Note to readers: This story originally published Dec. 13, 2008, in The Noblesville Ledger.

You might say Noblesville’s Eun Soo Yoo can thank the Indianapolis Colts for showing him the American dream.

It was 2006, and the taekwondo instructor had spent most of the year scouting U.S. cites to open his own school, a place where the Korean native could raise a family and where he could showcase his talent and experience.

He was a fifth-degree black belt in taekwondo, a foot-and-fist based martial art, and a fourth-degree black belt in hapkido, which keys on joint locks and throws. He had spent three years touring the world as a member of the Korean National Taekwondo Demonstration Team. He even had a bachelor’s degree from a respected martial-arts university in Korea, where taekwondo is the national sport.Then he watched his first Colts game on TV while visiting an uncle in Chicago. Not just any game, but Super Bowl XLI, the team’s first Indianapolis-era title.“I never knew about the Colts, never seen a Colts game, never watched a Super Bowl,” said Yoo. Swept up by the euphoric post-game coverage, Yoo and his wife, Jin Park, drove to Indianapolis the next day to see the area and meet the people.The trip sealed the deal on their choice for a future home.“The Colts’ win gave me a good feeling (about Indianapolis), left such a good impression on me and my wife. Everyone was so friendly.”Since then, Yoo’s year-old World Class Tae Kwon Do Center off 146th Street has mushroomed into one of the area’s largest schools, with hundreds of students. Yoo works six days a week, teaching his craft to students form age 3 to 60. He has a few stars, including Taylor Herman, 15, a forms and sparring medalist from July’s U.S. Taekwondo Junior Olympics in Detroit.Not bad for a guy who had no business contacts or friends when he moved to Indiana; whose only Midwest ties were through his wife, a graduate of the University of Illinois who grew up in Chicago; and who struggled with the emotional separation from his parents and two older sisters, who wanted him to stay in Korea and teach.But his “kwajanim” or grandmaster instructor said Indiana was ripe for new blood — and worth leaving behind his head instructor’s job in Buffalo, N.Y. Although there were more than 100 martial-arts schools in the Indianapolis-metro area, Noblesville had just a handful. And that meant plenty of opportunity.The tall and wiry Yoo is too humble to brag about his accomplishments; the trappings of his “dojang” or training center do that for him. Competition medals and Korean awards are displayed throughout the school in the Hazel Dell Crossing plaza.A “dobok” or uniform from his demo team days hangs in the foyer, a reminder of his travels to Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to demonstrate his elite board-breaking skills. These included:>>A flying scissor kick, where Yoo would leap high in the air and break two outstretched boards with simultaneous kicks.>>A 540-degree kick, where he would spin his body three times in the air like a top, snapping an outstretched board with each rotation.>>A backflip kick, using his feet to shatter an apple perched on an outstretched sword, then land standing on his feet.It was a great gig, one Yoo says he landed because of his bachelor’s degree from Yong-In University, a private martial arts-based university renowned for offering the world’s first collegiate taekwondo program. The four-year South Korean school taught him the finer points of sparring, offensive and defensive tactics and martial-arts history. The school also crowned him a three-time featherweight sparring champion.“In Korea, all people know and recognize that it’s the best school” to study martial arts, said Yoo, Indiana’s only Yong-In graduate. “Yong-In’s history, image and reputation is very good.”Yoo, 33, says his extensive travel opened his eyes to the world and influenced him to strike out on his own.“When I graduated from college, I wanted more opportunity. Somehow, staying in Korea was not good enough for me. My country was too small, and I wanted something bigger.“When I went to all these countries, I experienced a lot. I still feel sorry for having to leave my parents …. But (my travels showed) this was too big an opportunity for meto pass up.”