By Anjali Singh
About eight years ago, junior and competitive judo player Tessa Pepples recalls her uncle encouraging her and her sister to join either gymnastics or judo. After deciding that gymnastics wasn’t suitable for her, Pepples ended up choosing judo — even though for the first few years she hated the martial art, Pepples is now a nationally ranked judo player who was given the opportunity in 2020 to compete in the Pan American Junior Championships hosted by the International Judo Federation in Mexico.
Pepples shares that she did not enjoy judo in her initial years due to her difficulty learning new techniques and losing at several tournaments. Pepples’ club, the Cupertino Judo Club (CJC), promotes players based on tournament wins. But Pepples found that she was always “scratching the edge of getting promoted,” which often resulted in her wanting to quit the martial art entirely.
However, in 2016, Pepples competed at a tournament that transformed her perspective on judo. At this tournament, Pepples was matched up with someone significantly older and taller than her, about 50 pounds heavier and four belts ahead of her. She was convinced she wasn’t going to win — but at the end of the tournament, Pepples ended up winning overall, best two out of three matches.
“[When] I went over and they gave me my trophy, one of the older guys of the club walked up to me … [who] knew that I wanted to quit,” Pepples said. “He looked at me and went, ‘This is the reason we do judo. It's not for the physical number of wins or trophies or medals that you can hang on your wall. But it's those beautiful moments where you've worked so hard to get something and you've made it and you get it.’ It had been a year in judo since I had felt that good. To get that trophy and to feel that win — it was just like all of the tears and losses and work meant something.”
Pepples’ mentors also speak of her determination in judo. CJC assistant coach of 17 years and MVHS alumnus Stu Yamatake, who has known Pepples since she began judo, recalls a specific practice in which Pepples’ commitment to judo became clear.
“In the dojo at practice, I was running some drills,” Yamatake said. “I was working the team pretty hard. After several rounds, I thought that [Pepples] was just going to basically give up and dial it back because she was sweating, [her] face was all red, [she was] just completely exhausted. But as I watched her, she just kept going with the same amount of intensity the entire time, so I was super impressed. And that's when I figured out, ‘Yeah, this girl's got severe perseverance. She's awesome.’”
As Pepples continued judo over the years, she won more tournaments, competing nationally in locations like Los Angeles and the state of Washington. At her first national tournament as a green belt, Pepples won second place in a pool of seven girls. Her journey in judo also allowed her to make new friends and pick up leadership roles, since Pepples was no longer considered the “new kid” at the club anymore.
Since CJC is about one block away from Pepples’ house, she would often stay back after her morning practices to help set up the club and then would come back for her evening practices. After noticing this, head instructor Rose Knudsen, who has also known Pepples since she started judo and has taught at CJC since 1987, invited her to stay back and teach the beginners’ class.
“My heart exploded because I love kids so much and I love teaching,” Pepples said. “I was like, ‘Yes! Oh my god, that would be so lovely.’ So about two years ago, I started going in the morning [and] helping set up the mats and then just staying there for the morning practice and the afternoon practice[s], so I was at [the club] from [around] 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.”
Knudsen explains that as judo players get older and go off to college, it becomes harder for them to stay as competitive and invested in judo, so she helps her students learn how to do scorekeeping, teach techniques and referee matches to maintain their connection with the sport. She shares that Pepples has taken on the role of a leader well, noting how she is very compassionate and patient with younger kids. Yamatake echoes this sentiment, tying it back to Pepples’ grit as a judo player.
“She's one of the only students that consistently shows up to volunteer and help out with that beginner class,” Yamatake said. “So that's [one thing that's] really awesome about her. She's just a really dedicated person and [has] great work ethic. She's really coachable; she listens, she asks questions, she really trains hard and is willing to work out with anyone.”
In addition to being receptive to her coaches, Pepples also has a strong attention to detail that she brings in her teaching style. Pepples has noticed that younger students often get nervous competing against older, seemingly more skilled competitors and draws on her own experiences to help them feel more confident. She often recounts one specific tournament to her students, an instance when she was an orange belt (third belt in judo) and had to compete against two girls who were three years older than her and blue and purple belts (fifth and sixth belts, respectively). Pepples’ sensei had even told her before the match that she would probably lose but still shouldn’t give up. Fast forward to the end of the tournament and Pepples was standing on the first place podium — the purple belt player was in second and the blue belt was in third.
“That was physical evidence that size, age, belt, technique doesn't matter,” Pepples said. “I now get to tell that to younger kids and show other people that you could be the runt of the litter and still make your way up to the top.”
Yamatake has also seen Pepples’ hard work pay off, noting how she’s beaten even collegiate athletes and is “a force to be reckoned with.” In October 2020, Pepples was chosen to compete in Guadalajara, Mexico in November. Because of COVID-19 restrictions in California preventing judo players from engaging in contact with one another, Pepples traveled to Dallas, Texas, staying and training there every day for two weeks. However, Pepples and her mother ultimately made the decision to not compete at the tournament due to the increase in COVID-19 regulations. Regardless, Knudsen highlights that this situation showed Pepples’ dedication as a judo player.
“She went [to Dallas], only knowing her former teammate, to a strange school, where they may do different types of activities to get people ready for competition,” Knudsen said. “But she was willing to do that … That's something that I think takes a lot of character to be willing to sacrifice schoolwork, and knowing that you're going to come back and you're going to be way behind, [to accomplish] a goal and then after that goal is not even attainable at that point, just to be able to say, '’Hey, you know what? I gave it a shot. I did what I was trying to do and it's just not the time.’”
Looking ahead to the future, Pepples hopes to get back to her club and practice judo in person. As both Yamatake and Knudsen hoped, she also emphasizes that her love for judo will not be going away any time soon, even after she graduates from MVHS next year.
“[CJC] generally has a plan for people who really stick around so that everyone gets their black belt right around when they graduate,” Pepples said. “So that's always been a goal for me and then I've always planned to keep doing judo past that, keep expanding and learning as much as I can. I'm not planning on staying in California after I graduate. So, I [hope to] visit different locations and learn judo from other people [more] than just what's in this area.”
Photos and videos courtesy of Tessa Pepples || Used with permission