On a cold winter day, Train Robinson’s breath clouded in the dim light in the Zanesville Police Athletic League gym as he dealt out a bit of “tough love” during drills.
“Now we’re gonna double back. Double back,” Robinson instructed one of his boxers. “Garfield, I’m about to put a glove on and punch you in your forehead, boy. Get back up there where you’re supposed to be.”
Robinson is president and coach at the boxing gym, which has been a refuge for community youth for almost three decades.
He said while the kids do learn to spar, his goals for his boxers are broader.
“The first thing we try to teach here is discipline, respect and work ethic,” Robinson said.
Those lessons start at the very beginning of practice with a hundred push-ups, fifty sit-ups, and fifty squats. That’s all before drills, and well before a boxer throws a single punch in the ring.
Robinson berates the young boxers, calls them all by nicknames, makes sure their stances are correct, and asks them what they’ve learned today.
“Everybody got to learn something every day. It’s real simple,” Robinson said.
Keeping the heat on
Before the kids came in for the evening practice, gym vice president Josh Ward fired up two massive gas heaters that he and Robinson bought a few years ago. They knocked a bit of the chill out of the air in the old Conn’s Potato Chip factory that the gym calls home.
Once the boxers got moving, Ward switched off the heaters. Fuel costs money – and money has been in short supply. Ward said the building’s winter gas bills typically cost around $1,500 dollars a month.
“We just don’t have it this year,” Ward said.
The city of Zanesville owns the building and charges little in rent, but the gym has national Police Athletic League dues to pay and it’s struggled with utility costs for years. This winter, with those costs climbing and funds depleting, Robinson and Ward considered closing for the season for the first time this year.
Once upon a time, the gym got grants, but that hasn’t happened in years. Kids box for free. Some parents and older boxers donate when they can, but funding comes mostly from the coaches’ pockets.
“We don't really get a lot of support. But people do know we're here. Because of course, they send their kids here,” Robinson said.
Robinson is a truck driver, and Ward is a welder. They don’t get paid to run the gym. But – they stay, because they believe in the gym’s purpose.
“We get a lot of 'em that are in a lot of trouble until they come here. And then some of 'em straighten up,” Ward said.
“If these kids don't have nothing else to do, they'll find something that they don't need to be finding to get into,” Robinson added.
Their boxers asked them to keep the doors open despite the cold, so Robinson and Ward have done just that.
“I give the kids credit for looking at this as an adversity and (they) still are willing to come in here and fight through the coldness,” Robinson said.
More than exercise
Breathless from jump rope warmups, 11-year-old Chris Dennis explained that boxing helps him control his emotions.
“If you wanna get any anger out, get in the ring with somebody. To get to take out all that anger,” Dennis said.
Caleb Watson, 14, who is known at the gym as Kool Aid, said Robinson and Ward teach kids to be better people overall.
“My coaches, they'll just give you advice during practice if you're doing something wrong. And sometimes it goes with life too because you have to stay disciplined to what you want,” Watson said
Robinson said that as hard as he and Ward push the kids, they’re also the first to congratulate them on good grades or hug them when they’re going through a hard time.
“We're teaching these kids that adversity is just gonna be a part of your life and you gotta learn how to take a punch,” Robinson said.