The Sunnyvale Sun

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Columbia boxing program is on the ropes

By Cody Kraatz

The sound of fists slapping vinyl bags and the hiss of shadowboxing youths will go silent in August at Columbia Middle School in Sunnyvale.

The after-school boxing program there expects to close its doors Aug. 10 because the Sunnyvale School District is renovating the school. A library is planned in place of the gym that has been its home since it started in 2004.

"I think people within the city need to step up," said Jose Ramirez, a Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety detective who started the program with then-Columbia social worker Laurie Karven. He hopes someone will donate an empty warehouse or help the program pay the rent for one, but with weeks to go he has no solid leads.

About 30 students and young people from the neighborhood attend the program, which gives at-risk youth a safe and disciplined place to spend Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, rather than hanging out on the street.

Losing it will leave a hole in their lives.

"When I was a little kid I just started watching boxing on TV and I really liked it," said Luis Manuel, 11, whose father, Greg Guttierez, comes to workouts and spurs his son to push himself. When Luis launches into a volley of rapid-fire jabs at pads on Ramirez's hands, everyone in the gym turns and cheers him on.

"These are kids that have a passion for the sport. Imagine if you don't have something like this. Their dreams, they're going to fall," said Guttierez. And some see this as a foundation for their future.

"I'm gonna become a pro," said Arturo Vivanco, 13, who plans to continue boxing but would miss Ramirez. "He's a good coach. He has feeling."

Beyond Þghting

The program is not about teaching young people to fight, but about physical conditioning, commitment and discipline, coaches and parents said. The extreme exertion, fear and adrenaline test boxers more than they expect.

"You learn a lot about yourself the first time you get humbled or knocked down," said Mark Richardson, an assistant coach who used to think he was in good shape as a martial artist but has been corrected several times. He started here after the Foundry, an alternative school in San Jose, shut down a boxing program there.

The boxers dedicate an hour-and-a-half to jumping rope, practicing footwork, shadowboxing, sparring and other conditioning. The discipline spills into their behavior at school and at home, said Richardson.

And Ramirez, formerly a gang crime investigator, keeps an eye on the students who come to the gym. That attention from a police officer could seem like a major hassle for young people on a path towards crime and violence. Misael Barajas, 18, was on that path before he got in the ring.

"On the one hand they watch what you're doing, but on the other hand it's for the good of you," he said. Now working for FedEx and heading into Mission College to study criminal justice, Barajas took extra classes to make up units with support from the program and graduated from Fremont High School this year.

"He was wild. He was heading for death or incarceration as far as I'm concerned," said Richardson, who remembers a dinner with Barajas' family to celebrate his graduation.

"It's a matter of you, if you want to change," said Barajas.

Priceless

The program is free, with $17,000 worth of boxing equipment including a 22-foot by 22-foot practice ring donated by Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices and "retired" exercise equipment donated by 24-Hour Fitness gym.

Elsewhere, the young boxers would have to pay about $80 per month to join a private boxing gym, plus more for equipment and competition. The San Jose Police Activities League offers one of the most affordable programs for $50 per year. Few of these boxers can afford that.

After a July 1 car accident killed Jonathan Cornelio, 10, the program's youngest boxer, the group collected $1,100 within two days to help his family.

"This group really found out it's a family when it heard," said Richardson, who said that news on top of the impending end of the program was like a 1-2 punch. Several parents put $1 bills in the envelope because that is all they could afford to give.

Karver, who is no longer a Columbia social worker, said the north side of Sunnyvale is mostly low-income, with a lot of recent immigrants who are not native English speakers. Residents are more transient than the rest of the city, which can affect performance at Columbia, where Karver said about 50 percent of students are Latino.

While smaller than in San Jose, northern Sunnyvale has a Norteño and Surreño Latino gang presence.

"We get complacent sometimes in the sense that we want to turn a blind eye to the gang issues that we have in Sunnyvale," said Ramirez. It would be hard for the six boxers who came to work out on July 18 to use drugs or mix gang activity with their training, but gang influences are all around them, Ramirez said.

"We've got a lot of neighborhood kids that would be out there just doing nothing if they weren't here," said Richardson.

That nothing, between 3 and 6 p.m. after school lets out, can easily turn into substance abuse and crime. Ramirez found boxing is the perfect tool to fill that gap with a positive activity and role models because it appeals to these young people.

Ramirez even welcomes gang members and affiliates if they want to box, and some with those connections have taken the invitation.

"We open our doors to anybody as long as they have the mentality that they're going to put that lifestyle behind them," says Ramirez, a husband and father of three who has devoted tremendous time and energy to the program.

Now what?

Richardson estimates that six months rent for a warehouse or other space big enough for the program would cost $18,000 to $20,000. In its search for a new home the group had talks with the Sunnyvale Armory, but those fell through.

"It's great to be at a school because then you have a captive audience," said Richardson. If Ramirez and the other organizers cannot find a facility, they will have to break down the ring and other equipment and put it in storage. Even that is proving hard to find.

The organizers emphasize that providing social services to at-risk youth and their family is the way to go, including counseling, health insurance, gang prevention and mentoring. These steps can prevent crime and violence that are caused when young people feel they have no options.

Ramirez, Karver and other coaches are planning a tour of local community colleges to show them those options and give them a glimpse of where their future could start, even if the lights go out over the ring.

Call detective Jose Ramirez at 408.730.7297 to suggest a possible new location or help with funding.