The top finishers in the Illinois Army National Guard’s 2026 TAG Modern Army Combatives Championship, Aug. 21-23, included a tattoo artist, the owner and operator of a high-rise window cleaning business, a high school wrestling coach, a couple of nursing students, a homeless shelter employee studying to be an accountant, a traveling millwright, a business consultant, and an expert in heating, cooling, and electrical repair.
“It was great to see Soldiers step onto the mats and put their personal courage to the test,” said Staff Sgt. Jonathan Ulin, the Illinois Army National Guard Combatives Noncommissioned Officer-in-Charge. “Moving forward, our goal is to continue growing the Combatives Program across the Illinois Army National Guard, bring more attention to the program at the (129th Regional Training Institute), and build this tournament into something bigger each year. If we can continue to grow the program and get more Soldiers involved, I think that’s a good sign that we’re moving our fighting force in the right direction.”
“What other discipline can you make people bleed and then be friends right afterward,” said Capt. Jonavan Huggins, the full-time personnel officer for the 2nd Battalion, 122nd Field Artillery and the wrestling coach at Chicago Hope Academy. “I’m going to bring this training back to the unit as much as possible.”
The weekend began with the Instructors Summitt, Aug. 21, on Camp Lincoln followed by the tournament from Aug. 22-23 at American Jujitsu in Springfield. Huggins said that readiness in Modern Army Combatives took a dip with the COVID-19 pandemic and he praised the program’s staff at the Springfield-based 129th Regiment (Regional Training Institute) for their efforts to bring these vital Soldier skills back.
Combatives, akin to mixed martial arts, teach Soldiers how to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat and emerge victorious. In addition to being an important Soldier skill, it also teaches important life skills such as discipline, physical readiness, and resilience, said Huggins, who wrestled at Wheaton College under coach Jim Gruenwald, a two-time Olympian with the U.S. Olympic Greco Roman wrestling team.
Huggins has wrestled worldwide through Fellowship Christian Athletes, is active in Athletes in Action, and helps mentor Chicago youth in wrestling through Beat the Streets National.
Despite these credentials, 1st Lt. Jordan Ramirez of Springfield – a business consultant with Deloitte and an Infantry officer with the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment – gave Huggins a fight before the captain/former collegiate wrestler won by decision in the light heavyweight championship bout. “I just like doing something different in the military than what I do in the civilian world,” Ramirez said. “Infantry and Combatives are a little different than being a business consultant.”
Spc. Bryan Madinger of Marion, a nursing student at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville and Soldier in the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment, said he can see a relationship between his involvement in Combatives and his aspiration to become a certified nurse. “You gotta break’em before you can fix’em,” he quipped.
Madinger did beat, but did not break, Sgt. Aaron Rivera of the Chicago-based 34th Division Support Battalion in the ultra heavyweight championship bout. Rivera owns and operates DTL Window Washing and Exterior Cleaning, a high-rise window washing company in Chicago. “I tell my friends in the Army National Guard that I get to rappel every day,” Rivera said.
Sgt. Adetunji Jones, representing the Decatur-based 766th Brigade Engineer Battalion, might be described as a combatives beast. Although there is no formal recognition for the speed of one’s attack, Jones did take just over 30 seconds to defeat one of his opponents during Saturday’s preliminary rounds. Off the mat, he works for Home Sweet Home Ministries homeless shelter in Bloomington, where he helps provide “Hope for All Who Enter.” He is also working on his accounting degree at Illinois State University.
On the mat, it took Jones about eight minutes to defeat Sgt. Landon Walker of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Battalion in the cruiserweight championship. Walker also works in Bloomington, but as an HVAC and Electrical expert for Masters Bros, a family-owned electrical, plumbing, construction, maintenance, heating and cooling services company.
Spc. Saquan Bufford of the Chicago-based 2nd Battalion, 122nd Field Artillery is a tattoo artist with Ink My Image in Chicago. He defeated Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Beal in the lightweight championship. Beal is a Soldier in the 634th Brigade Support Battalion, 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, but works full-time as a supply NCO for the Peoria-based 65th Troop Command Brigade.
In the middleweight championship, Spc. William Eyre of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry defeated Spc. Manuel Cano of the 1st Battalion, 178th Infantry Regiment in the title bout. Eyre, an amateur boxer and a nursing student at John A. Logan Community College, said that the combatives tournament was good training for two upcoming boxing matches, next weekend in St. Louis and another two weeks from now in Springfield, Missouri. Members of the Eyre Family have served in the U.S. Armed Forces for about two centuries, he said.
Cano is studying finance at Sauk Valley Community College, owns and operates his own dump trailer business, and assists his parents with the operation of El Vaquero Food Market in Sterling.
Sgt. Laine Czaikowski of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment won the heavyweight title by medical forfeit. Czaikowski is a traveling millwright for The Kelly Group based in Decatur. He travels throughout the country doing precision industrial mechanic work. After the tournament he hit the road for New Orleans, La., for a job in the Big Easy.
“It was a lot of fun,” Czaikowski said of his first time competing in the tournament. While he’s dabbled in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jujitsu over the past year or so, he said his main training was “growing up with three brothers.”
“Competition is always good,” he added. “You never really know what you’re capable of until you dive in headfirst. You might find a new passion.”
His would-be opponent, Sgt. 1st Class Logan Weir of the 634th Brigade Support Battalion, had to bow out of the competition after Saturday’s preliminary rounds. Weir, a former high school wrestling coach, tweaked a bicep injury he suffered while training young wrestlers in the Warren County Thunder, a youth wrestling group he established five or six years ago. Weir also co-manages the mixed martial arts Take the Fight Academy in Galesburg with a friend and former MMA fighter.
Weir, who has participated in the ILARNG Combatives Tournament for several years, said participants can expect to be sore and will have some bumps and bruises from the tournament, but serious injuries are rare. “It is extremely valuable training,” Weir said. “I’d encourage anyone to give it a try. There is a slightly higher risk factor (than typical Army training), but it’s such a great thing.”
Weir said he’s met some of his best friends in the military through the Combatives Tournament. “We’ve beaten the crap out of each on the mat, and then there’s great comradery off the mat.”
| Date Taken: |
08.27.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
08.28.2026 14:57 |
| Story ID: |
573453 |
| Location: |
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, US |
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12 |
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0 |
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