Since 2011, The Knights Hall, (owned and managed by Jaye T. Brooks Sr.), became the first full time school dedicated to the art of Armored Combat in North America. Many World and US Champions have trained in its halls.
The area in which the Knights Hall resides is called North East Region. The Regional team is called the Executioners.
Chapters are a smaller group within a Region. They encourage a local sustainable growth and create “farm teams” for the Region. The very first official Chapter team in the North East Region, the Boston Dark Knights, was formed Dec 12, 2014. The Nashua Knightmares were created a month later on January 16, 2015.
Now that there were two Chapters in the North East Region training out of the same school, a system needed to be put in place on how to pick teams that would allow for a fair and level playing field. “We needed to avoid the ‘A Team’ verses a lower skill level ‘B team’ mentality,” comments Jana Brooks. “They were still farm teams for the Region but now they were also entities on their own and needed a fair system of enlisting teammates for their development.”
Jaye gathered with input from the fighters and created that system for them. On November 3, 2015, “The Knights Hall Draft” became an official event.
The First Draft
Being two of the top students at the school, Lane Atteridge became the first Captain of the Boston Dark Knights and Brandon Alan Ross the first Captain of the Nashua Knightmares. They were tasked to compete against each other for the right of first “pick”.
It was a grueling battle between the top two athletes. After an hour long endurance workout in The Knights Hall gym, they donned armor and fought for 55 minutes until final submission. “I remember instead of a fenced ring like we have now, they fought inside a ring of old tires laid flat on the ground,” recalls Jana. “I was terrified someone was going to step wrong in a tire and sprain their ankle! Thankfully that didn’t happen, but if it did it would only have been a footnote to the display of endurance and ferocity they both maintained!”
Capt. Ross won the match. Doing so got him the very first Draft choice and his first pick was Jaye for the Knightmares. Capt. Atteridge having second pick chose Cat Brooks, putting father and son on opposite teams. This tradition has marked every Knights Hall Draft since.
Growing pains
2016 The Dark Knights and the Knightmares were coming close on exceeding the twelve man max of their teams’ limit. They needed to split into a third team to keep from conflicting with Chapter War Rules. Since a large contingency of the participating fighters were native to Connecticut, they were pulled out and a new team, the New Haven Highlanders, were created on Feb 28, 2016. Since they were not the local fighters training at the Knights Hall, the Highlanders became ineligible to participate in the Knights Hall Draft.
“At the time it was kind of an upset for the Connecticut fighters that had to leave the teams,” says Jana. “They were happy fighting for the Dark Knights or the Knightmares. Fighters tend to bond really tight after they have been fighting together for a while. But there were enough of them to start their own team and logistically, it didn’t make sense to keep people that were living in Connecticut participate in a Massachusetts/New Hampshire team based school Draft. The good news is, once they got their own team logo and Dave Olsen stepped up as their first team Captain the Highlanders came together as a really solid team. Now they have Gary Houle Jr. as their Captain and they are continuing to grow and challenge the other teams. I would not be surprised to see the Highlanders win Chapter Wars in the near future. But even though the teams had to separate we will always consider the Highlanders as part of our Knights Hall family.”
Three months after the creation of the Highlanders, the Knightmares and the Dark Knights capped out again on the maximum number of teammates and divided into a forth team. But this time the team would stay as part of the Knights Hall school and Draft. On May 11, 2016, the Manchester Monarchs sprang into action.
Oct 27, 2016, captains Atteridge and Ross were joined in the Draft by the Manchester Monarchs and top Knights Hall Student, Evan Ringo as its Captain. Ringo won the Draft choosing Jaye as his first pick. Capt. Atteridge won second pick and chose Cat while Capt. Ross got third pick and chose rookie, Al Caron.
The third Draft was held, Nov 7, 2017. The tournament was won by Capt. Ross giving Knightmares first pick of Jaye. Second round was won Capt. Atteridge who chose Cat Brooks. And third round was won by Capt. Ringo who chose rookie, Brian Juranty.
“Ringo was wild,” remembers Jana. “Especially in his second year as Captain. He brought a whole new edge to Chapter Wars and The Draft. I think being a gamer at heart drove him to look at the Draft in a whole new light and bring new strategy to it. He was the first Captain I ever saw that went around to all the fighters before the Draft and interviewed them on their level of participation and intentions for the upcoming season. He was fine with taking the chance on the rookies as long as they were willing to train and willing to travel!”
2018 was a year of change. The History Channel had developed a television show based around armored combat fighting and all efforts at the Hall were divided between preparation and research for the show while maintaining the day to day Knights Hall School curriculum. “We were all spread really thin here during that time,” says Jana. “Jaye and Cat alternated on teaching classes with the help from some of our top students while also trying to hold meetings, purchase costumes, gather materials and do historical research. We stuffed a year’s worth of a project into a very few short weeks. It was both exhilarating and exhausting.” So the decision was made to postpone the 2018 Draft.
During that time former Monarch star and third round draft pick, Brian Juranty took over as Captain for the Manchester Monarchs, Oct 18, 2018 . “Ringo had led his teams to several victories and felt he had accomplished his goals for the team.” Commented Jana.
Michael Luich, who had already served for two years as field-commander under Capt. Atteridge, (taking over the Dark Knights whenever Atteridge needed to resume his current Regional position on The Executioners), was the obvious choice to lead The Dark Knights when Lane felt it was time to turn over the office. Luich officially became Captain of the Boston Dark Knights on Oct 20, 2018.
“This year’s Draft is going to be amazing,” states Jana. It was just announced that the 2019 Draft (May 23, 2019 at 7 PM), will be in “Round-Robin Long Sword Tournament” format. It was also announced that taking over for Capt. Ross as the Captain of The Knightmares will be none other than former Monarch’s star, Greg Fisher! Capt Ross, (last seasons victor of Chapter Wars), has officially moved into his new role, replacing Cat Brooks as The Regional Commander of The Executioners, April 21, 2019.
“That’s three new captains for a whole new season of Chapter Wars!” says Jana. “What an exciting way to start the season!”
Chapter Wars starts June 1, 2019.
