Gloves over guns

A locker at the Westside Boxing Club on Central Avenue is filled with at least 100 small notebooks, each including the picture of a local boxer, the places he has traveled, and fights won and lost.

Boxing coach Andy Smith rifled through the books this week, noting half a dozen boxers among them who are in prison or who were shot and killed.

But a lot more, he said, are success stories -- some boxers are in college, some have careers, some are married with children. For many, boxing kept them off the streets and out of trouble.

"I was going through these (books), and they represent a life," Mr. Smith said. "We've just seen so many kids that were kind of on that fence of where they could have gone bad or they could have gone good. And we kind of steered them in the good direction by providing structure and a safe place and a sport that teaches them about life."

To promote the club's gloves-for-guns mentality, the U.S. Army Boxing Team is in Chattanooga to speak to local students, host a clinic and participate in a competition against the Southeast All Stars.

The Army team, which trains out of Fort Carson, Colo., will stress the importance of keeping violence inside the ring instead of on the streets, said Joe Smith, who started the downtown Westside Boxing Club. Boxers also will demonstrate how skills learned in the ring translate into usable skills for life, he said.

Mr. Smith opened the Westside Boxing Club in 1998 with his son Andy and served as team manager for the U.S. boxing team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On any given day, about 35 young people participate in the club, he said.

Many come from the YMCA's Community Action Project, but the boxing club is not run through YCAP nor is it funded by it, Joe Smith said.

Most young people who participate in the boxing club would be delinquent or in trouble if not for the club, he said.

"Boxing takes hard work and discipline," he said. "It requires good habits. So if you can take all those things out of the boxing gym into your everyday life, you can't help but be successful."

U.S. Army Boxing Team members will visit six area schools and ROTC programs today and Monday to counter the lure of gangs by providing information about boxing and the military and potential careers in each, Joe Smith said.

"We've got to get to them early because if we don't, then these kids get into gangs," he said. "And when that lifestyle starts, we don't get them back. We just don't get them back."

Cortney Campbell has seen the difference between a life with boxing and a life without. The 23-year-old took up the sport at the club when he moved from Ohio to Tennessee at age 11. He got pretty good, winning several fights.

But five years later, he fell into life on the streets, quit boxing and ended up in jail on an aggravated assault charge.

With the support of Joe Smith, however, Mr. Campbell found his way back to boxing.

He now has a job and plans to enroll in college construction management classes in the next couple of months. And he hopes to be in good enough shape by March to participate in boxing matches.

"The boxing program, it's a way out of the streets for me. It's the only way, really, for me," Mr. Campbell said of the boxing club. "It's like a brotherhood."

Andy Smith said he's seen dozens of young people nearly down for the count who've joined the club and transformed their lives. The program focuses on "jabbing for Jesus" and makes no apologies for its Christian-based ministry.

"When life hits you in the face and knocks you down, how are you going to respond?" he said. "And that's kind of how we've related this boxing program to life."

IF YOU GO

* What: U.S. Army Boxing Team Clinic, featuring former Olympic coach Basheer Abdullah, Westside Boxing Club coach Andy Smith and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Deontay Wilder

* When: 10 a.m. Saturday

* Where: Westside Boxing Club, 1600 Central Ave.

* Cost: Free

* What: U.S. Army vs. Southeast All-Stars

* When: 7 p.m. Saturday

* Where: Chattanooga Convention Center, Hall C

* Cost: Free for attendees of Saturday morning's clinic, $10 general admission, $25 ringside seats, $175 ringside tables

Head: Boxing club promotes gloves over guns