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JO08
 

This is a "J.O." tournament, JO meaning boxers ranging in age from 8-16 years. This is the first leg of the tournament, which means u start on the state level, u move to the regional level, u move to the national level.

AND FOR THE BOXERS, IF THEY WANTED IN, ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS TRAVEL TO NORFOLK....

Robert Matney
President of Virginia Local Boxing Committee
- all the clubs throughout the state, from Roanoke to Arlington to Richmond to here throughout all of Hampton Roads, they come in from everywhere.

SOME CAME FROM AS FAR AWAY AS ARLINGTON, VA

Liam Thornhill
13 years old
Boxing for 2 years
-it was a long drive, about 3 hours, yeah

FOR MOST OF THE BOXERS, THIS WAS THEIR FIRST TIME AGAINST AN OPPONENT THAT ACTUALLY FOUGHT BACK.....

NATS--FIGHTING

Robert Matney
-These kids can't punch air forever and they need to learn that competitive spirit and good sportsmanship.

Chris Alexander
15 years old/welterweight
Norfolk
-it feels good to see who's the best out of all

Liam Thornhill
13 years old
Boxing for 2 years
-I'm a bit nervous, but its ok.

Gloria Peek
-for these kids it means everything. Even the ones that its their first bout, ok, they look, I mean some of them train for months and months to get here.

WITH 85% OF BOXING TIME ACTUALLY SPENT TRAINING FOR MATCHES, WHY DO THESE KIDS CHOOSE THIS SPORT OVER MORE POPULAR SPORTS LIKE BASKETBALL, BASEBALL OR FOOTBALL?

Mohsen Mohammed
10 Years Old
Arlington Boxing Club
54:04 I really like Muhammed Ali and I thought it would be pretty cool so I started doing boxing.

Chris Alexander
51:57 when I be in school, I'm like, a bully, so my teacher told me I need to start boxing, so I started boxing.

Our numbers are growing and there's been a really big push to get it out there what usa boxing is all about. Its all about sportsmanship, dedication, discipline, the kind of core values we're looking for to bring out kids up into adults.



SBHR
 

SABOR Hampton Roads

http://www.saborhr.com/boxing.cfm

Pure Athleticism: Up Close, In Your Faceboxing1.jpg
By Sherrie Pilkington

What do you get when you mix one part original Olympian sport, consisting of pure, natural hand-to-hand combat, toss in a dose of determined young men and women, and set it on an amazing platform of competition? When the bell sounds you get Virginia's 69th Annual Golden Gloves Championships at the Virginia Beach Convention Center March 28-30. Where sacrifice, commitment, and dedication meet and the brutal assault of leather is a small price to pay on the journey to a Virginia State Championship and a step closer to competing for a National Title.

In its 85-year history, The Golden Gloves has operated with the belief "It's better to build boys, than mend men". Staying true to their motto bears the fruit of past Golden Glove Champions such as Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Leonard. The reputation of offering youth a positive experience by building character, physical stamina and communication skills, has garnered this sporting event the endorsements of Governor Tim Kaine, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf.

One of the local gyms participating in The Golden Gloves is Seven Cities Boxing Club, owned and operated by Robert Matney. Matney's passion for boxing is evident in his level of dedication, the work ethic of his facility, and the connection he has with his students.

Matney, an Irishman from Kansas City, MO, made his way to Virginia Beach via the military, retiring as Navy Chief after 12 years of service. For the last 10 years he has enjoyed boxing and maintains his involvement on many levels. Along with all the responsibilities of running a gym, training elite competitors and mentoring youth, he currently holds the elected position of President of the Virginia Association of U.S.A. Boxing and is a representative for The Golden Gloves. His coaching responsibilities include the East Coast Navy Boxing Squad and the Navy Seals.

Seven Cities charges a monthly gym fee of $60, but requires no membership contracts Competitors must register with USA Boxing, which has an annual renewal fee of $40.

While Matney's gym might not hit you hard in the wallet, you will get hit hard in the ring. As stated on Matney's website, the minimum standard accepted at this training facility is an Olympic-Style method of boxing where "training sessions are brutal and sparring is at the highest level possible without actually being in combat."

One local young man who is not afraid of the challenge is 17-year-old, Bayside High School Senior, Rigo Rivera. Rivera and his two brothers, Noe, 9, and Diego, 7, log three-hour workouts Mondays thru Thursdays. Noe and Diego envision soccer eventually becoming a priority, but Rigo only wants to box. "My father didn't want me boxing at first. But when he saw how much I liked watching it on television, he let me try it and this is all I want to do," Rigo said.

Although Rigo enjoys playing soccer for his school, it's the cardio workout that he appreciates. "The hardest part about boxing is staying in shape," Rigo added. "I can stay away from sodas and junk food but I can't say no to my mom's cooking. It's good."

Classified as a Lightweight, Rigo has been boxing for four years and has 15 fights under his belt. At the gym, Rigo and the other athletes willingly adhere to Matney's strenuous demands, not out of fear, but because they know he cares. "When I'm doing bad, he'll tell me it's bad. He only wants to make me better," Rigo said. "He's like a second father to me." The bond between coach and athlete is further rooted because Matney has an ear for listening and a heart for toting his team up and down the road for weekend competitions

If you have what it takes to "train with a team of warriors, whose never-ending quest for hardcore levels of conditioning, thirst for learning and a desire to be number one, are the essence of greatness" then stop by Seven Cities Boxing Club at the oceanfront. If you're looking to experience the intense atmosphere of victory and defeat, come to the Virginia Beach Convention Center and cheer on the local boy Rigo Rivera as he chases his dream of becoming the Lightweight Virginia Champion, bringing him step closer to a National title.

www.7citiesboxing.org
www.vausaboxing.org

7 PM FRIDAY/SATURDAY, 28-29 MARCH 08 & 1 PM SUNDAY, 30 MARCH 08

Doors open at 6 PM and 12 PM respectively.

General Admission: Friday/Saturday -$20 (Adult over 12 years) $15 (Child 12 and under)

Sunday- $10 (Adult over 12 years) $5 (Child 12 and under)

All Event Pass $40 Adult $20 Child

Children under 6 Free

VIP Seating: Call Lara Rabi for pricing and seating info (757) 650-6088



PilotMH
 

Kellam wrestler gets his kicks boxing opponents around The Virginian-Pilot

Video by Chic Riebel 01/17/2008

Mike Holcomb is not only a reigning state wrestling champion, the 125-pound Kellam senior is also ranked No. 1 nationally by three kick-boxing organizations. Down the road, this tough little dude hopes to earn a college scholarship in wrestling and perhaps move on to Ultimate Fighting Championships, the ultra-popular mixed-martial arts pro circuit.



NT
 

All Navy Boxing Trials Punch Their Way into Hampton Roads
Story Number: NNS071120-10
11/20/2007

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (AW/SW) Flor Valerio, Fleet Public Affairs Center, Atlantic

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The All Navy Boxing Team held trials Nov. 17-18 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek for athletes with prior or current boxing experience.

Based in California, the team hopes to train qualified Navy boxers from the East Coast to represent the Navy at the Armed Forces Championship scheduled for February 2008.

"We are at a rebuilding phase for the team and this initiative is to let the fleet know that we are actively looking for Navy boxers," said George Sylva, the All Navy Boxing Team head coach. "The Navy Boxing Team allows Sailors to come and try out for the boxing camp, which starts Dec. 1 in California."

About 15 Sailors came out to test their skills and talent in boxing.

Electrician's Mate 2nd Class (SW) Jessie Owens from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), who has been training for three years, was the only female Sailor who came to try out.

"Navy boxing gives me an opportunity to represent the Navy and my ship in competitions against the other services, as well as represent female boxers," said Owens who sparred with a male counterpart during the try outs.

Throughout Navy history, Navy boxing has produced champions from both officers and enlisted personnel.

