. She isn�t happy unless she�s being active, be it running, lifting weights or knee boarding. But there are indications Adams isn�t your everyday 15-year-old. Take, for instance, her choice of an idol. For about half her life, she has revered Chuck Norris. Yep, that Chuck Norris. The one of martial arts and now Walker, Texas Ranger, fame. Adams saw Norris� picture in a newspaper advertisement for karate seven years ago and knew right away she wanted to pursue the sport. "I wanted to be him," she says. "He�s awesome. He�s a great person and a great martial artist." Adams even took her fanaticism an extra step in the sixth grade when she dressed up as Norris and portrayed him on Night of the Notables at Hedrick Middle School. The days of dressing like Norris are over, since replaced with Norris-like achievements in karate. Adams, a second-degree black belt, holds three National Blackbelt League World Titles and has been rated No. 1 by Sport Karate International magazine in seven divisions in the Pacific Northwest. Her list of events in the age 15-17 division for boys and girls tackles practically every karate pursuit: point sparring, continuous sparring, Korean traditional forms, Japanese Okonawan traditional forms, open hand creative, open hand musical, traditional weapons, traditional self defense and contemporary self defense. She had been competing in contemporary weapons and musical weapons, but decided to simplify her regimen. Adams is so serious about her karate pursuits that she left the public school system last year. Despite being happy with her surroundings, Adams found it too difficult to maintain her karate schedule and still keep on top of her deadline-oriented schoolwork. Missing school days � and resulting tests and homework � for tournaments had Adams constantly playing catch-up with her classmates. "When I was at a tournament, I would be thinking of how I need to catch up with this homework and that homework," she says. "Now that I�m home-schooled, I can be a little more lenient and forget about it for a weekend and just double my efforts when we come back for the next week." Adams competed in about 40 tournaments as an eighth-grader, gaining experience in all levels of competition. Her schedule has been cut back to mainly Triple A national or regional tournaments, with events ranging from Texas to Niagara Falls, Canada. In her "down time," she�s also become an instructor at Chip Wright�s Champion Karate in Medford. Adams teaches beginners ages 6-8 twice a week and also teaches a demonstration class. She occasionally works as a substitute teacher for various other classes, and even finds time for private lessons twice a week. There was a time when karate didn�t encompass her life, but that�s a distant memory. "It�s a full-time sport, so I really don�t have time to do anything else," she says. "It�s a big chunk of your life ... It�s not like a soccer player who does it twice a week. It�s an everyday-of-the-week thing." And it�s one shared with her mother, Terral, who acts as Shantell�s home-school instructor and surrogate karate coach. "We do really well, better than I thought we would do being together so much," says Terral of the dynamics between the two. "We have our days, but we�re both pretty explosive people, and then we�re done." It�s been under Terral�s watch and guidance that Shantell has broadened her karate experiences into her current nine events. "To help her recognize her potential, I thought it was more important that she push herself and try all these events," says Terral. Because Shantell doesn�t yet have a sponsor to help fund her exploits, the entire Adams family pitches in with car washes and other fund-raisers to help pay for her pursuits. "We have taken a big step financially and in the amount of time given to this," says Terral, whose husband Steve and 9-year-old son Stephen are also involved in Shantell�s pursuits. "It affects the whole family." So far, it�s all been positive. "(Concentrating on karate) has gotten me so far," says Shantell. "It�s a rush, big-time. I love being in front of people and showing them what I know and what I can do. It�s almost like a drug I guess. I just love the challenge. "It was actually just supposed to be a summer thing for my friend and me (seven years ago), but it ended up being much more." The next challenge will be a return to public schooling at South Medford High. She would be a sophomore in the fall but hasn�t decided if she�ll return just yet. Once again, her mother is there to lend support. "I don�t really want her to miss out on her years in high school," says Terral, "because I remember mine and how important that was for me. We�ll just have to see if we can make it work." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA