Expectations Of The Usual

Today is the first day of the spring session at the boxing gym.  Unfortunately, my expectations are low.  First of all, I don't feel like dealing with a crowd of kids today.  I've mentioned before that I'm part of the childfree community, so my feelings about kids ebbs and flows.  According to the attendance roster, the class for those who are 12 and under is currently full.  How many actually show up today remains to be seen.

I already know that two in that group -- Damaris and Diego -- can't do the five days a week.  Probably someone else in that age range is going to tell me after the fact that they can't train every day, either.  I'll inform them that I will not put anyone in a fight who is not training regularly, and both the kids and the parents will have an issue with that.  Let two weeks or less go by, and most kids will start skipping days with no word to me as to why.  That is one of the reasons why I will never again run a class for kids that is 90 minutes long.  The attention span is just not there.

To my knowledge, the teen class has never been full on the first day of any session.  There are currently five teens registered, and one of them is a member of the North Lawndale Boxing League who "represented" LaFollette in the recent City-Wide Boxing Tournament.  I don't expect that teen to ever show up.  The first chance I get, I'm withdrawing them out of the class.  If the class does fill up, that usually doesn't happen until the fifth or sixth week.  Even then, most who act like they are so interested to be there will stop showing up not long after they register.  I've already given out --against my better judgment -- paper registration forms to two teen boys who seem to more interested in posing as boxers than actually being boxers.  I haven't received the forms back.

Only one person, the first male I've had in there for awhile, is registered so far for the adult class.  Sahia is now a park district volunteer, so the fee is waived for her.  However, her daughter Rachey is not officially registered yet.  Doneisha's son Tony is in the kids' class, but she hasn't re-registered herself for the adult class.  I don't expect to see Misty again; she showed up very late in the winter session, and only one time.  She lives closer to Taylor Park, which is on the south side.  LaFollette Park is a long way to travel for a class.  I'll be surprised if that class becomes even half-full.  Despite advertisements and marketing on my part, most adults still aren't aware there is a boxing class for them.  Some do but expect to train for free, and get an attitude when they find out that isn't allowed.  
The only thing I can do at the point is to keep clamping down on rules and adding new ones as situations present themselves.  Marty, the coach at Simons Park, told me that the boxing program goes up and down.  "Some seasons you get a good group of people, and other seasons the coach is lucky to get one or two who are serious," he said.

Unsurprised At Curie

I sat at the second ring to judge fights when I arrived at the second and last day of the Chicago City-Wide Boxing Tournament.  During one of the matches, I overheard one of the officials stating that the fighters from LaFollette Park didn't show up.  The fighters from the North Lawndale Boxing League who were "representing" LaFollette were nowhere to be found.  I just shook my head, but I wasn't very surprised.  Based on what I observed of Derek's fighters last spring, I didn't get a sense there was much motivation to stick to things and finish them.  I deal with enough of that with the youths who actually are, for lack of a better word, eligible to sign up at the field house.  

Maybe there was some resentment over the poor showing of Derek's fighters on Tuesday.  I haven't forgotten the reports of those fighters throwing fits because they didn't get to take home winners' trophies last spring.  The people they were supposed to fight last night got walkovers, which means they automatically received belts because their opponents didn't show up.  Most fighters would rather win by participating in actual matches, not by default.  I haven't heard any fallout from the coaches of those fighters as of this writing.  If I do, I'm going to direct them to take up their complaints to Thomas.  After all, Derek's fighters are not officially mine.

The bouts went faster than they did on Tuesday.  Several of them were stopped by both Thomas and Gerald, who took turns being the referee of the fights in the ring where I was sitting near.  I recognized a kid, Jordan, who fights out of Portage Park.  I was impressed by his actions after he lost his match; no bad attitude whatsoever.  He immediately shook the hand of the other youth and complimented him.  Too many of the other kids who didn't do well were rolling their eyes and frowning up.  One guy threw his hand up in a gesture that said, "Really?  How did the other guy win?"  Another kid walked off in a huff after his hand wasn't raised, and Gerald had to call him back to pick up the second place trophy.

Another tournament is over.  I keep hearing that Derek's fighters will eventually have a gym opened up for them at one of the field houses.  I hope so.

LaFollette Walkovers and Open Doors

Thomas emailed out a list of youths who signed up for the Chicago City-Wide Tournament (which takes place this week).  Two of the kids signed up at LaFollette who are with Derek's North Lawndale Boxing League -- Blake and Porsche -- were listed as walkovers.  They didn't get fights, so they won by default.

If Ariel had shown up to train more often, she could have been paired with Porsche.  That ship has sailed, along with my chance of seeing any part of the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament this year.  This was the first time in about 14 years that I missed going to the fights.  I never made it to either John or Michael's bouts (and unfortunately, they both lost), and I had no one in the competition from my gym.  Hopefully, the Chicago Park District boxing shows will turn out better.

In another bid to keep the destructiveness of the summer camp kids from touching the gym at LaFollette, I sent an email to Steve today requesting that the kids go to another room to get their snacks while camp is in session.  I'm still trying to put together a senior aerobic boxing class for the summer.  The last thing I or the seniors need is summer camp kids ripping and running in the gym and trashing it.  The boxing program has been running for nearly three years now; it's long been time for the summer camp kids to stop using that room.

Late last week, I found my office/equipment room door standing wide open.  No one knew who had been in there.  In the email, I also asked Steve to remind those who have keys to that room to keep it locked.  Summer is coming and brings a lot of people into the field house who are just roaming around.  I can't run the boxing program if a majority of the equipment comes up missing.

North Lawndale Fighters

Derek showed up with three of his fighters yesterday: his son Derek, Porsche, and Anthony who said he likes to be called "Ant".  If I think a kid's nickname or real name is ridiculous, no, I won't be calling them by that.  Today, he'll be bringing more kids for the purposes of sparring.  "How many kids will you have coming in here?" he asked me.  "We're in the break period between sessions.  They won't be here until April 4th," I answered.  I had half-a-mind to call some of the kids who were in the winter session to get them in for that.  But seeing how most of them hardly showed up during the 50-day session, I decided I wasn't going to waste my time on the phone.  I'll start fresh next month.

Derek runs North Lawndale Boxing League.  The league is not a part of the Chicago Park District.  Derek runs it out of various spaces as well as out of his garage.  The league is allowed to compete in park district boxing shows.  They also go to other amateur boxing competitions.  Derek started the league in 2010 to give back to his neighborhood and to get kids off the street and doing something positive.

Looks like me moving to Eckhart Park is still on the table, but I haven't heard much about the progress on that.  No one has been hired as the coach over there as of yet.  I thinking that a decision should be made soon because the spring session begins the week after next.