Judging Battles at Garfield Park

Garfield Park's boxing show took place yesterday, and thankfully, the weather cooperated despite reports of rain.  Every time I walk into that place I'm reminded of when my late mother and I went there back in the mid-1960's so I could get my shots before starting school.  We used to live a few blocks away from the field house back in the day.

George spotted me walking on a cane.  "Stop faking with that cane!" he said, grinning.  The man gave me some good advice about stopping my knee pain, including losing weight, which I've long needed to do.  While I knew that George had been working for the park district since 1972, I didn't know he had been involved in boxing since 1964.  That's a long time.

Iz and Abraham weren't able to get fights because there was no one available to match them up with.  We might go to Taylor Park in a couple of weeks, but Iz is going to be out of town then.  Most likely, we won't attend another fight until the one at Seward Park in about three weeks.  I need to give time to Maurice and Jamire to catch up so they're ready for matches.  But between the two of them, Maurice appears to be more interested in actually fighting.  I plan to allow Maurice to start sparring in the gym next week.

Before the show began there was a touching tribute to Ed Brown, known as 'Lil Ed, who fought out of Garfield.  Brown was shot and killed several months ago not long before he was going to have a fight on Showtime.  He had 300 amateur fights and was undefeated.  Brown was also undefeated as a professional boxer.  His father and step-mother were present at the show and his step-mom read a letter from a person to whom Brown' kidneys were donated to after his death.

I spent the evening helping with judging the matches, and there were some good ones.  A girl from Taylor Park, I believe, really took it to Mikkela, who fights out of Portage Park.  I saw the Taylor Park fighter in the washroom afterward and gave her a big compliment.  Solomon and Matt, both fighting out of Loyola, did their best but did not get wins.  The younger kids (fighting out of Garfield, Taylor, Fuller, Simons, Ogden, and Portage) went wild on each other all evening.  One boy got knocked to the canvas, and the match was stopped soon after.  An eight-year-old girl agreed to fight one of the boys, but he got the best of her.  She took a hard pop to her nose and that fight was stopped.

Summer seems to be flying by.  We're almost in the middle of July, and there's still a lot of work to do.

Sunday South Side Sparring

My day started very early with the long ride out to LaFollette Park on the far west side to pick up Marine.  However, I steeled myself for something going wrong, and it did.  Marine had over a week to ask his parents could he go to a sparring session at Davis Square Park.  He waited to ask them this morning, and they told him no.  I'm assuming that his brother Curly wouldn't been able to go either mostly because of an injury Curly had at school a few days ago.

I pushed my irritation aside and made another long trip out to the south side where Davis Square Park is located.  I planned to go out there regardless if I had no fighters with me.  That's one of the field houses with a boxing program that I had not visited before.  Fortunately, the trains and buses were moving along at a good place.  I got there in good time.  Eddie, who is the boxing coach there, was still setting up as people came in.  In addition to his fighters, Simons Park and Fuller Park were represented.  I learned that Humboldt Park and Portage Park aren't the only two places that need a boxing coach.  It appears there is no coach currently at Seward Park, either.  "These coaches have to be patient," Marty, the Simons Park coach, told me.  "Things aren't going to happen overnight."

Angel came in with her step dad, her little sister, and her grandparents.  It looked as if she was not going to have anyone to spar with, as there were no other female boxers available.  Lucky for us, one of the teenage boys agreed to spar with her.  I gave Angel the best advice I could give, but I see where we need to work on the delivery of her punches and her footwork.  Her opponent was not hitting her as hard as he could have, but he wasn't letting her catch him often.

Marty and Eddie both gave me an idea to have a similar type of sparring show at LaFollette Park.  The field house is not open on Sundays, but I could possibly have something on a Friday or Saturday.  There is also the possibility of having a female only sparring session to help out the girls and women who may not be getting enough sparring practice elsewhere, and even less chances to have regular fights.  It's something for me to work on.

Reunion at Loyola Park

I helped out at Loyola Park's annual boxing show.  I had been in the "war room" during previous shows before, but it was different being there as a coach.  I walked in the room, and Tommy introduced me as the new coach at LaFollette.  There were surprised looks all around with the exception of Alan, Barry, and Bill, who said, "I knew you would make it."

Kitchens, who I hadn't seen in a long time, was there, along with Sean.  Kitchens was on a cane.  "I just do the Park District shows now.  I don't go to the Golden Gloves or the pro shows anymore.  I don't take pictures at the shows, either," he told me.  He and Sean have known each other for over 50 years.  I told Kitchens I saw a photo of him when he had won a championship back in the early 1960's.  The photo was in a book that Sean wrote about Chicago boxing.

The coaches on hand were Pat, who is at Brooks Park; Sims, who is at Bessemer; Tommy, who is not only the head of the boxing program for the parks, but also coaches at Portage Park; Ernie, who is the coach at Fuller; and Johnny, who helps Bill out at Hamlin.  I learned from them that Clarendon Park, where Alan used to coach at was once the jewel of the Park District boxing program.

This is a photo of a couple of Barry's boys before the show started.  The boy in the back near the ring is Gus.  I didn't recognize him at first.  Gus has got to be about seventeen years old now, and Gus has muscle.

Gene, who is Anthony's dad, was there.  Haven't seen Anthony in a long, long time.  I think he's training at another park.

Meg was there, and I'm so sorry that she and Geniece did not get to fight.  Alan was disappointed as well.  They were ready to go, but Bill was concerned about the weight difference between the two women.  There was talk of them perhaps doing an exhibition match, but that idea was nixed, too.  I have no doubt their fight would have been the highlight of the evening.  Hopefully, there will be a next time.