"Fleet championships were held aboard battleships and the Navy has had a lot of champions that tried to compete among other Armed Forces," said Robert Matney, East Coast Boxing squad coach. "The rebuilding effort is to bring back a great history of Navy boxing, and it is a great recruiting tool for the Navy."

The athletes chosen for the team will attend the training camp at Port Hueneme, Calif., for eight weeks to prepare for the Armed Forces Championships.

Those who prevail at the championships will represent the United States in the World Armed Forces Championships.

For more news from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, visit navcms.news.navy.mil/local/nablc/.



EGHOF
 

HRAASHF Inductees

The Hampton Roads African-American Sports Hall of Fame recognizes African American athletes who were born, spent formative years, or participated in athletics in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

Earnest Green began boxing at the age of 12 years old and won a number of Air Force championships in the middleweight and lightweight classes during the period 1948-1949. After his retirement, he became an official and instructor for the American Boxing Association and USA boxing respectively.  He has traveled as a professional judge throughout the United States, as well as, South Africa, Italy, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 1980 Green was appointed boxing instructor by USA Boxing of Virginia and four years later he became a member of the International Boxing Commission. In 1990, he was appointed president of USA Boxing of Virginia, serving for six and a half years.


From 1996-2000, Green was the Chief Official for USA Boxing, in charge of training new officials, and certification of officials and coaches.

Earnest Green also has been a referee and judge at the Olympic Training Center in Denver, CO. He is the only master boxing official in the state of Virginia and is certified to officiate anywhere in the United States. Green, 80, resides in Chesapeake, Virginia.

See the ful article at http://www.nsuspartans.com/news/2007/9/13/17502797.aspx?path=wten



NVYBX
 

By John Streit

Correspondent

Robert Matney pored over a table laden with nearly century-old photographs, his eyes surveying snapshots fro m an era when the words "Navy" and "boxing" were synonymous.

"I don't foresee getting crowds like this again," the retired Navy chief said.

"But this is the importance. In this picture right here, here's the Secretary of the Navy at a boxing event handing out an award. You wouldn't see that right now."

In many of the photos, thousands of sailors looked on as Navy boxers battled in the ring at fleet championships or a camp's weekly bout.

While Matney doesn't expect a total reversal to the interest Navy boxing drew in the early 20th century, the Virginia Beach man is putting the wheels in motion to ensure this rich tradition sees a revival in the near future.

The boxing coach and Virginia Association of U.S.A. Boxing's president-elect is spearheading an effort to establish bi-coastal Navy boxing squads in Hampton Roads and San Diego, the nation's two regions with the highest concentrations of sailors.

With the hopes of cultivating talent in a year-round training program similar to the Army's World Class Athletic Program, Matney envisions the bi-coastal squads bringing the Navy back into armed forces boxing prominence.

Although the boxing program has been in steady decline for decades, since 1994, when the All-Navy Boxing Team left Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, the Navy has regularly placed fourth at the Armed Forces Boxing Championships.

The reason in Matney's eyes: The All-Navy team trains for just two months at Port Hueneme, Calif., prior to the Armed Forces championships. But programs such as the Army's pair their talent with world-class coach Basheer Abdullah for year-round training. In recent years, the Navy has also failed to field a team large enough to fill out all 11 weight classes.

By placing the teams in San Diego and Hampton Roads, however, more sailors will be able to dedicate their free time to year-round training.

"If I'm the captain of a ship, and I've only got 300 sailors, if I lose this guy here to go play some sports all year round, I could be losing a critical sailor," Matney said.

"But (by having the bi-coastal squads), they don't have to leave their command. They can stay at their command, and on their off-time, on their liberty hours, be in this squad. So if they have duty days, if they to leave on deployment, if they got two weeks to go out to sea to do some training, the Navy comes first and off they go," he explained.

Matney also believes it will open up more opportunities for Navy boxers to participate in the maximum amount of bouts in a year - a key to cultivating success.

"To win, you have to be able to train hard and fight often," Matney said. "That's the paramount thing to winning."

