Lebanon County is home to a taekwondo prodigy.
Last year, at age six, Joshua Aguirre became the youngest black belt in the Pennsylvania history, and the third youngest in United States history.
Aguirre has earned himself a slew of awards, amassing 83 medals including two medals from the Costa Rica Open International this past September and five gold medals from the Junior Olympics in North Carolina back in July.
He’s even been recognized in front of Lt. Gov John Fetterman thanks to State Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R-35) who asked the Senate chamber to recognize Agguire’s achievements at a senate session in September. “Bring it for the world champ!,” said Fetterman at the ceremony.
Now, Aguirre has his sights set north of the border toward this weekend’s Toronto Open Taekwondo Championships.
Aguirre will be leaving for Toronto on Nov. 7, and is coming off of a two-medal performance at the New Jersey Taekwondo Open Championships, despite feeling a little under the weather according to his father, George.
Endeavors such as this rarely come cheap, so to help offset some of the costs a GoFundMe Campaign was started.
“With the help of the community, and me working 12 hours a day, I think we’re going to make it,” said George Aguirre.
The Toronto Open is the next step in Aguirre’s rise through the ranks of taekwondo, which so far, has been nothing short of meteoric.
“He is a very disciplined and dedicated kid,” says his father. “He has only been in taekwondo for 27 months, and his achievements after 27 months, it’s unbelievable.”
Want to follow Joshua’s progress? He and his parents maintain a page on Facebook where you can see pictures as this taekwondo prodigy’s career continues to take off.