VALENCIA — The Penn State Tae Kwon Do Club was dying.

Mike Sybert and a few friends breathed life back into it.

Sybert, a 2008 Mars graduate and a junior biology major at Penn State, has been involved in tae kwon do since age 4. His parents introduced him to the sport and his entire family became involved in it.

“I’ll always stay with tae kwon do in some capacity,” Sybert said. “It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life.”

So when he arrived at Penn State and discovered the tae kwon do club there, he quickly became a member.

“There were 30 members or so. We did some self-defense seminars, hung out together,” Seybert said.

But the president of the club failed to submit the paperwork to the PSU club sports organization at the end of that school year. When Sybert returned for his sophomore year, the tae kwon do club was no more.

Midway through his sophomore year, Sybert and a couple of friends decided to revive the club. He was named vice president of the group.

“There were only eight of us and half of them were friends of mine I met at school,” Sybert said. “I talked them into joining. They had no experience (in the sport) and we’re starting from scratch.”

The club has grown to 50 members this year, with Sybert serving as president.

Penn State’s competitive team is a member of Eastern Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Competition, a sanctioning body that covers 20 to 30 schools.

“We’ve already traveled to meets at MIT, Cornell and Princeton, and we’re hosting one,” Sybert said. “There’s plenty of fighters at these events and I’m into the fighting.”

Sybert is used to traditional style of fighting, which includes punches to the face as well as kicks. The Olympic style used in collegiate fighting focuses more on kicks.

Sybert is 4-2 with three knockouts this season. He connected with a kick to the jaw of a University of Michigan opponent that resulted in his foe leaving the mat on a stretcher.

“I’ve had to adjust to this style of fighting, but I’m getting a feel for it,” Sybert said.

The Penn State club charges a $40 membership fee and does fundraising to cover its travel and tournament costs.

The club spent one day cleaning a quarter of Beaver Stadium after a Nittany Lions football game.

“That was a nine-hour job. It was exhausting, but it paid us $2,000,” Sybert said.

The club practices three times a week, for two to three hours at a time.

“Club sports gives us a hardwood floor to practice on instead of a mat, so our feet have gotten pretty tough,” Sybert said, smiling. “We practice on our own a lot, too, wherever we can find a spot.”

The club is headed to Berkeley, Calif., for the Collegiate National Championships in April. The top eight finishers there earn berths in the upcoming World University Games in Spain.

Sybert is leaving the door open for possible pursuit of a berth on the United States team for the 2016 Olympic Games, kick boxing or mixed martial arts competition down the road.

“There’s a lot of ways to go with this,” he said.