Recently, Matney's efforts have turned the corner.

He hosted the East Coast Navy Boxing Trials from Nov. 8 to 10 at Little Creek, which saw four area boxers qualify for the All-Navy team. Three of those boxers were Matney trainees.

"The more we start showing sailors winning, the more attention we'll get from the higher-ups," Matney said.

While Matney said he has the support of Navy Sports director Donald Golden in moving forward with organizing the teams, he's run into some obstacles from Navy officials skeptical of his intentions.

"I've gotten, 'Oh, you're trying to drum up business for your gym,' " said Matney, who runs Seven Cities Boxing Club at the Oceanfront. "And I'm like, 'No, no, no. If you guys give me a place on the base, we'll train these dudes on the base. I'll clean out these ships; I'll get these guys training."

Matney insists that it's his lifelong dedication to the Navy that has sent him on the quest.

"I still feel ownership over these sailors," Matney said. "I'm dedicated to these guys, and I'm dedicated to getting Navy boxing back to where it belongs.

"That's part of being a chief. And when you're a chief; you worry about your troops."

Those in the Navy with boxing interest and/or experience can call Robert Matney at 962-5694 or 439-6357.

 

John Streit, 639-4805 or

vb.beaconsports@yahoo.com



GE
  Gold Eagle" Sailors to Compete on All Navy Boxing Team
Story Number: NNS071217-08
Release Date: 12/17/2007 2:52:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Philip Schrickel, USS Carl Vinson Public Affairs

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (NNS) -- Two Sailors from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), the "Gold Eagle," were selected Nov. 10 to compete in the 2008 all-military boxing championship to be held in February 2008 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Both Gold Eagle Sailors, Damage Controlman Fireman Tom Dooley and Machinery Repairman Fireman Michael Hal, began boxing as teenagers and have worked on honing their fighting skills ever since.

"I want to sharpen my technique in the ring, so I've really intensified my training and conditioning," said Hal. "I plan to push myself physically and mentally, so I'm ready for my competition when I get to Lackland."

Both Sailors credit their experiences in the Navy for their mental toughness in the ring. Additionally, they both say serving in the Navy has enabled them to come closer to their dream of boxing professionally one day.

"I want my performance to reflect positively on the opportunities the Navy has given me to train as a boxer," said Dooley. "More importantly, I want to show the other branches how much talent the Navy has in its corner."

The athletes will attend the Navy's training camp at Port Hueneme, Calif. for eight weeks to prepare for the Armed Forces Championship. While Hal and Dooley agree their training and preparations will be long and arduous, both Sailors are looking forward to the challenge.

"Nothing about our training will be easy," said Hal. "But I'm confident that both of us will do well, because we both have the drive and discipline to succeed."

Carl Vinson is currently undergoing its scheduled refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) at Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard.

For more news from USS Carl Vinson, visit
www.news.navy.mil/local/cvn70/.



DP
 

Whatever happened to ... Beach boxer with the Olympic dream?

© November 5, 2007
Pete Cobraiti watches his compet ition during an exhibition fight in Norfolk in 2003. He still harbors his Olympic dream, despite missing the cut for the 2004 team.

(CHRIS TYREE file photo | THE VIRGINIAN PILOT)

By Tony Germanotta
The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH

The Cobra missed his chance to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing team by just 2 pounds.

That's how much Pete Cobraiti had to lose just before a qualifying fight to hit his weight class.

He jumped rope for two hours, sweated off the 32 ounces, then entered the ring. Already a long shot at age 29, he said he just didn't have the endurance in the later rounds.

Now the former Beach resident is training hard and hoping for a spot on the 2008 Olympic team. He's determined to win the New York and Virginia Golden Gloves tournaments and a chance again to compete at the Olympic trials.

The Cobra doesn't give up easily. It's a trait developed the hardest way. When he was 5, Cobraiti's mother was murdered. He was taken in by a foster family, who helped him channel his anger through martial arts training.

