Fighting the Good Fight : In Gang-Ridden Area, Boxers in a Church Gym Dream of Glory

Only blocks from some of the city’s worst gang-infested neighborhoods, youths have been finding their way to a dank gymnasium set in a converted church kitchen.

Inside, the air smells of stale sweat, and time is kept by the rhythm of jabs on a heavy bag. For 12-year-old identical twins Carlos and Angel Rodarte, the Anaheim Boxing Club is where they dream of future glory of the sort now enjoyed by their ring hero, Julio Cesar Chavez. It is also a refuge for kids like 15-year-old Peter Aguirre, who credits coaches at the city-funded club for showing him the way back to Anaheim High School after his involvement in a knife fight last summer bounced him from the classroom.

“Coming here, I feel more organized,” said Aguirre, whose furious fists have already won him a silver medal in national competition and the right to compete for a Junior Olympic title.

Coaches and city officials like to refer to the club as a speck of neutral turf where youths--at least for a few hours each day--are able to develop their athletic talents and harden themselves against the growing criminal influence of local gangs.

“In some cases, kids’ ties to gangs are stronger than ties to their own families,” said Ed Alfaro, a park supervisor who oversees management of the club. “These kids are just seeking attention, and we have to give them some options.”

On recent evenings, the gym, in the rear of the Set Free Church at Broadway and Philadelphia Street, has been alive with the sounds of leather ramming leather and skips of the jump rope.

Coach Rip Icenhour says that many of the fighters, some as young as 10, are making final preparations for the club’s main event: the Cinco de Mayo Festival tournament at La Palma Park.

The mustachioed Icenhour, whose slightly realigned nose betrays a stint as an amateur, seems to revel in shouting instructions from the ring apron during sparring sessions.

“Hands up! Get ‘em up higher!” he warns 18-year-old Robert Santa as an opponent connects with a stiff shot to Santa’s headgear. “Roll out! Move! Move!”

As much as he and fellow coach Joe Ruelaz enjoy their work, they know that in this central city neighborhood they are always competing with the constant presence of gangs.

Just days ago, Icenhour said, the young Rodarte twins, while running a few laps just outside the gym, were approached by youngsters known to be connected with a local gang. Avoiding confrontation, the two immediately sprinted back to him, the coach said.

For others, escape is not as simple.

“I talk to them all the time about it,” Icenhour said. “I’ve learned the language. But you just don’t know what kind of pressure these kids are under when they go back to the neighborhood. You can talk to them. They are all nice kids, good kids. But sometimes they have to do what they have to do.”

Santa, a thickly muscled welterweight from Santa Ana who has been coming to the gym for the past six weeks, won’t talk about his past gang involvement but is nervously looking forward to his boxing debut at La Palma Park. Even more impressive than his powerful right hand is his commitment to training, the coaches said.

“I’ve always wanted to box,” Santa said after dominating two sparring sessions. “I felt that if I had only started earlier, I would have been something, but I had to work when I was younger. I got out of the gang long ago.”

Still, training has been difficult, and the Garden Grove High School graduate nearly gave it up a month ago when his first sparring opponent found his right jaw unprotected and delivered a rocket.

“I remember we had steak for dinner that night, and I couldn’t chew,” Santa said. “I couldn’t chew for a week. I felt like quitting, but my girlfriend helped me out.”

Last Wednesday night, 19-year-old Noel Gonzalez’s nose was on the wrong end of a Santa flurry.

“He’s strong,” Gonzalez said, blood trickling from one nostril. “I hit him good in the body, and he should have gone down. He’ll do good as long as he follows the coaches’ instructions.”

When it comes to victories, however, there is no argument over who reigns as the gym’s prized pupil. Peter Aguirre and his coaches are only too happy to tell the story of his successful battle to return to the classroom and his potential for future ring success.

The summer knife fight earned him an expulsion from the school district, Aguirre said. So he went to his boxing coaches for help. Icenhour said that progress was made with school officials about the time Aguirre was making headlines in February as a silver medalist in the USA America Boxing Federation Silver Gloves tournament in Kansas.

Anaheim High School Principal Craig Haugen said Aguirre’s athletic success and newfound discipline were key factors in the decision to readmit him to school.

“It was kind of an iffy situation,” Haugen said. “But he convinced me he was for real. I believe in athletics and that the discipline can carry over to other parts of a person’s life. Boxing seemed to be the savior of that kid.”

Haugen said recent reports on Aguirre’s academic progress are encouraging.

Even more recognition comes each time the 15-year-old climbs into the ring for a sparring session. When he is matched against his 17-year-old brother, Jose, an accomplished fighter in his own right, the rope jumping stops and the heavy bags fall still as the two begin to exchange blows.

It is a furious two rounds, from which Peter emerges with a bloody nose but nonetheless upbeat.

“You’ve got to be tough to hang here,” he says. “You’ve got to have heart to box. It’s just you, and nobody else can help.”