LAPD Encourages Youth to Step in the Ring
Rear of Northeast Station motorpool is converted to house new boxing program.
By Paul Aranda Jr., EGP Staff Writer
The police officers assigned to patrol the streets of northeast Los Angeles have opened up their backyard to help steer youth away from crime through a new boxing program.
The Northeast Youth Boxing Program officially sounded its opening bell in a converted outdoor gym in the rear of the motorpool at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast station with a red carpet event on Saturday August 28. The boxing program is a part of the Northeast P.A.L. (Police Activities League), a youth crime prevention program aimed at building relationships between police officers and at-risk youths through sports.
LAPD Police Sgt. Danny Roman, community relations’ officer for the Northeast station, said that although most of the youth participants in the program have already been identified, there is room for more youth interested in lacing up some boxing gloves.
2009 U.S. National Champion Xavier Montelongo, 18, throws shadow punches in an empty ring at the LAPD Northeast Station. Montelongo is a member of the local Victory Outreach church in Eagle Rock. (EGP photo by Paul Aranda Jr.)
LAPD Officer Hector Ibarra will serve as the lead trainer for the program. Roman said Ibarra, a 25-year LAPD veteran, has long had a passion for boxing and was critical in the effort to create the program. Roman said the program took over a year to create and relied on collaboration from big companies, community organizations and fundraising efforts from local youth cadets.
Roman said program participants were identified from local schools and through the city’s partnership with the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. The Hospital’s Adolescent Medicine division administers the Cypress Park/Northeast Zone of the Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) program.
Golden Boy Promotions, the company started by East Los Angeles boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya, donated equipment, including two heavy bags that will be used to teach participants skills beyond throwing punches. Roman said he chose boxing to reach youth that may not be considered natural athletes and allow them to develop dedication and discipline through the sport’s training techniques that has turned similar youth into champions.
One example would be that of Frankie Gomez, a 2009 U.S. National Champion.
Gomez, 18, is an East Los Angeles native who began his professional career this year.
Gomez was a pupil of Ibarra and the LAPD PAL program where he forged a strong amateur career that led him to be a highly coveted amateur fighter when he signed with Golden Boy in February.
The new boxing program already has another 2009 U.S. National Champion as a regular visitor. Xavier Montelongo, also an East Los Angeles native and Schurr High School graduate, made a late visit to the new northeast training site on Saturday.
Montelongo, 18, is a member of the local Victory Outreach church in Eagle Rock.
Roman said the purpose of the boxing program is not to find the next great fighter, but to provide local youth with an opportunity to develop the same skills sets many boxing champions have developed to forge successful careers.
“It’s not just about climbing into the ring and beating each other up,” Roman said. “A lot of these kids don’t have father figures and they may lack discipline. Put it all together and you have potential for a lot of trouble,” he added. “This is about commitment, it’s about providing structure.
“If they come with a mouthpiece, then they’re good to go,” Roman added. “If not, we have all the equipment they need right here.”
Long after the crowd had left the red carpet event, Montelongo climbed into the new ring and threw a series of shadow punches as if to break-in the training ground for the next generation of youth boxers.
“They’ll learn a good skill,” Montelong said of what participants can expect from the boxing program. “If they stick to it, they’ll have a bright future.”
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September 2, 2010 Copyright © 2012 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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2 Responses to “LAPD Encourages Youth to Step in the Ring”
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You wont find a more giving individual than Hector Ibarra. I’ve known him since we were kids growing up in Montebello.
I try to get information at the front office of the north eats police station and there was two officers working on the control center . I walked inside with a good attitude real excited about the program so I asked the officer female that was there that I will like to get more info about the boxing program? and she laughed at me and my friend real loud with no respect towards us and told me I was too old to box I felt real disrespected because she kept geting more personal with us without knowing our boxing history this is a program to keep youth. out. of the st but instead the officer were raical profiling us and discriminating us against following. are dreams to box.