Doubling Down

Rick, who has been helping out in the boxing gym, said that youths who are in the program but don't want to compete and/or are participating in other sports should not be hindered from registering. However, no time and effort should be put in on my part to train them. "Let them hit the bags all they want, but spend time on the youths who really want to fight," Rick said.

I've been doing that for a while, but I've also begun to double down on my expectations of people who are in the program. Yesterday, I had to check Jules' mother about what I was not going to continue to put up with from her son. I wasn't going to bother making a courtesy call. However, I was curious about what was going on since Jules had begged me for weeks to be in the class. She registered him for boxing on January 17th, and that was the only day Jules has been in the gym. I was told that Jules has been involved in some activity at school this week, but that didn't explain why her son was not in the class on the other days. "If Jules doesn't want to follow rules, then Jules need not show up to the gym," I informed her.

Tiyana has also been gone for weeks with no explanation. Jamire dropped out after the first week after I announced I wasn't tolerating the same behavior that Jamire displayed three years ago when he was in the gym. Jaquazz and Amarion have been missing, and Richard has been skipping days. Elijah and Jazzmyne can only attend the program once a week for the time being.  None of the adults who are registered have been showing up for class. I was talking about possibly attending the City-Wide Boxing Tournament this year, but that is looking like a no-go again for this year.

My supervisor asked for a list of what equipment I need, and I gave it to him. Whether or not I get what I asked for is another issue. The football, basketball, and baseball teams never deal with a lack of resources because they get help from some of the professional sports organizations in town. The coach of those teams is also allowed to have fundraisers, but for reasons that still aren't exactly clear, I'm not allowed to do that for boxing. Even the swim team gets some outside support. I'm at the mercy of depending on whether there is enough money in the field house's budget.