Youth Gym in a Fight for Survival : Austerity: An Oxnard boxing center in a working-class neighborhood could be the victim of city budget cuts.

From the outside, La Colonia Youth Boxing Center in Oxnard doesn’t look like much. But the single-story, stucco building on First Street in the heart of La Colonia, a gritty, working-class neighborhood with one of the city’s highest crime rates, is bursting with energy.

On any given day the gym is crammed with up to 50 sweaty youths, beating on punching bags, skipping rope, shadowboxing and sparring with one another.

The gym is so popular with the neighborhood’s mostly Latino boys that Martin Noriega, the gym’s director, said he regularly turns away young boxing hopefuls who are willing to pay the $3-a-month fee to join the gym.

“Right now we are understaffed so we can’t take any more,” said Noriega, who runs the gym with the help of trainer Eduardo Garcia.

Because of a city budget crunch, city officials said they cannot afford to expand the gym or hire more trainers. In fact, the gym, which operates on an annual budget of about $50,000, is on a list of city services that the City Council will consider for budget cuts in June.

“The city’s resources are such that we are unable to expand the gym,” said Parks and Recreation Director Gary Davis. “It’s a wonderful program. It is well received and they have produced some good boxers.”

In order to help balance an anticipated $1.8-million deficit in the 1990-91 budget, the City Council will consider about $500,000 in cuts from the Parks and Recreation budget alone, he said. The list of potential budget cuts also includes the Carnegie Art Museum, which costs the city about $175,000 to operate annually.

Last year, city officials discovered that estimates of revenue for the 1988-89 fiscal year were about $2 million too high. It was also disclosed that the city had exceeded its 1988-89 budget by $850,000.

Davis said the gym’s budget pays for the maintenance of the building and the salaries of Noriega and Garcia.

Noriega said he fears the gym will be the first cut on the council’s budget chopping block.

“If they eliminate this they are going to take away from the area where it is needed the most,” Noriega said.

The gym’s equipment, including three speed bags, several heavy punching bags and a time-worn ring, were purchased with money the boxers earned at fund-raisers and monthly boxing shows at the Oxnard Elks Lodge, Noriega said.

Morale at the gym suffered another blow last week, when four of the gym’s top boxers were forced to cancel plans to compete in the regional Golden Gloves boxing tournament in Los Angeles.

Noriega, who has taken a team of boxers to the tournament each year for the past five years, is recovering from back surgery and was unable to drive the team to the fights.

Last year, when Noriega took four boxers to the tournament, all four won the championships in their weight division, he said. One boxer won the state title in the 132-pound category, he said.

“So, yeah, the boxers were disappointed,” said Noriega, who learned to box as a youngster, but never competed as an amateur or a professional.

Boxers between the ages of 8 and 16 are allowed in the gym between 4 and 5:30 p.m. Boxers over 16 use the gym after 5:30 p.m.

During a recent visit to the gym, the walls were lined with young men doing jumping jacks and stretching exercises, while others worked out with jump ropes and speed bags. The smell of sweat and the sound of boys pounding punching bags and skipping rope filled the room.

Inside the ring, two young boys wearing large red gloves and head gear traded jabs while several older boxers looked on and shouted encouragement. The boys fought furiously and then listened to instructions from Noriega and Garcia between rounds.

Twelve-year-old Fernando Chavez said he spends every afternoon in the gym working on his boxing skills in hopes of some day becoming a world champion.

Aside from learning how to throw an effective uppercut and a stinging jab, Fernando said he has learned “how to get along with others and how to be able to follow instructions.”

Fernando said that if it was not for the gym he would be “sitting at home, watching TV and falling asleep.”

Rolando Reyes, 11, said he has attended the gym for three years and hopes to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Julio Cesar Chavez, an undefeated Mexican boxer who has been champion in three weight classes since 1984.

Rolando said that since he became a regular at the gym he no longer eats candy and other junk food.

“I learned how to get in shape,” he said.

Noriega said his biggest challenge is trying to provide each young boxer with some personal instruction and encouragement.

“I’ve got a lot of kids that because we could not give them attention they get discouraged and leave,” he said. “I see them on the streets later.”

Garcia, whose two sons, Robert, 15, and Daniel, 23, learned to box at La Colonia gym, agreed. “There are kids that if they had more attention would go much further,” he said.

Daniel Garcia, who began boxing at the gym when it first opened 11 years ago, said he became a professional boxer at the age of 17 and now has a record of 14 victories and four defeats.

Garcia, who still trains at La Colonia with his father and brother, said he doesn’t mind the overcrowding at the gym but believes many of the boys could become good professional boxers if they had more supervision.

“There are a lot of kids here that have a possibility of making it,” he said.