Big Event

The club is going to have a show at the DeMotte American Legion on September 14th. Jimmy has put together a very diverse and interesting card. In addition to featuring some of our current fighters, the show will also have some of our past Golden Gloves champions as well as several prominent members of the community making their amateur fighting debuts. Should be a great night of action and entertainment. Tickets are only ten dollars and will be going on sale soon.

Also, starting August 12th the hours of operation will change on Monday and Thursday evenings. The new hours will be 5:30 - 7:00, rather than 5:00 - 7:00 as it has been in the past. Saturday morning hours will remain the same.

Still Going Strong

Lots of activity since last I updated things here. As always at this time of year, we're preparing for the upcoming Golden Gloves Tournament in Indy. We've got seventeen fighters scheduled for this year - our biggest group ever. We've got lots of new fighters and some of our veterans heading back down. We should put on a pretty good showing. Everyone is training hard.

We have a remodeling project currently underway. We're opening up a couple of walls to make it easier to monitor everyone's activities and give us a little more room, We've been having some good turnouts lately. A little extra room will be nice.

We've got a fundraiser scheduled for March 11th to help with our Golden Gloves expenses. With seventeen fighters entered, there will be a lot of trips to Indy. Stop by and check out the action that evening. We're also looking to fund the purchase of a newer van for the club. Like most boxing clubs catering to amateur boxers, there's never enough money for all the things we'd like but we've been blessed with some great supporters. Thanks to all of you for all you do. The coaches and the fighters really appreciate it.

As always, if you're looking for up to date info on the club, you can check out Demotte Boxing Club on Facebook.

Update

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog here. A few days after writing the last post I suffered a mild heart attack. For a guy who exercised like a fiend and watched his diet, it came as quite a shock to myself and many others. I underwent emergency angioplasty and had a couple of stents installed. I retired from my teaching position after being released from the doctor and I'm back at the gym a couple of days a week. I've made some changes to my lifestyle and I'm feeling better than I have for a couple of years. Thanks to everyone who helped out in my absence and for all the get well wishes.

Things have been going well at the gym and Jonah, who was featured in the last post, just won again at the Silver Gloves along with three more of our fighters. They are now preparing to fight in Michigan in January.

We've got several new people coming to the gym as well as our core group who've been with us for awhile. It's a fine collection of athletes big and small, young and old, male and female. It looks like we'll have a good group to take to the Golden Gloves this year. We'll be picking up the intensity of the training for them starting with the new year.

I'll see if I can't keep things here with the blog a little more current in the upcoming new year as well as fill you in on some of the events of the past summer.

Merry Christmas to all of you from all of us at the Demotte Boxing Club.

Jonah

We've got our first state champ for the year - Jonah. He fought really well with the referee stopping the contest after three standing eight counts. We've had two other fighters in the tourney so far this year. Jesse won his first amateur bout and will be fighting next week again. Tim lost a tough 3-2 decision. Matt will be fighting next week also. 

Recap

Jimmy lost to Eric Draper by decision Friday night. It was a shame he couldn't have gone out on a high note but  that's the boxing game for you. The Cyber Boxing Zone has a nice write up about him and his career. He went out like he came in, as Gentleman Jimmy Holmes. All of us here at the gym are very proud of him and what he has done for the local boxing scene. He'll still be here at the gym using his experience to train our fighters, of course.

We've had two fighters in the Golden Gloves so far. Jesse won handily in his amateur debut and Tim lost a 3-2 decision. Jonah fights this week.

Jimmy's Last Fight

Jimmy Holmes has his last professional boxing match tonight at the Radisson in Merrillville, Indiana. He's been fighting either amateur or professional for 17 years and it's time to hang up the gloves. He's looking for his 20th win tonight against 3 losses. All of us here at the club wish Coach Jimmy all the best tonight and in the future.

We're Still Here

I haven't posted for almost a year but the club is alive and well. Seems like everyone goes to Facebook now for info so I haven't been posting. I checked out the stats the other day and we still get some traffic here, so I figured I'd post a little something.

We've got guys going to the Gloves this year and we're having a little fundraiser this evening. Coach Jimmy is scheduled to fight on March 30th and then he'll be retiring from the pro ranks. It's been a great time and you might want to get a ticket for the Rumble at the Radisson to see his last bout. Call the gym for ticket info.

Jimmy and I went to the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall fo Fame this last September and spent a week training at the same place John L.Sullivan trained for the last bare knuckle championship fight. Lots of fun and the people of Belfast, New York treated us like royalty. We're going back in July.

That's it for now but I'll try and throw a little something up in the future a little more often.