Left to Right Boxing teaches the sport, discipline to youths
Little League baseball didn’t agree with 11-year-old Derek Shingu – Too many pop ups.
“I didn’t like it,” he says.
Ralph Aguinaga, 17, didn’t take much liking to the sport in his early years either.
But boxing? That was something the two Gilroy boys could get behind.
“If you lose or win, it’s all you,” Ralph says.
The two boys and several other Gilroy youths spend four evenings a week training at the Gilroy Youth Community Center on Sixth Street with the newly-formed Left to Right boxing club, Gilroy’s latest youth boxing club.
Jerry Rodriguez, Ralph’s father, is the man who started Left to Right boxing. Rodriguez, now 45, began boxing as a youngster in Ventura County. The southpaw won 180 amateur fights and became to his hometown of Moorpark what Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero is to Gilroy. Rodriguez moved up to San Jose in the early ’80’s where he turned pro. He fought in several big events, including the Golden Gloves, and had a fight at the San Jose Civic Auditorium before he called it a career at age 26.
Rodriguez now guides the group of young boxers in his club, including his daughters Desiree, 8, and Elizabeth, 12, and son Ralph.
Rodriguez says he knew he wouldn’t be able to box forever, but that he wanted still to be involved in the sport. Rodriguez first started teaching boxing in Gilroy with Robert Guerrero’s father, Ruben Guerrero. Rodriguez, who spent 15 years in ministry and is heavily involved with Gilroy’s Victory Outreach church, sees boxing as a vehicle to help kids live healthier lives.
“The kids have a better chance to live a better life. It gives kids more opportunity to do something,” Rodriguez said. “Nobody knows if it could be a long-lasting career. But boxing is like any other sport. Once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood.”
Boxing helped Rodriguez learn to defend himself growing up. But that’s not how he wants his students using the skills they learn from him.
“I came from a neighborhood where I had to fight to survive. (They) didn’t come from that lifestyle,” he said. “They’re still learning to box and know it’s a sport and use it as a sport, not to go out and use in the street. That’s No. 1. Boxing is a sport.”
Rodriguez added, “Kids can develop to be something in every aspect of life. Even if it’s just a stepping stone to success down the road.”
The message seems to be catching on. Rodriguez has watched his son go from a couch potato to part-time trainer to boxing addict over the past few months. Ralph gradually got in better shape, dropping from 118 to 114 pounds. Now, the Mt. Madonna student gets up at 5:45am to go running.
“I run every day because the coach is my dad. So he makes me,” Ralph says. “But I started to really do it on my own.”
Derek, a student at Eliot Elementary, enjoys the structure of boxing.
“It’s been hard,” Derek said. “I chose boxing because I like discipline.”
The group’s newest member is 15-year-old Luis Andrade, a freshman at Gilroy High.
“It’s really challenging,” said Andrade, who played freshman football for the Mustangs this past fall. “It’s not how I thought it would be.”
At practice, the boxers’ work ethic comes into play. They train individually in a circuit that includes shadow boxing, jump roping and working on punching bags and speed bags. A beeper sounds every few minutes to signal the ends and beginnings of the time at each station.
After several months of training, some of the Left to Right boxers are beginning to compete. Over the past few weekends, they have traveled around the Bay Area to fights. Derek has the most experience with three fights under his belt. He was supposed to fight at a Junior Olympic boxing event Saturday in Concord, but his opponent canceled. Ironically, Derek was the fighter who appeared to Rodriguez the least ready to fight when he began boxing.
“He was brought up in the church. He didn’t have the fight ability,” Rodriguez said of the under 5-foot-tall, 65-pound Derek. “He was one of the most uncoordinated…He’s developed a lot of skills.”
But Derek will get another shot at a fight this weekend at the Santa Clara PAL Boxing Show and Cinco de Mayo weekend at an event in Sacramento.
Ralph is also looking forward to his getting a chance in the ring.
“At first, I just got into it to train,” he said. “But after the first time I sparred, I wanted to get into fighting.”
