Teen set to duke it out in club boxing league

Of all the things you might discover while walking around a high school campus, whether it’s a science lab filled with computers or an art classroom lined with sculptures, nobody would ever expect to see a full-size boxing ring, complete with ropes, a foam-padded floor and a bell.

But there one sits, inside the multipurpose room at Woodland Hills Taft.

Teenage boxers dressed in Taft’s gold and red school colors are whaling away at each other, punching with 10- and 12-ounce gloves at opponents protected by headgear as fans cheer loudly from the metal chairs that surround the ring.

It’s Friday night boxing at Taft, and it could be coming to a high school near you.

The fledgling K.O. High Boxing League, perhaps the first of its kind in the nation, gets started in March, with Taft, Granada Hills, Lake Balboa Birmingham, Encino Crespi, Venice and Los Angeles Dorsey ready to train boxers and send them to events certified by USA Boxing.

Mark Pierce, the dean of students at Taft and a former amateur boxer, created the club league in an attempt to give at-risk students a chance to gain discipline and self-esteem.

He began training two students a year ago. This year, after purchasing a boxing ring, the Taft boxing club has more than 20 participants. Other schools are starting clubs, with coaches certified by USA Boxing.

“It was a way for me to make connections and find out the needs of these kids,” Pierce said. “ ‘What can we do to get you to come to school?’ ”

On the night of the City Section’s football championships two weeks ago, Taft played host to a boxing night, during which seven team members took on amateur boxers from the area, each fight going three rounds of two minutes. The sense of excitement and the feelings of accomplishment came through loud and clear.

Nancy Cabral, a Taft senior and one of four girls on the team, had been hanging out with the wrong people and had spent time in juvenile hall. The demands of boxing, from training to competing, have helped her gain a new outlook.

“It’s a sport to get you out of trouble,” she said. “Maybe I can help other kids on the street.”

John Saldana, a junior from Duarte who drove in for the bouts, talked proudly of how his grades have improved and his temper has subsided since he started to box.

“I used to get mad real quick,” he said. “It’s calmed me down. You got to have somewhere to put your anger. You keep it in the gym.”

Victor Valenzuela, who trains Saldana and has 20 to 30 teenagers working out at a Duarte teen center, said his students used to joke about having “only one or two fails” on their report cards.

“I told them, ‘That’s got to change,’ ” he said. “They thought they were doing good. Now, none of them get Fs.”

As an incentive to help academic performance, if a bout ends in a draw, the boxer who has the higher grade-point average will be awarded the victory in the K.O. Boxing League. Medals will be handed out, along with trophies.

Before bouts, fighters must pass a weigh-in and are checked out by a USA Boxing-certified doctor. Coaches and matches are covered by insurance, and Los Angeles police officers are present to provide security.

At Taft, boxers must come to school the day of an event dressed in a shirt and tie. Some hadn’t worn a tie since their junior high graduation.

Matt King, a Taft senior and former football player, laughed when a friend greeted him by saying, “I’m here to see you get knocked out.”

King, who is 6 feet 3 and 235 pounds, said, “You got to beat up a person you barely know. That’s the weird part ... and the fun part.”

King is considered a good student who stays out of trouble and serves as an example to his boxing teammates.

“I try to steer them in the right direction,” he said. “It’s a good way to relieve stress and anger.”

At Crespi, an all-boys Catholic school in Encino, 10 students joined the team this month to begin training for their first bouts in March. One of them, freshman Jordan Klein, is 5-5 and weighs 100 pounds.

Why in the name of common sense does someone his size want to stand in a ring and hit somebody?

“It just seemed interesting to me,” he said. “The running is hard and the coach is tough. You get to learn how to defend yourself. “

Marvin Columbus, who helps train Taft’s boxers and is helping organize the league, said the response “has been incredible” in terms of student interest from several of the schools scheduled to participate.

And Taft could have the best boxer of all in junior Marcello Isaac, a 155-pound 16-year-old whom Columbus is touting as a future Olympic champion.

Teenagers competing in boxing is not a new concept. There are more than 100 clubs in Southern California, with lots of teenage participation.

During the 1930s and 1940s, several high schools in Los Angeles engaged in boxing competitions. But nowadays, high schools are barred from sanctioning boxing teams as an interscholastic sport under California Interscholastic Federation rules.

Pierce is working around the CIF rules by organizing under a club format, and Joe Sanders, president of USA Boxing in Southern California, is thrilled.

“It’s the kind of thing that’s needed in sports,” Sanders said.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.