In a small shack made of corrugated iron, a group of kids are
pursuing dreams of the limelight. They want glory and fame, and
they are willing to work hard, spill blood and sweat buckets to get
there.
Hollister – In a small shack made of corrugated iron, a group of kids are pursuing dreams of the limelight. They want glory and fame, and they are willing to work hard, spill blood and sweat buckets to get there.
Some say The Bulldog Boxing Club is simply a fun place to come to after school, but others hope it will prepare them for the demands of being a professional boxer.
One of them is Emilio Roman. He’s served time in jail and was a Sureño gang member. Since jail, Roman, 16, who also spent two months under house arrest, has been training with Zeke Lopez, the owner of the free boxing club, for more than a year and hopes to make it to the boxing big-time.
“The thing is when I fought I was good,” said Roman. “I won five out of seven fights.”
Roman had come to the club to train, but because he was in a gang, he lost focus, despite Lopez’s warnings. His time in jail taught him that there was more to life than just running with a gang and he recently came back to pick up where he left off.
At a time when many Latino parents are bemoaning a lack of discipline and after-school programs for their kids, the club offers both to families who can’t always pay for extracurriculars like baseball and football, said Lopez.
“You go down to the baseball field and want to put your kids in it and what happens is they want you to pay $143 for one kid for three months … a lot of families can’t afford that,” he said.
Many of the kids are brought in by their parents who hope that the discipline of boxing will teach the children to respect their elders, listen to instructions and, eventually, help improve their grades. Jose Arellano Jr., 17, trained at Bulldog for seven years and unlike many of his peers and friends, never lapsed into drugs or alcohol, said his father, also named Jose Arellano.
“We would go to my relatives’ house in Los Angeles and they’d complain about the problems their kids were having,” said Arellano. “I think boxing helped him stay out of it.”
Arellano, who is about to graduate from San Andreas Continuation School, is no longer boxing, but intends to apply for the California Highway Patrol Academy when he gets out.
Boxing is a huge phenomenon in the Mexican community, where people gather at homes to watch fights and place bets on who the winner will be weeks before the event. Two boxing favorites in the Mexican community are Oscar de la Hoya and Fernando Vargas, California boxers whose faces grace the walls of Bulldog Boxing Club.
Lopez, who is a former boxing champ himself and has fought all over the world, views himself not as only coach, but also as a role model and friend for the kids who come to his club. And as someone who “got into lots of trouble” as a a teenager and has served time in jail, he understands the pressures facing his athletes.
“I’ve been through it,” he said. “I don’t talk to the kids like a parent would by yelling at them. I talk to them as a friend, and I think that goes a little further.”
Zeke opened the club in 1992 as a way of giving back to the community, he said. He charges no money and the only advertising is word of mouth. His athletes, usually no more than a dozen boys 10 to 15 years old, train five days a week. Occasionally, they go to competitions around the Central Valley, where they have earned awards. Eleven-year-old Jorge Hernandez even qualified for the nationals.
Teaching kids the mechanics of sparring, jabbing and punching is only one component of what goes on at the club, said Lopez. The bigger education happens over time as kids learn to not judge each other and respect even the toughest opponent.
“I teach a kid to work hard at a gym because he wants to be a little champion,” said Lopez. “Now he can use that to get where he wants to go in life, whether it is school or college or whatever.”
Karina Ioffee covers education and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected]