Cobraiti would eventually join the Navy in hopes of getting on the Little Creek boxing team. He was stationed on an aircraft carrier. So he entered a tournament against orders and got himself discharged in 2001.

He was living in Virginia Beach, life guarding at a pool, when trainer Ron Hagar rescued his boxing dreams.

Cobraiti won the Virginia Golden Gloves at 132 pounds in 2003 and a chance to fight in a national competition in Ohio that could have earned him a spot on the Olympic Team trials.

But he tried to compete in the 125-pound class, "which I shouldn't have done," he now admits. Cobraiti weighed in that day at 127, and the two extra pounds were too much for him to overcome, he said.

The rope jumping left him drained.

"I was done," he said. "I had the skills, I had the strength, but it just wasn't my day."

Co braiti now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and studies at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan to be a physician assistant. He trains at boxing's legendary Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, and helps his foster brother Paul Mormando at his martial arts school there. Cobraiti also teaches fitness classes for kids.

Every Friday, Co braiti climbs into a car and drives to Virginia Beach to continue training with Roger Belch at the Dog Pound Boxing gym.

Next month, The Cobra will try to win the New York Golden Gloves contest and then the Virginia Golden Gloves, but at 141 pounds.

He's stopped entering martial arts contests in the interim to concentrate on his Olympics dream.

"This is my last shot," he said. The Olympics have a 34-year-old age limit in boxing.

He knows it will be a tough race, but don't look for him to give up now.

"If I play the cards right, I have a shot," he said on the phone before heading off to teach a fitness class, " But it's going to be harder this time."

Tony Germanotta, (757) 222-5113, tony.germanotta@pilotonline.com



GP
 

Female boxing coach keeps her boys in line

Gloria Peek watches as her boxers work on the punching bags at the Barraud Park gym in Norfolk. Peek says she runs the gym like a family; her fighters respect her as a surrogate mother.

(Bill Tiernan photos/TheVirginian-Pilot)

By Ed Miller
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK - Gloria Peek, all of 5-foot-4, steps between a pair of sparring boxers a head taller and young enough to be her grandsons. It's a potentially hazardous move - for the fighters, who have failed to heed her command to stop punching.

"When I say stop, what does that mean?" Peek asks one of them, her voice rising.

"Stop," he mutters.

"What does that mean?" she wheels and asks the other.

"Stop," he says.

Peek wears a T-shirt that reads: "Boxing is life. Roll with the Punches." But she can't abide what she's been watching. The sparring session has been sloppier than a spit bucket in the 12th round. One fighter has been flailing wildly, the other clinging like a marathon dancer at 3 a.m.

"You cannot fight out of anger," she tells the overly aggressive one, her eyes boring in on his, which are framed by leather headgear. "If you do, you'll get hit all the time."

He would, too, if only his opponent were not too winded to hold up his gloves.

"Remember all that running we do?" she says. "That's why we do it. You need to do all that running and then some."

It's a Wednesday night at Norfolk's Barraud Park gym, but this could be any inner-city boxing gym in the country. You know the story: A tough-love coach provides a haven from the streets, drills the risk out of at-risk kids, and replaces it with discipline, purpose, a sense of belonging.

The difference is that this tough-love coach happens to be a 55-year-old woman who started in boxing - training male fighters and running her own gyms - when women just didn't do those things.

She is already a pioneer and may break new ground yet. Peek is on the short list of candidates for two assistant coaching positions on the 2008 men's Olympic team.

"The elite boxers know her," Olympic coach Dan Campbell said. "She doesn't really have to prove herself."

That's a change. Girls didn't box in Rochester, N.Y., or anywhere else, when Peek was growing up there, dying to sink a left hook into somebody. She fell in love with the sport watching "Friday Night Fights" with her dad.

She found other ways to exercise her wild streak. One night, in a boozy haze, she broke into a doctor's office. Not that she remembered the next day, but she was told that when the police came, she invited them to join the party. She was 17.

