A4 • Friday, June 17, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Kyllo is a local legend in Brazilian jiujitsu
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
“A
local legend.”
That is how Zach Adam-
son of Adamson Bros. Jiu Jitsu
describes Michelle Kyllo.
After a decade of dedication, Kyllo
became the fi rst woman on the Oregon
Coast to earn her black belt in Brazilian
jiujitsu.
“Michelle is an inspiration to many
women here locally and throughout the
Pacifi c Northwest and this is something
our community can be proud of,” Adam-
son said.
Kyllo attended local schools from ele-
mentary to high school, graduating in 2009.
“I have always kind of been a little —
I don’t want to say tomboy — but when I
was in elementary school, primary school,
I was always trying to wrestle, scrap with
people,” she said. “We’d go to the beach,
and I’m like, ‘Let’s play sumo.’ I’ve always
been, I wouldn’t say aggressive, but I
always liked to mix it up a little bit.”
Her mom always wanted her to be a bal-
lerina. “She put me in dance classes, and I
was terrible. I hated it,” she said. “And so
when I was 12, I eventually mustered up
the courage to say, ‘I don’t want to do this, I
want to fi ght. I want to do martial arts.’”
She started at a studio in Warrenton with
tae kwon do kickboxing, her introduction to
the martial arts.
“I loved it,” she said. “I never really con-
sidered myself very athletic. When I did
softball I mostly picked daisies in the out-
fi eld. I swam for the fun of it. Any other
sport did not appeal to me. And I wasn’t
good at them. Why would you do some-
thing you’re not good at? We’d go to com-
petitions and I would just whoop on every-
one. Once I got started with martial arts, I
was like, ‘Oh, my God! I’m good at this!’”
When the dojo in Warrenton closed, she
joined a mixed martial arts gym in Astoria.
That’s where she met Adamson. “I was
just doing kickboxing, although they did
have jiujitsu and grappling,” she said. “But
at the time, it was mostly just big, burly
shirtless guys doing it. I was 16 and watch-
ing, thinking, ‘I will never grapple, I will
never do jujitsu, I’m just going to stand
Nate Adamson, Michelle Kyllo and Zach
Adamson at Adamson Bros. in Seaside.
up, punch and kick, and that’s going to be
great.’”
Fast forward to college.
She attended Southern Utah University,
where she studied sociology and psychol-
ogy with the goal of becoming a counselor
or a therapist. It was also there that she
trained in the mixed martial arts program.
“I just fell in love with the grappling part,
the wrestling aspect — more so than getting
punched in the face,” she said.
Kyllo was so good in the ring that she
drew the eye of show promoters in Las
Vegas and Cedar City, on the border of
Utah and Nevada, but ultimately decided
against it — to the relief of her parents, who
while supporting the jiujitsu aspect, didn’t
want to see her get hurt.
After college, her career direction was
still unsettled and she moved back to
Seaside.
When she saw Nate and Zach Adamson
had opened a studio in Seaside, she saw an
opportunity to continue on the mat. “I’m
like, I gotta try it out,” she said. “And so I
came in here, and I was obsessed.”
As she entered tournaments, she found
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Missing Patti’s Wicker Cafe
I arrived in Seaside for the Miss
America Scholarship Program as I have
done for more than a decade, eager for
breakfast at Patti’s Wicker Cafe. Imag-
ine my surprise to fi nd it under renova-
tion and no longer serving dry wit and
coff ee at 6 a.m.! I just wanted to take a
moment and pay tribute to a member of
your community who was as original as
the Oregon Coast itself and who worked
through her life to bring happiness and
homemade food to the community. She
told me her real name once upon a time
but it was never an issue to just call
her by the name of the cafe she made a
bright light in the gray dawn.
Thank you, Patti! You will be missed.
Clint Kaster
Portland
Grant and Michelle Kyllo in training.
that being from the North Coast can be
“like being a big fi sh in a little pond. She
had a wake-up call at the International Bra-
zilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation world champion-
ship in Long Beach, California, in 2019.
“In Oregon and Washington, I com-
pete very well,” she said. “I usually get
gold. And then going to California spend-
ing $1,000 and losing in the fi rst round —
done. That was my biggest disappointment
as a competitor.”
She learned from the experience.
“When you get to compete, you get to
really test yourself against others,” she said.
“I just kept progressing and progressing on
that.”
Kyllo has been competing for more than
seven years now.
She works at Bank of the Pacifi c in Sea-
side as a customer service representa-
tive. Eventually, she may work toward a
counseling career, “possibly after I have
children.”
She met her husband, Grant, when he
took a class from her at Adamson Bros. “He
was my student, so I waited till he gradu-
ated from my class,” she said. “When he
leveled out of the introduction class, we
R.J. Marx
Michelle Kyllo with medals.
started coaching together, and that’s how
we fell in love. He’s still my favorite train-
ing partner.”
