Seven Down

So far, so good . . . no major problems in the gym since summer camp began this week.  I haven't noticed any vandalizing of the bulletin boards or equipment.  However, it's early in the season.

Seven kids are now gone from the youth class.  This is only the third week of the session.  Yesterday, a set of twins admitted to their guardian that they were not interested in continuing to take boxing.  They left in the middle of the class.  One of them double backed to me to explain their twin didn't like jumping rope because they couldn't get the hang of it.  "What the . . .?" I thought to myself.  Neither of the twins showed much enthusiasm for anything in class from day one.  The sport is just not a good fit for everyone, no matter how much a parent or guardian may think it is for their kids.

Elijah finally showed up to class yesterday (he signed up weeks ago), but again, there was the issue of not being able to show up every day.  "I'm not sure if I can get him here every day," his mother told me.  He wasn't there today.  One reason I know for the absences is that Elijah attends summer camp, but not at LaFollette.  It takes a while to get over to boxing from that other camp which is a good distance away.   I learned from Elijah that there's no coach at Seward Park now; Elijah had previously trained over there.  Allegedly, Mike resigned right before the summer session began.

Aarav was missing, too.  He can only come to the gym two days out of the week and today was supposed to be one of the days.  Like Elijah, Aarav was training at a different gym, too; he was at Sheridan Park.  I'm beginning to wonder how often Aarav was showing up there.

For all intents and purposes, I have no teen or adult class in operation.  I dropped Kierra after her parents never responded to voice mails I left about her non-attendance.  Savannah has yet to show up to the gym.  The two adults bowed out early.  One of them was Yamira's dad; her mother told me they signed up their daughter for something else, which is why she never showed up for the summer session.  The other guy told me the gym was a bit out of his way; maybe that should have occurred to the guy before paying his money.

None of the kids have been showing up for the past few Saturdays.  That's an issue because sparring is set for that day, and we're in the midst of the weekly boxing shows.  I don't know how the ones who keep telling me they want fights -- namely Damaris, Kayla, and Anayah -- think that's going to work out for them if they don't spar. Elijah and Aarav are already ready out of the running because they can't show up regularly to class.  It looks like Lael will never get a fight, either, for lack of regular attendance, too.

On the upside . . . well, there isn't one right now.