Seeing few other ways out of her Rochester housing project, she joined the Navy. There, amused sailors would allow the slight hospital corpsman to hit their heavy bag. They stopped chuckling when one of her shots knocked the bag off its chain.

"Leverage," she explains 35 years later, when the accuracy of her story is gently questioned. "I've seen 132-pounders knock out heavyweights."

Born too soon to be a contender, Peek finished her four-year hitch, returned to Rochester and found work in maximum-security juvenile corrections, a good gig for someone with a strong sense of self and a voice that rattles windows..

"You get folks who killed people," she said. "You'd better be able to stand your ground."

After a couple of years locking kids up, Peek reasoned that starting a boxing program might prevent more of them from ending up in the kinds of places she worked.

First, she needed some ring-won credibility. She headed to a local gym and got the kind of reception Hilary Swank did when she walked into Clint Eastwood's gym in "Million Dollar Baby." Only this was 1977, not 2004, and nobody as easily won over as Eastwood worked there.

She kept coming back. Finally, they let her in, figuring the men would run her out.

The plan backfired. Training led to sparring. In her early sessions, her male opponents were told to go easy on her. After a while, that advice would get a guy hurt.

Peek hung fliers in a recreation center announcing the formation of a boxing program. She sat in the bleachers and waited to see who would show. About 20 boys drifted in while she sat silently.

"Hey, lady, when is the boxing coach getting here?" one of them said. "We're not going to wait all day."

Peek stood up, blew her whistle and the seeds of what would become Rochester's Montgomery Boxing Club - named for the Alabama city that was on the front lines of the civil rights movement - were planted.

Peek didn't just have to be as good as male coaches; she had to be better. Before one of her first national bouts, a coach looked over look over in the opposite corner and scoffed.

"He told his fighter, 'Man, we got this,' " Peek recalled. " 'I know doggone well she couldn't teach him anything.' "

The coach, Basheer Abdullah, apologized after Peek's boxer rocked his. Abdullah went on to coach the U.S. Olympic team in 2004.

Peek rose in the amateur coaching ranks, too, and became a go-to person in Rochester on youth issues, a surrogate mom for the kids amateur boxing attracted - "the misfits, the ones nobody wants, the ones out there floundering," she says.

In 2000, she took her New York State pension and escaped the snow belt for Virginia, where a brother lived. Last year, she left Richmond to take over a Norfolk boxing program started by Campbell but on wobbly legs after nearly a year without a director.

Enter Peek, human smelling salts. On most nights, she presides over 15 or 20 boxers - neighborhood kids and sailors, male and female, black and white - her bullhorn voice cutting through the din.

"Get your hands up!"

"If you're tough enough to stay, stay. If your heart pumps strawberry Kool-Aid, leave!"

"Slip and catch those punches; don't run!"

"You call those push-ups?"

Boxer Richard Williams searched for the right way to describe Peek's style.

"What's the word you look for, for somebody staying on top of you?" said Williams, 22. "That's her."

Back at the gym on a Friday morning, Peek brushes past a heavy bag on the way to her office, formerly a storage room with a rubber floor where fighters skipped rope. She pulled up the floor, painted and hung pictures on cinder-block walls, and transformed the space into a model of bright, spare efficiency. Her desk at one end, a small meeting table and chairs at the other. A microwave and mini-fridge. A VCR and monitor on a rolling cart. Not a paper out of place.

Men don't mind stepping over things, she explains. Women are different.

Out in the gym, 18 leather gloves, opened at the mouth to air out, line one edge of the ring. The trash cans are empty, the mirrors smudge-free, the floor mopped of the sweat Peek had extracted from a dozen young men and women the night before.

"People think you can only train boxers in dirty, nasty gyms," she says. "That's bull. I've coached ranked fighters and none of my gyms has ever been dirty."

Peek wears a shirt laced like a boxing glove, with a heavy clump of keys looping out of the hip pocket of her shorts. She pops a videotape in her VCR, one of many TV news features from Rochester. It shows her training boxers in ballet, another of her loves. She made the connection between boxing and dance on a trip to New York City to see "The Nutcracker" nearly 50 years ago.

