Gracie Barra Santa Ana’s Professor Ulpiano Malachias has got some new changes on the horizon. GB is opening four new schools in Texas, and Malachias is one of the lucky few who will be opening one of them. His new school will be called, “GB West Chase” and is going to be located in the “Loop,” which is a part of Houston’s downtown business district, and three blocks from the famous “Galleria” shopping mall.
Gracie Barra Santa Ana. Photos: publicity
Malachias is opening his new school in Houston for a couple of reasons: “Master Carlos said if I wanted to open a second school, I should open it in Texas,” Malachias says, “He believes we can make GB as strong in Texas as it is in California.” Another reason Houston’s appealing is because his wife, Sophia, is from there. Malachias is a new father and he wants his daughter Lydia to be able to spend time with her family.
Malachias is opening a 3500 sq. ft. school. He says it took him a while to find the perfect place. “I am designing and building everything from scratch; the floors, the lay out of the rooms, everything,” he says, “There’s 2200 sq. ft. of mat area.”
Malachias wants a state-of-the-art academy that includes onsite washers and dryers for his intro gis, showers, and locker rooms. “I’m putting showers in for business people who may come from work to train,” he says. Additionally, Malachias says, in the future, he wants to have a gi laundry service for the students. “You have to have two gis for it to work,” he says, “Every gi has a tag, and you throw them in the laundry basket, and the next day you grab your gi and train. You never have to wash your own gi.”
Malachias says starting a new school is an exciting change for him. “I have to start all over again,” he says, “But I am looking forward to the challenge. I know Master Carlos wants to make Texas great and I want to help with that. I was the first to open a GB Premium school. The GB Association knows I will follow the GB system and work hard. I’ve been doing this in Santa Ana for three years. I can go to Texas and help other schools learn it as well.”
Malachias will be leaving to oversee the opening of his new school at the end of October and will commute back and forth between Santa Ana and Houston for six months. Because he’s leaving, he wanted to have all of his students come in for a group picture so he could take it with him and put it up at the new school.
“I scheduled for the students to come in for a conditioning class first,” he says, “I told them I wanted to take a group picture for 2010 afterwards. At first I was surprised because 46 people showed up for the conditioning class! We didn’t even have enough room for everyone. Then after the class, 130 people showed up for the group picture, including kids!”
Malachias was completely awed by the support his students showed him. “I am thankful to everybody for taking the time to come to take the picture,” he says, “One of my students said he didn’t even know we had this many people training at the school!”
Ever gracious, Malachias went on to say, “I want to thank the coaches for doing such a great job with the kids and fundamentals classes and thanks to Master Carlos for giving me the opportunity to open a new school in Texas.”