At Spirit of the White Robe, fighting is more than a sport or an art — it’s a lifestyle and life structure for young fighters, centered around fortitude, faith and family.
The gritty and hard-working Muay Thai academy based out of a garage in Puna has been garnering attention from the isle’s combat sports community, partly due to its success at this year’s Toughman Hawaii Next Generation (THNG) kickboxing events.
SWR is overseen by Kru Bryan Flores and wife Kallyn Eugenio-Flores. Flores was handed the reins by his father in law, Stanley Eugenio — who founded the school in 2004.
The name “Spirit of the White Robe” has history behind it, dating back to a long time ago in Laos and Thailand.
“My dad came up with that name because of our teacher’s teacher’s teacher,” Eugenio-Flores said. “It goes back three generations. We were shown pictures of him wearing a white robe — he was a monk.
“We talked about how he had such a strong spirit — and there was no name to him, he was just the man in the white robe.”
SWR and its roughly 30 keiki students have been very active at THNG exhibitions — generating a 24-10 record throughout the past year.
They have mostly been keeping to local competitions — but now, having proven themselves against local and mainland competitors, Flores thinks his students are ready to travel to more out-of-state events.
The key to the success that SWR has seen is a nonstop work ethic.
“All the kids that fight for us — whether they’re young or older, five or six all the way to sixteen — they train for six weeks at training camp, six times a week,” Kru Flores said. “That is including running, sprinting, lots of pad workouts, strength and conditioning, a lot of sparring — and a lot of healing. We do ice baths and everything.
“We also take care of the kids. Once a week we feed them, get together and meet their families. There’s a lot of bonding at the same time while they go through the training camp, because training kids is different than training adults — they need a lot of support from all of the parents.”
Faith is also of great importance at SWR, as each training session ends with a group prayer — which each student takes a turn leading.
“Our faith in God and Jesus is key in being able to do what we do,” Kru Flores said.
At the THNG season finale in late September, SWR notched five victories and cleared out the event’s awards, with one of its fighters winning a belt.
SWR’s fighters defeated both local and mainland opponents, including some from San Jose, California’s Hills Training Academy — whose students mostly dominated the local competition.
Kru Flores was named Coach of the Year. His sons, Kyler and Keeyan, each received awards — respectively, an Outstanding Individual Achievement and the 150 lbs title as well as Fighter of the Year.
SWR students Jhayse Ghines and Mila Gambol also received Outstanding Individual Achievement awards. Ghines and Janson Keanu received “Most Improved” awards — and SWR’s Alvarado brothers’ (Skyler and Gemar) fights were co-named “Fight of the Night.” Adding to the pile, SWR was given an Outstanding Team Performance award.
Humble and unpretentious, Kru Flores and Eugenio-Flores hadn’t much else to say about their school’s performance at the Toughman besides “we’re super proud of them.”
That pride extends to their hopes for their students’ futures.
“They can go anywhere they want with this,” Kru Flores said. “Looking at the older kids, even Mila (Gambol) and the ten and eleven year olds, I feel like they can do anything they want as far as becoming (fighters) that fight in the big shows, starting up their own schools. They can be really, really good role models for everyone. What we want for them is to be well-rounded individuals in life.”
The grind doesn’t stop for SWR, whose students got back to training shortly after the conclusion of the THNG season.
”Normally we give them about a week to kick back after a fight, but the kids wanted to come back as soon as possible — so we started training (Sept. 27),” Kru Flores said.
The next season of THNG will begin with an event in February, and SWR plans to show up.
“We’re grateful to coach (Walter Carvalho) for putting on the Toughman events,” Kru Flores said. “It gives the kids a safe platform to compete and do what they love to do.”