On her office bulletin board is a photo of Peek with Oscar De La Hoya. The Golden Boy trained in her Rochester gym for a week in 1993. Another photo shows Peek with Chris Byrd, a one-time IBF heavyweight champion.

Yet, Peek is not much interested in pro boxing or the image and credibility issues it faces. She prefers the amateur game - "a good, clean sport that provides a lot for the individual if they partake of it," she says.

Photos of partakers line her office walls. There's Peek with smiling Olympians, Peek with national teams on overseas trips, Peek with her Rochester kids.

The photo that probably provides the best summation of her career - and her sparring hard and soft sides - is a black-and-white shot hanging on the inside of her door. It shows an exhausted and much-younger Peek slumped over her desk at a maximum-security detention center for teenage boys. Her forehead rests on her desk, which has a name plate that misspells her name as "Peeks."

The letters were burned into the wood by kids serving time for murder, rape, armed robbery. She didn't have the heart to tell them they'd gotten it wrong and left it there for years.

Peek mentions often that she runs her gym like a family. It's an important point to her. Unlike most gyms, it's a matriarchy, and several fighters say that exerts a different kind of pull on them.

Who wants to disappoint their mom? Curse in front of her? Disrespect her? Have her tell them they aren't welcome at home anymore because they've broken her rules?

"It makes for more discipline," says Denzel Simmons, 26. "Everyone turns to listen when their mom is talking to them."

Keith Robertson, a 19-year-old heavyweight, agrees. Peek was his commanding officer at Beaumont Juvenile Correction Center near Richmond, where he said he did time for robbery and where she worked for a time. He's been trying to do the right thing since his release, and that means coming to the gym and doing what it takes to stay there.

It's safer than the alternative. A month ago on the streets of South Norfolk, he was shot in the arm.

"She gives us that mother love," Robertson said. "When you come over to the corner and you've won, it's like you've done something for your mother. It's the best feeling in the world."

And when you've let mom down? Even heavyweights can be reduced to groveling.

Peek is sitting in her office when the phone rings. It's clear that one of the family has gone astray.

"You called, and said you were late getting out of bed. I told you to come down anyway. But you didn't show up," she says.

She pauses to listen, with the impatient air of someone who's heard this story before.

"When I tell you I'm going to do something, what do I do?" she asks.

There's a brief response.

"Your word is all you have. It's your word that will carry you in this world."

She listens again, and her tone softens.

"OK. Obviously, I haven't given up on you yet."

She tells him they'll talk next week, when she returns from a trip.

"If you're doing good, I'm the first one there to hug you and congratulate you and support you," she says after hanging up. "If you're doing bad, I'm the first one there to jack you up, but I'm not going to throw you away. "

Peek says that at USA boxing camps, male coaches tell her she can get fighters to do things they can't. There's none of that clash of male egos.

Might the power of motherly persuasion be put to use in pursuit of Olympic gold? Campbell says Peek is as qualified as any man to coach the Olympic team. She has worked punch mitts with the fastest and most powerful amateurs in the country, something not all coaches have the hand speed to do.

Peek has coached in the women's world championships, but a spot on the Olympic coaching staff would be the crowning achievement of her career, as well as a first for women in the sport. She jokingly calls boxing "the last great domain of men" and is eager to kick down one last door.

"I want to coach the men," she said. "Because I started with the men."

She knows the men. She knows the particular pain of getting hollowed out by a body shot from one of USA's finest. Back in Rochester, she was working the mitts with one of her elite prospects, a light heavyweight, when he misfired and caught her with a whistling hook to the body.

It felt like she'd been cut in half. She dropped to a knee. Only pride kept her from going all the way down.

She composed herself, put up her hands and got on with it. She had fought for years for the right to be cut in half by a light heavyweight.

"Oh, yes," Campbell says over the phone, laughing. "Gloria can fight."

  • Reach Ed Miller at 446-2372 or ed.miller@pilotonline.com




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