Photo by Joe Lamport
Leopoldo Vega laces up gloves on Zanae Simmons during a recent workout.

Boxing helps kids find their way

By Joe Lamport
Managing editor

Sweat was dripping from Zanae Simmons' 11-year-old face as she pounded the punch mitt of her trainer, Ron Williams, with a hard right. In an instant, Zanae had recovered her stance, both of her gloves up around her head protecting her head.

Zanae's workout continued several minutes, her feet moving steadfastly across the hard cement floor of a room with gray walls dimly lit with fluorescent bulbs on the first floor of Highbridge Houses on University Avenue, following Williams in a tight circle. She was out of breath when Williams gave her a break.

Some students used to crowd into the room when it was an alternative high school years ago. The room is still used for learning, but now the kids in it - Zanae, Rolando Cabrera, Leopoldo Vega, Essence Edwards and Justin Velasquez among them - are learning boxing skills - how to jab, avoid getting hit, move their feet, and the like. They also learn about life.

"I teach them to respect boxing," said Williams, 38, a former Golden Glove boxer himself and now a tree doctor for the city's Parks Department. "But I don't just talk about boxing. I try to understand their daily lives."

Williams has put together a diverse workout group, from 10-year-old Essence to 18-year-old Leopoldo. He did not start with the room or much of anything except a few extra dollars from his weekly paycheck and determination to offer kids in the community something like he had when he was growing up.

"Myself, I was lucky," he said, recalling his youth. "I had role models to follow. People to show me right from wrong and how to do things. A lot of these kids don't have that."

The kids started at the running track. But when the weather turned cold last fall, Williams got the room. He bought some boxing gloves and a punching bag and brought the kids indoors.

"He makes me feel better to fight," said Rolando Cabrera, 14, an eighth grade student. "He took me out the streets. He told me it's better to be doing something than nothing. I was hanging out with the wrong people."

"I saw him and he said, 'Can I sign you up for boxing?'" Essence Edwards recalled. "I thought, 'Maybe you could make some money and get your parents out of this town.'"

Justin Velasquez, 10, said boxing made him smarter. "I got involved in this sport because it's an educational sport," he said. "Mentally, if you don't do the right thing, you're going to have bruises on your face. If you go too slow, you could get knocked out."

Three nights a week, Williams offers the kids a chance to learn boxing skills. Thanks to a $500 grant from a City Council member, they have some new gloves to lace up and will soon have a speed bag to train with. Bill Wingate helps him out.

"First of all, it keeps them off the streets," Wingate said. "One more thing is if you don't do good in school, you are not welcome."

Academic success is critical, Williams said, and he visits the kids at school to follow up on their work. There are health benefits to boxing, too, he said, and the potential for violence on the streets gives the boxing program significant value.

"A lot of these kids have asthma and this helps clean out their systems," Williams said. "Boxing is a great cardiovascular exercise." Through boxing, Williams said he teaches the kids to "work together, stay together and respect one another."

After her workout, Zanae Simmons had another kid unlacing her gloves. She chatted as someone skipped rope and someone else laid into the punching bag. Sometimes, when the trainers put on the radio, the kids get a little difficult to control, she admitted. They have fun while they learn, and that is part of the attraction.

"If I don't have anything to do, I come down here," she said. She lives with her three brothers and a sister and parents in the housing complex. "I know how to fight, but I just want to learn how to box."