Our club is an ever growing family that has seen many people from our community pass through it's doors over the past 20+ years. Even though some of our family leaves the nest, they are ALWAYS family and are always greeted fondly when we see them around the greater Diamond Valley area.

 

Melbourne Taekwondo Centre - Diamond Valley was born in 2002 but the origins of the club date back to as early as 1990.

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Original Head Instructor, Michael Catania, who was a multiple time State, National and Internatonal Taekwondo Champion, first started a part time club in Bundoora, at St Peter's Church Hall in 1990. The club, while small, was a successful and productive class of around 60 dedicate students.

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Meanwhile, in Diamond Creek, Hojo Taekondo, under the guidance of then Head Instructor Tony Devlin, was thriving in the local community with class for kids and adults at the Diamond Creek Community Centre.

In th late 90's, Tony decided to take his Full Time job to a greater level and asked his friend Michael to take over his club in Diamond Cree, knowing it would be in great hands. Michael did, and MTC Diamond Creek was born.

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Many State, National & International Champions were bred in those two clubs, including Adam Wright, Jordan & Ken Higham, Jacob Raemakers & Stephen Taylor.

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In 1999, Michael Catania had to stop teaching Taekwondo due to work and family commitments, so with the blessing of Grand Master Jack Rozinszky, the clubs were handed over to Mark Nolasco to grow and develop.

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Mark was already teaching for Michael at both venues and quickly grew both clubs to the point where they needed extra nights to cope with the influx of new students.

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In Late 2001, Mark found a full time venue in Eltham, above the ANZ Bank on the corner of Arthur St and Main Rd, and in 2002 opened up the venue to students. A new breed of champions were developed in this club, including Stephanie & Jessica Aldridge, Carina Mastrilli, Ali Currie, Matthew Lindsay, Grant Mason and Jonathan Goddard who competed in both Technical and Olympic Sport Taekwondo in Australia, Malaysia and Korea.

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The club stayed there until late 2008 before, once again, outgrowing the space and requiring a larger venue to house the many students. So in November 2008 the club packed up and moved down the road to Bridge St, Eltham. This was a successful time for the club, creating a new set of champions including Griffin & Ethan Reytomas, Talisha Rowland, Nathan & Christopher Walsh, Max Morley, Georgia Charlesworth and Sanjana Alex.

 

After five years, and several issues with our neighbours, the Eltham venue became untenable, so the club moved into what was to be a 3 month temporary venue in Main St Greensborough, while we waited for a factory to be finish in Eltham. 15 months later, and still waiting for the factory to be finished, another venue in Eltham became available.

At the beginning of 2016, our Peel Street Eltham venue opened, where we stayed until COVID hit and it became untenable. Our training shifted to online for the vast majority of the year, where students stayed involved and improved their skills remotely. Once we were able to start back training, we trained outdoors at Eltham North Primary School, which was a lovely, leafy space that saw us get back to some normality.

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In 2021, the club moved to St. Francis Xavier Primary School in Montmorency. A wonderfully large and air-conditioned and heated  space!