Grant Kyllo is now a purple belt.
A Minnesota native, his real passion is
farming.
The Kyllos own land in Elsie with goats,
chickens, pigs — “the whole everything.
That’s what we kind of do.”
She continues classes two days a week
with the Adamson Bros. and teaches private
and group classes.
“People should come in and give it a
try,” she said. “Most fi ghts do go to the
ground and you can defend yourself. If
you’re looking to lose weight, give jiujitsu
a try. I lost like 40 pounds. Just come and
check it out.”
NEWS BRIEFS
Land conservancy to hold
picnic at Circle Creek
The North Coast Land Conservancy is
holding a barn picnic at noon on June 22 at the
Circle Creek Conservation Center, located at
the end of Rippet Road in Seaside.
This is a bring-your-own-picnic event, and
those attending are reminded to bring a blan-
ket and chairs. There is live music and two
guided hikes along the Wetland Walk and the
Legacy Loop at Circle Creek. To join in one
of the walks, be sure to wear hiking shoes or
boots.
There is also a wine pull as a fundraiser
to support coastal conservation. Twenty-fi ve
bottles of wine are available for $20 each.
Attendees can pull a wrapped wine bottle at
random from a selection of high-end, mod-
erately priced wines. Payment may be made
with cash, check or a credit card.
For information, go to nclctrust.org.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Sou’Wester Garden Club to meet
Contact local agencies for
latest meeting information
and attendance guidelines.
TUESDAY, JUNE 21
Community Emergency Response Team,
5 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commission, work ses-
sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Seaside School District Board of Directors,
6 p.m., 2600 Spruce Dr.
MONDAY, JUNE 27
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, JULY 5
Seaside Community Center Commission,
10 a.m., Bob Chisholm Community Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m, 1131
Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6
Seaside Improvement Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., www.cityof-
gearhart.com.
THURSDAY, JULY 7
Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
Sou’Wester Garden Club will meet June
22 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Bob Chisholm
Community Center at 1225 Avenue A in Sea-
side. The program will feature induction of
Offi cers and visiting members’ gardens.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
to enter the Coaster Theatre the day of
the concert. Face masks are optional but
encouraged.
Guitarist to perform
at Coaster Theatre
Virtuoso guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan
returns to the Coaster Theatre Playhouse at
7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 18 for a concert,
“Dreams and New Creations.”
The performance features explorations of
Spanish dances and masterpieces by Isaac
Albéniz and Francisco Tarrega, new tran-
scriptions of keyboard music by J.S. Bach,
music from Larget-Caplan 2020 and 2021
New Lullaby Project albums, and some of
his most recent compositions.
Admission is $25; tickets can be pur-
chased at the theater box offi ce, 503-436-
1242, or online at coastertheatre.com. Dis-
count tickets are available to anyone staying
at a Cannon Beach hotel, vacation rental
or RV park. Discounts are available only
through the box offi ce. Call or visit the box
offi ce for more information.
At this time, everyone must show proof
of vaccination or a negative COVID test
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
Guests at a previous Circle Creek picnic, presented by the North Coast Land Conservancy.
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
‘Make Music Day’
in Seaside, Astoria
Join the worldwide celebration of music
on June 21 at Make Music Clatsop County.
Make Music is a free celebration of
music around the world. Launched in 1982
in France as the Fête de la Musique, it is now
held on the same day in more than 1,000 cit-
ies in 120 countries.
Completely diff erent from a typical music
festival, Make Music is open to anyone who
wants to take part. Every kind of musician
— young and old, amateur and professional,
of every musical persuasion — pours onto
streets, parks, plazas, and porches to share
their music with friends, neighbors, and
strangers. All of it is free and open to the
public.
Make Music Clatsop County is getting its
start this year and joins Salem as the second
host chapter in Oregon. The festival is a pro-
gram of the Arts Council of Clatsop County,
a nonprofi t organization dedicated to uniting
the community by providing new experi-
ences to support and encourage an apprecia-
tion and understanding of how music Venues
in Seaside, Astoria and Cannon Beach will
join in the one-day festival this fi rst year.
Both artists and venues will have a profi le
on our website.
Venues and performers can register
and create their profi les at clatsopcounty.
makemusicday.org. Performances are posted
to a live, interactive map on the website.
Local students earn honor roll
Blair Wood, a third grader from Sea-
side, and Blue Young, a fi fth grader from
Gearhart, were among students who
earned honor roll earned honor roll recog-
nition for superior academic achievement
during the fi rst semester of the 2021-22
school year from Willamette Connections
Academy.
Seaside Signal
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