Fighting for Change : Youths in LAPD’s anti-gang Jeopardy program say the disciplined mix of boxing and study feels good to them.

To Eddie Medina, Jeopardy is no TV game show, but another type of program that is keeping him out of trouble.

Eddie, 14, of Arleta is one of a dozen youths participating in a new Los Angeles Police Department boxing program for those at risk of dropping out of school to become gangbangers. The program, called Jeopardy--Balancing the Odds, has been attracting formerly unreachable youths like Eddie since February with a disciplined mix of study time and boxing.

For Eddie, Jeopardy came not a moment too soon.

“I was too much of a troublemaker at the house,” Eddie said, wiping beads of sweat from his brow during a workout at the Police Department’s Sylmar gym on Sayre Street, where Jeopardy boxers train. “I ran away from home and hung around with gangsters. My mother wanted me to stop making trouble so she took me down to the police station and they put me here. So I spend my time here instead of out on the streets.”

The gym is run by a face familiar to Eddie: Officer Martin Ryan, 25, of the department’s Foothill Division, which operates the Jeopardy boxing project. Before the program began, Ryan arrested Eddie for theft. Now he coaches Eddie and the Jeopardy youths on how to take punches, not property.

“They’re learning there’s a whole other life outside gangster life,” said Ryan, whose pupils range in age from 10 to 18.

For three hours in the afternoon, five days a week, this message is literally pounded into their heads inside a dimly lit, stuffy gym that reeks of sweat. The regimen begins with a mandatory hour of studying, complete with homework checks. If school is out, they bring an educational book. Then the youths warm up, don the gloves and punch the bags--or each other--from about 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Posted above the ring is a sign with a simple reminder: “No Whining.” It’s a philosophy that Ryan knows the youths respect. “What is all this gang stuff about? It’s about being macho,” he said. “Everybody’s going to respect a boxer.”

In addition to the respect and discipline a boxer acquires, Jeopardy youths achieve the camaraderie sought by more than 150,000 other wanna-be gang members in Los Angeles County.

“Jeopardy focuses on taking a wanna-be and cutting them off before they become gang members,” said Officer Richard Stocks, one of the Foothill Division’s three Jeopardy coordinators. “All we’re doing is giving them another place to belong.”

Stocks receives prospective Jeopardy members from schools, parents and the Police Department’s own jail cells. For a sliding fee of $30 to $40 that the youth can work off, the Police Department agrees to monitor their progress for a year, after which they can remain in the program. The United Way provided the initial $10,000 funding, and a summer fund-raiser pulled in $102,000 that is divided among various Jeopardy programs in the Valley.

Another youngster, a 13-year-old Sylmar boy, was one of those who joined Jeopardy on his way to jail.

“When I get here and work out, it feels real good,” he said.

His mother said she has noticed a change in her son’s grades as well. “He’s making straight A’s now.”

Not all the time spent with Jeopardy involves training or studying. The youths also get chances to pit their skills against those of other boxers. During the summer, Ryan took five of his best-trained teen-agers to Colton to fight in a boxing invitational. When Eddie saw his mother at home after the fight, he brought her a gold medal--his first win. “It felt great,” he said.

To spur his team on to victory and to further the boxers’ sense of belonging, Ryan will begin awarding Jeopardy jackets to any member with five wins.

“It’s like their letterman’s jacket,” Ryan said. “There’s nothing these kids are more proud of than boxing.”

Says Eddie Medina: “Hopefully, I can fight in the Olympics when I’m older.”