The Greater Ohio Valley Grappling Confederation (GOVGC) made history Tuesday night when its 27-member representative body voted 14-13 to mandate post-training açaí consumption across all affiliated academies, ending a nine-year cold war between the federation’s two dominant factions and catching everyone off guard, including the açaí shop now expected to serve forty grapplers at 9:15 p.m. on weeknights.
The measure passed with the backing of both the Coalition for Guard-Based Athleticism (CGA) and the Traditional Entry Standards Committee (TESC), two organizations that have not agreed on a single governance issue since 2017, when they briefly united to oppose a proposed Velcro gi exemption before immediately returning to open hostility.
“This is what democracy looks like,” said GOVGC President Gary Obleski, 54, pausing to cut the knotted end off his belt, which he has not retied in eleven years. “When you put aside political differences and focus on what’s best for the membership, anything is possible.”
What is best for the membership, per Resolution 2026-17, is a twelve-ounce minimum açaí bowl with at least two toppings — one of which must contain either granola or banana — consumed no later than 45 minutes following the official end of training. Compliance will be verified by a photo submitted to a private group chat administered by federation treasurer Doug Weithoff, who confirmed he “checks it maybe once a week.”
The CGA was founded in 2019 by Trevor Kaminsky, a three-stripe purple belt and database administrator from Dayton, who has long argued that guard-pulling is not cowardice but “a tactical expression of environmental awareness.” The TESC was founded by Marcus Dulane, a brown belt who runs a batting cage facility in Blue Ash and once filmed a twelve-minute Instagram video about Judo O-goshi that received 47 views, 11 of which were his own. Dulane has maintained for nearly a decade that any match begun from the knees is “a mockery of everything the ancient samurai died for.”
The two men had not been photographed in the same room since a 2022 GOVGC rules committee meeting that ended when Dulane overturned a folding table in response to a motion to recognize butt scooting as a legitimate fighting stance. Kaminsky filed a formal grievance, which was tabled when Weithoff forgot to add it to the agenda for fourteen consecutive meetings.
Tuesday’s session ended with both men standing outside the Brew & Bowl açaí café on Vine Street in Cincinnati, holding matching 16-ounce strawberry pitaya bowls with granola and local honey, while federation photographer Lori Strickenberger captured the moment on an iPhone 13 with a cracked lens.
“I still think he pulls guard because he’s afraid to wrestle,” Dulane said, gesturing at Kaminsky with his biodegradable spoon. “But this? This I can get behind.”
Kaminsky nodded. “We can disagree on the entry. We cannot disagree on the recovery window.”
Neither man would elaborate on how the coalition formed. Sources close to the GOVGC describe a closed-door session in late April during which CGA and TESC delegates discovered, for the first time in organizational history, that they had all been going to the same açaí place after training for three years without acknowledging each other’s existence. Weithoff confirmed this characterization but noted he was not present because he had forgotten which Tuesday the meeting was.
The resolution was not without controversy.
Phil Arcangelo, 47, a two-stripe brown belt from Loveland and the federation’s only documented açaí allergy sufferer, cast the lone dissenting vote and submitted a written objection describing the mandate as “a targeted attack on people with oral allergy syndrome and also just kind of annoying.” The GOVGC constitutional committee ruled 8-1 that Arcangelo may substitute a protein smoothie of no fewer than twenty grams, provided he photographs it in the same aspect ratio as the açaí bowl submissions and includes at least one green ingredient.
Arcangelo declined to comment but forwarded the ruling to his attorney.
The other twelve abstentions came from the federation’s Moderate Bloc, a loose coalition of members who maintain no fixed position on anything and have successfully avoided committing to a stance on gi versus no-gi for six consecutive annual meetings. Their abstentions were accepted, per GOVGC precedent, as a form of participation.
Fernanda Siqueira, 34, who has owned Brew & Bowl for three years and whose most profitable single day before Tuesday had been a bachelorette party in March, learned of the mandate when twelve GOVGC members arrived simultaneously at 9:08 p.m. and asked if she could make forty of them by 9:45.
She cannot.
“I have two blenders,” she said. “One of them makes a sound like a boat engine.”
Siqueira is hiring a part-time employee to handle what her operations manager is calling the grappling window: 8:30 to 10:30 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday. She’s also weighing whether to take down the wifi password, since six federation members have established what they call a post-training film session — watching instructional videos on their phones, asking for the charger, and occupying the two largest tables for ninety minutes on average tips of three dollars per table.
“The honey costs me thirty cents per drizzle,” she said.
The CGA and TESC members now occupy opposite sides of the café and have not spoken directly to each other on the premises. They communicate through Weithoff, who stands in the middle and relays messages, usually with a slight delay because he is checking his phone.
The GOVGC is believed to be the first regional grappling body in the United States to mandate post-training nutrition by vote.
Dulane is already drafting a follow-up resolution specifying the type of granola permitted — cluster-style only; flake granola is, in his words, “a character issue” — along with a proposed ban on novelty toppings, defined as anything chocolate-adjacent.
Kaminsky is preparing a counter-resolution allowing practitioners to consume their açaí from guard position.
“You can eat from your back,” he said. “The top position is overrated.”
Dulane has already responded in writing. The full text is 1,400 words and includes three footnotes.
The GOVGC next convenes June 3rd.
Weithoff has been notified.