Unfortunately, a lot of coaches don’t know a left hook from a coat hangar

Jesse Valdez works the night shift at a local television station as a cameraman. His shift lasts until 11:30 p.m., but seven hours later Valdez is back at work, teaching “boxercise” to downtown executives and lawyers at an exclusive health club. After class, the 41-year-old former Olympic medalist goes back to his Lemon Grove home, where he and his wife tutor their two sons in “home school.” Times staff writer Leslie Wolf interviewed Valdez at the San Diego Athletic Club, and Vince Compagnone photographed him.

Istarted boxing at the age of 11. Before that I was into gangs and stealing and just getting into trouble. I came from a family of seven, and grew up in the ghettos of Houston. It seemed like I was always beating everybody up. I wasn’t the smartest kid in the world, but I had common sense. I knew I didn’t like the situation I was in and it was wrong, so I decided to get out of it.

I used to take the bus to the Boys’ Club, and they always had gloves and a mat out. Eventually, I got into the Houston Golden Gloves, and I boxed a guy better than I was. He literally beat me to a pulp. That was the first and last time my mom ever saw me box.

I started getting better, winning the regional Golden Gloves. In 1964, I went to the state tournament in Ft. Worth. I won at 15 years old. You had to be 16 to compete, but I lied about my age. I went on to the Las Vegas national tournament at 16. In the final match in Vegas, I fought a medal-winner in the 1960 Olympics, and not only did I beat him, I was voted the outstanding boxer of the whole tournament. It just took off from there.

In 1967, I went on to win a berth at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, where I won a bronze. In 1968, I tried out for the Olympics in Mexico City and won a berth in the trials but lost to a guy from San Diego. I was frustrated. I decided 1972 was going to be a do-or-die year, and that year I went on to the Olympics and won a bronze.

As I was growing up, people were always saying, “Jesse, you got to go to school and get an education.” In high school, I had a coach who got his college, Howard Payne College in Brownwood, Tex., to start a boxing team. Well, guess what? I got a boxing scholarship, and I was the whole boxing team.

I left college there and went to Southwestern in Houston, where I started working for a civil courts judge. He was like a father to me. He arranged for me to be his bailiff, so I could go to school and study in his courtroom.

After the Olympics, everybody wanted to help me out. The judge knew a news director in Texas, and they figured I was a hometown boy and would attract a large percentage of the Hispanic population. So they said, “Let’s make a reporter out of him.”

Well, I was a reporter for six weeks. I didn’t know a pencil from a pen. They gave me two weeks to learn the business, to learn what people have gone to college four years to learn. Not only that, I couldn’t type. I started drinking, I couldn’t control it. I started getting pretty bad. After six weeks, I said to the boss, “I don’t like being a reporter.” I was ready to quit, but they’d already invested some time and money in me, so they asked if I would try being a cameraman. So I got into camera work and learned the business. Channel 10 picked me up in 1976, and I’ve been there ever since.

I started teaching the boxercise classes about a year and a half ago. I started off with two or three people. As the days and weeks progressed, more people started coming in. Now, I have about 15 to 30 people in each class, mostly attorneys and corporate people. It’s a good cardiovascular workout and a good stress reliever. This is a unique program--it’s basically geared for men, but I do have one woman in the class, and she hits harder than several of the men in the class.

This all started as a whim. When I first started doing it, I didn’t realize it was going to be as big as it is. The way I teach it, it’s a non-contact sport--the thrills and frills without the spills. I don’t let anyone box against each other. I put on a head and body pad and let them punch on me.

When I teach someone, they’re going to learn properly. My executives look better than some professionals, as far as style. Unfortunately, a lot of coaches don’t know a left hook from a coat hanger. They teach these young kids, and they get hurt. That’s always been my gripe with professional boxing.