Summer's Coming With Issues

This a photo featuring Gabe and one of Josh's sons in the forefront from my days at Loyola Park.

This week, the summer session begins at LaFollette's boxing gym.  I have sixteen -- count 'em -- sixteen kids in the 12 years old and under class.  The class is only set up for ten kids, but since summer is coming soon and school will be out, I figured I would let a few more kids in.  I may regret that decision over the next ten weeks.

But then, I might not.  The usual pattern is kids sign up for the class, attend a few times, then attend infrequently or drop out completely.  I told one parent their three kids could start the class early (last week was the break period between sessions).  They showed up one day, and half-paid attention to what was going on, despite their parent admonishing them to listen.  The next day, the kids were no-shows.  I expect half of the class will disappear, not only because they maybe are signed up for multiple activities, but simply because the weather is nice.  Few want to be in a hot gym during warm weather.

The teen summer class currently has eight participants.  Shanita and Julius are returning, but they have already told me they may be late most days due to the teen class now starting an hour earlier.  I keep reminding them there's not much more time left to train for the July 2nd boxing show.  I worked with Julius a little more last week because I'm more worried about how he will do in a match as opposed to his sister.

The adult class, which is new, has five adults registered.  The sister of a man who is already signed up came in to register.  She looked relieved when I told her that I will not force anyone to spar.  I'm thinking that the adult class will probably be the easiest to run, because the adults will probably not be stuck on doing sparring only, and the adults will not be as fickle as the kids can be.