Boxing might be classed an individual sport, but according to Taree-based coach Gary Crawford there’s no better sport to help young people from all walks of life feel included.

Gary and one of his co-coaches at the Taree PCYC gym, Mal Fitzgerald, brought 10 boys aged 13-17 to Nyngan on the weekend for a coaching and sparring session with Troy Richards and his boxers at The Shed gym.

Despite the humid conditions the boxers spent a full day working on their technique and sparring, and then camped the night before the Taree crew embarked on the eight-hour trip home.

Gary said the Taree PCYC went on road trips to other regional boxing gyms every three months as a way of team-building and exposing the young boxers to other coaches and sparring partners.

“When you are based in a regional area there isn’t a boxing gym on every corner so if the kids want to improve, they have to travel. Today they’re learning some new techniques from Troy and they get to spar with someone different,” Gary said.

“We took one kid to [a competition in] Sydney three weeks ago and he won. It was because we do this sort of training where we travel around to the different coaches and gyms that he was good enough to win.”

“We’ve been to Port Macquarie, Moree and Dubbo this year and done the same thing – and we hosted a weekend in Taree about three months ago and invited gyms from other areas to sleep over.”

“If the regions don’t do this, boxing is in trouble.”

ABOVE: Nyngan boxing coach and youth worker Troy Richards (right) at the clinic on the weekend. 

Gary and Mal are two of four coaches at the Taree PCYC and credit the gym with giving young people focus and ultimately at school and on track with their lives.

Another coach is the Manning-Great Lakes Police District Commander, Superintendent, Chris Schilt.

“It’s taking the PCYC back to its origins when it was about less crime and more young people feeling better about themselves and more confident.”

Gary said the 10 young boxers on the Nyngan trip attended four different schools and were from varying backgrounds, but had become close mates through the gym and the thrice-weekly after school training sessions.

“People who don’t box don’t know how inclusive the sport is. They think team sports like football and soccer is inclusive but a lot of kids find they don’t fit in there. There’s no judgement in a boxing gym. If you judge you’re out the door.”

Gary said the PCYC boxing was also giving the kids a chance to see beyond their home town. with trips away for training and opportunities to go to competitions.

“We took three kids from the mid north coast over the Sydney Harbour Bridge earlier this year, and none of them had ever seen it before.”

Three Nyngan boxers – Sonny Knight, Will Richards and Jett Griffiths – and two from Cobar who travel to Nyngan for training joined the weekend session.

Troy Richards agreed there was great value in exposing young boxers to different environments, and his own charges appreciated the opportunity to train with other opponents.