ROBERT PIERCE

    • Leader & Times

The term student athlete is used quite often in today’s world, as those who take part in sports must also meet the grade in the classroom.

For Enrique Weissel, owner of Weissel Boxing, recognizing those who do well in the ring and in academics is essential, and recently, he presented awards to several of his students for their performances in both realms.

“The awards are for academics and the sport of boxing,” he said. “They’ve been doing very good in boxing, but the most important thing is they’ve been doing very good in school.”

Weissel Boxing is a United Way agency, and Weissel said giving the awards, for him, is an incentive to continue working with community.

“You see these kids growing to go to different paths of life,” he said. “Some pursue education. Some pursue work. Boxing gives them something.”

As for his agency, Weissel said he sees many young people come and go, as boxing is a long process to learn.

“It’s not something where you can qualify a boxer in one month,” he said. “These kids have been there for eight, nine months, and every three months, we evaluate them to see where they’re at academically and boxing. If they’re not ready to go to a tournament, we don’t take them, not because they’re bad in school, but because they’re not ready for a tournament. If they’re ready to go to a tournament, we take them to the tournament, but we make sure they’re good in school.”

Giving awards, Weissel said, brings some positive reinforcement to the lives of students participating in the program.

“This is what it means to them,” he said. “This is what it means to me. It means if they’re doing good, we reward them so they know they’re doing good.”