G-A Athletic Director Mike Woodard (right) was presented a plaque by City of Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson on behalf of the Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club for the positive contributions he has had with youth at the 2023 boxing event at G-A High School.
An idea local boxing trainer Curtis Isaac had in the 1990s to give high school students at Galesburg-Augusta High School a closer look at boxing came together again in 2023 for another boxing event at G-A and will continue March 22 with a 15 bout card at G-A High School.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and boxing starts at 7:30 p.m. Cost of admission is $15.
G-A Athletic Director Mike Woodard said because G-A had three students who were boxing at Isaac’s Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club in the 1990s, Isaac contacted the G-A Athletic Director about having a boxing exhibition at the old G-A High School. Woodard felt it would be a good idea.
“I thought it was a good way to give the community and the other students and opportunity to see these three student-athletes that are doing a sport that was unique and it wasn’t something you could see every Tuesday or Friday on the field or in the gym. So we did that,” recalled Woodard.
Several years passed and Isaac and Woodard talked about having another boxing event at G-A High School, however nothing materialized until 2023 when a boxing event that featured G-A graduate Dillon Whipple was held.
While there won’t be any G-A students or alumni boxing in the March 22 event, Isaac said the 15-bout card will have some noteworthy boxers.
Junior Rios, a four-time state champion and five-time State Golden Glove Champion from Grand Rapids is one of the featured fighters. “Probably one of the best fighters in the State of Michigan,” Isaac said of Rios.
Donny Reyes will be another featured fighter.
“We’re going to have some of the best fighters in Michigan,” said Isaac.
(Photo by Bruce Rolfe)
Both Woodard and Isaac hope the event will get student-athletes interested in taking up the sport of boxing.
“People look at boxing as a violent sport, but it’s definitely not any more violent then playing a sport like football where there’s a lot of concussions. Hockey, things like that. I think it is something where kids can see that there is a legal way to take out aggression, be in a physical setting and not get in trouble for it,” said Woodard, who said he received lots of positive feedback after the 2023 boxing event.
“We want kids to quit fighting in the classroom and fighting in the streets and hijacking people in cars and come into our gym and release some of that frustration in a legal arena. Come and do something safe and healthy, boxing. Instead of killing each other, and fighting each other, and all this hate, they can come to Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing and learn the right way of settling scores with each other,” adds Isaac.
Isaac said he has had a number of young people turn their lives around through boxing at Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club, which brings satisfaction to the local boxing professional.
Isaac said a positive friendship with Woodard and G-A Superintendent Dr. Lindsey Newton will make the March 22 boxing event at G-A special. Dr. Newton said she worked with Isaac to find boxers when she was principal at the alternative high school, Barclay, now called Parchment Innovation Center.
City of Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson, who Isaac said will be at the March 22 event, spoke to the audience briefly about the positive impact the Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club has had on youth at the 2023 event at G-A High School and presented Woodard a plaque on behalf of the Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club for all of the positive contributions he has had with youth.
“That’s why I’m having it (the March 22 boxing event) there. I want to reach out to schools like Galesburg-Augusta, who is receptive to what we’re trying to do for kids,” adds the Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club owner.
You never know who may show up at a Curtis Isaac boxing event. In 2023, boxing legend Buster Matthis attended the event.
The fight at G-A will be in honor of John Caldwell, the former Kalamazoo Central High School Principal and Dr. Jack Hunt, a family practitioner Doctor for 64 years and the team physician for Comstock Public Schools, Kalamazoo College and Hillsdale College.
G-A graduate Dillon Whipple (right) is pictured boxing in a 2023 boxing event Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing Club owner Curtis Isaac put on at G-A High School.
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