North End boxing haunt doesn't pull punches in fight for at-risk youth

Niko Ramos slips into theboxing club before any other kid. His coach hands hima water bottle, then Ramos grabs a book.

In this boxing club for North End teens, reading or homework must comebefore any jabs andright hooks. Sometimes, the coach quizzes them on what they've readto ensure you're paying attention.

The main event comes afterward:an exhaustive 60-minute workout, winded teenagers flailing their arms in acardio-focused session.

This time, Ramoshas brought a new friend, who begrudgingly picks abook off the North End Boxing Club's shelf and drops his winter jacket on a desk. He came for the boxing, not this.

"I have to read the whole thing?" he asks in disbelief.

"It's not a bad thing," Ramos responds.

Studying the sweet science

The teensmay not realize it, but this gym exists to shield them from the sometimes unforgiving city beyond theseconcrete walls.

The North End Boxing Club was designed to keep kids on the straight and narrow. It is a freeafter-school haunt for neighbourhood youth age12 to 17 to study the sweet science and for their classes.

The club was the brainchild of former PointDouglas city councillor Mike Pagtakhan, who wanted to give youth a new place to play afterthe Burrows Resource Centre building on College Avenue closed down. The repurposed building now houses the boxing club.

We "get to these kids beforemaybethey start going down the wrong path," says Aaron Black, manager and head coach of the North End Boxing Club. In his day job, he supports men living at Pan Am Place who may otherwise be homeless or at risk.

Sometimes youth drop by the clubbecause they need someone to talk to, he says.

"They're not training that day, but they're meeting with me. They're discussing what's going on at home and then they make an effort to come back. As a result of the progress they make here, their self-esteem improves and they become more driven."

For one young man suspended from school, the boxing class served ashis only escape, Black says.

"This was really his only place to be where he had friends, where he had something to even just do."

Three years after it opened, the cityfunds thepugilismcentre with an annual grant in the tens of thousands, Black says. The 3,000-square-foot centre is operated by the brass at Pan Am Boxing.

There are no actual smackdowns here, since the workouts are no-contact.

It'sa place for North End youthto go, a diversion from violence in a city grappling with a mounting homicide tolland rising violence and property crime rates.

"These kids could be anywhere, right?" Deven Marsden, one of the youth, says. "Anything can happen, really. The world's kind of messed up, especially Winnipeg.

"This can kind of be an escape to avoid going into those gangs."

Positive impacts

But Marsden says he doesn't need this boxing club to avoidviolence. Without his late-afternoon boxing workout, the 18-year-old figures he'd simply play more video games.

Still, other youth areat risk.

"There's kids that come and they're here regularly and then they kind of disappear on us," Black says.

The club started with four young pugilists in training, but 200 kids have come through the ranks since 2016. There are 10-20 kids who show up regularly to each class.

"The positive impacts we've seen over the years, it's pretty incredible," Black says.

There's Marsden, once shy and timid, but he's become moreoutspoken. He's thinking of entering his first competitive boutnow that he's 18.

Then there's Den DenValete, who says thehalf-hour of supervised homework time sharpened his academics, and he's lost 30 pounds through the workouts.

Ashton Firman, 17, visited the club the first time because of his appetite.

"A couple of my friends told me that there was pizza day here and thatsort of made me come here and try it out," he says. "I actually really enjoyed [the boxing] because of that, and now I've been coming here a lot of times."

Coach Black holds command in the gym with a steady confidence.

"Light, light, light," Black tellsFirmanwhile he pummels apunching bag. "Don't worry about power," he says focus on form.

His boxers-in-training listen, and anyone who sneaks a glance at a phone puts it away when Black peers in. He has fun with the kids, too.

"Oh, we've got to cut that hair," he quipsat one teenager throwing punches into the air.

Black hopes the after-school program will someday involve parents and their kidstaking classes together.

For Black, though,the program is already paying dividends.

"To be able to be here every day just on its ownis great itself, but to be able to see these kids progressit's not even work," Black says.

"It's training with younger youth that are becoming friends and it's seeing the impact they're having onthe community."

Knockout idea in the North End

5 years ago

Duration 2:12

A Winnipeg boxing club is trying to give youth a fighting chance.