Meg wants to really advocate the idea of more girls in boxing, and so do I.  We talked about maybe having a girls' boxing day at some point, perhaps at LaFollette.  As soon as I get an idea of how many youths I will have, I would love to help make that happen.  I still don't have any youths yet, even though the fall session has started.  Bill gave me some encouragement.  "When I started at Hamlin, I spent three months there drinking coffee in the kitchen because I had no fighters.  But don't worry, the kids will eventually show up," he said.  Adrian, who was the DJ at the boxing show, told me it will take some time to build up the program as well.  I'm ready to work with the kids, so I will continue to do more promoting to get them in the gym.

Collette, who is part of the famous O'Shea family of boxing, was at the show.  She was very pleased to hear that I was a coach.  "We've got to make some strides," she said.  She is willing to send some kids over my way as she comes across them.

Tommy (in the red shirt) talks with Ernie in this photo.  Tommy was busy weighing boxers in and making the matches.  During the show, Tommy had to be in the corner with his fighters, so I was the timekeeper.  That was the first time I had done that; I'm always happy to pick up a new skill.

Pat sits in the background, Johnny stands behind Bill, and Bill talks to Ben, one of Hamlin's fighters.  Ben won his match.

I had to keep my eye on the stopwatch, so I didn't catch very many details of each fight.  John fought with Gus in an exhibition match.  Gus didn't seem to be throwing heavy punches, from what I could tell.

Justin fought with a guy who came out of the corner throwing wild punches.  Justin kept getting smothered, and lost the match.

Barry warmed up Jeremiah before his fight.  Jeremiah won a clear victory.

This was the fight announcer, who was cool on the mic.  He mentioned JJ's upcoming fight in Brooklyn, New York.  The announcer said JJ was an alumni of Loyola Park.

Keith, Alan, and John have a conversation after the show.  John invited Keith and I over to his and his wife Jinn's apartment afterwards.  "We miss you at the gym, Hillari.  It's not the same without you there," he told me.  It's nice to be missed.  I miss all of them, too.  When the program is up and running, John, Keith, Colonel (who was at the show videotaping the matches), want to come up to LaFollette and check it out.

Fight Me Like A Man

Not a big crowd on Wednesday night, which marked the end of the summer session.  Gene, Tommy, Marcus and Amy were in attendance.  Alan came in much later, having been delayed by a meeting he had to attend way out in the suburbs. 

When Alan arrived, he matched up opponents for sparring.  Tommy and Gene started things off.  Tommy was getting in a lot of pops on Gene.  "Come on, hit him back!  Don't let him just walk in on you!" Alan told Gene.  Gene began answering Tommy's punches, and Tommy nodded his approval. 

I wasn't planning to spar because of lack of opponents, and I was a bit tired.  Cleaning at church had taken somewhat of a toll on me today.  My left foot was hurting, and so was my right side.  I got a piece of chocolate candy from Pastor when it felt like my blood sugar was low.  Tommy had just finished sparring with Gene when Alan volunteered him to spar with me.  "Give me a minute," Tommy said, as he headed for the chairs in front of the lockers.

After we suited up for battle and got into the ring, Tommy said, "I'm going to get my ass kicked, but it's okay!"  I laughed.  Soon as the bell rang, Tommy came out ready.  Most of the hits I took were in my face.  "Move your head," Alan told me, which was easier said than done.  I would work my way in with the jab, and throw overhand rights, but Tommy zapped me in the face each time. 

Finally, it occurred to me to concentrate more on getting body shots in rather than aiming for Tommy's head.  I got him a couple of times with some hooks to the head that didn't have a lot of power, but I was more successful when I aimed for his ribs.  After taking particularly hard shots, including me falling into the ropes, and nearly being knocked down another time, Tommy and I kept asking each other, "Are you okay?  Are you good?"

Earlier, I had told Pastor Roger about the TKO of Sara last week.  The pastor shook his head.  "Why do you have that look on your face?  What are you shaking your head about?" I asked.  "I can't have a look on my face?" Pastor answered.  He then went into a story about a guy who appeared to be the nicest football player in the NFL.  Instead of tackling guys on the opposite team, the athlete bear hugged them and fell backwards to the ground while holding on to them.  This allegedly prevented major injuries.  "That's a nicer way to confront someone on the opposite team than to come at them with rage.  I would teach my son to deal with confrontations in better ways, while playing sports or dealing with other people, in ways like that football player did," Pastor said.  "Boxers are always told not to fight angry but to have a cool head in order not to lose control and stay focused during a match," I told Pastor. 

Alan commented later, "Tommy was fighting you like you were a man, Hillari."  "Yes, he was," I said, thinking about the shots I took to my nose and mouth.  I was practically biting down on my mouth piece to force myself to keep my mouth closed.  "But you hung in there with him," Alan noted. I had to do that because in a regular match, I may come across some women who fight like men.  As far as I'm concerned, Meg fought hard like that during the three amateur bouts we had.  I wasn't prepared for that so much, and I needed to be better prepared.  I appreciate that Tommy didn't hold back; a lot of the guys I spar with do that.

Alan had my camera while I was in the ring with Tommy, so he must have taken this shot of Marcus near the tear drop bag. 

Andres didn't come in, and he had said he wanted to take a fight tomorrow which I believe is to take place at Fuller Park out on the south side.  Alan will call me if that takes place.  I need to start thinking about preparing for the fight I may have at Loyola Park late next month.  September is coming sooner than I think.