"Judo has made me a very determined person," Laura Bradley once said in an interview.

Honing her self-described "killer instinct," Bradley was the Utica YMCA's golden girl for 18 years, and later became a respected judo coach.

Bradley began taking judo lessons at the YMCA at the youthful age of 11, patterning herself after her aunt, uncle and cousin, By the time she was in high school, she was ranked fifth in the nation in the over IS8-pound weight class.

The Utica native was a standout at all levels, in club, state, regional, collegiate, international, junior national, senior national and junior Olympic tournaments. She especially found her niche in the annual Empire State Games, where she maintained an enviable record of consistency of 16 years as a member of the Central Region Team.

In 1978, at the age of 14, she brought home a bronze medal in her first Empire State Games. She captured three medals in her first three years in the Games. Bradley always competed in the open (adult) division, even in high school, because there was no separate scholastic competition.

She continued to compete every summer through 1994, except for 1989. Her total take at the Empire State Games was an astonishing 17 medals (four gold, four silver, and nine bronze).

Bradley graduated from Utica Free Academy in 1981. That summer, she finished sixth in the open division at the National Sports Festival. She was ranked no lower than sixth in the nation in the over-158 weight class throughout a brilliant collegiate career at SUNY Brockport.

In 1983 and 1984, she won back-to-back Eastern Collegiate Judo Championships and earned a silver medal in 1985.

She obtained her highest career ranking, No.2 in the nation, as the runner-up in the National Collegiate Championships. At the presented time, she holds a second-degree black belt.

Bradley graduated from SUNY Brockport in 1985 with a degree in math. She has been a math teacher in local schools for the past 12 years.

In 1992, she was honored with the Utica YMCA's Service to Youth Award for II years of service as a volunteer coach at the Y. Her student, Gina Mattia, has followed in Bradley's footsteps, becoming a two-time bronze medalist at the Empire State Games, and also a winner in her weight class in the U.S. Junior Olympics.