Eskasoni boxing club rebuilds
Plans to build new training space for up and coming boxers
ESKASONI — An Unama'ki boxing club that's been gaining national and international attention is fundraising for a new home.
In the meantime, the Red Tribe Boxing Club in Eskasoni has had to find a temporary home. Boxing club members have spent long hours knocking down walls and building new ones, painting, mounting punching bags and installing other boxing equipment, including the ring, in its temporary space.
It's also meant putting training on hold, which has been hard for many, especially an up-and-comer in the sport, Xzorion Marshall, who recently made it through the first-round qualifiers for the Canada Winter Games and has two more rounds of tryouts to go.
"If I don't go boxing I just get mad and I'm just in a bad mood all the time and it sucks," he said.
The 16-year-old has been boxing for almost two years. Before that, he played hockey but was always getting into fights and spent more time in the penalty box than on the ice. Once he found boxing, he found a positive way to channel his aggression.
"I used to always get in trouble before I joined boxing and I was just a little kid that was trying to pick fights with everyone, you know, but now I just chill at home and workout and that's it. If I wasn't in boxing, I'd probably be doing some crazy stuff," he said.
He trains every day except Sunday, when he takes a rest day but still spends his time studying the sport. He has a treadmill at home and some workout equipment. Before the club was relocated, he spent most days training with his "boxing family," he said.
"I'm really dedicated — I put my life into it. Nothing can break that bond with me and my coaches and the boxers. I just want to become a world champion and I think I was born to be a champion."
The club is run by 60-yearold Barry Bernard and his family, including his wife, his three sons and daughter who all participate in the sport as coaches and officials.
The club got its start five years ago when chief and council provided funding for equipment including boxing gloves and a ring.
It also gave the club a space in the Foodland strip mall, which is currently undergoing a $1.5-million expansion to bring in more businesses to the community. That project began last September and was expected to be completed in January but is still under construction.
Due to a shuffle of current tenants of the strip mall to make space for a new Canada Post office, Red Tribe Boxing Club, which was not being charged rent or utilities by the band, was relocated to a temporary location until the completion of another infrastructure project, a new multi-purpose recreation facility where Chief Leroy Denny said Red Tribe would have a custom-built, dedicated space for its boxers to train.
The construction of that building is slated to begin in late spring and Denny said it will be completed by the end of the year.
The club was given a number of options for a temporary space, including use of the Sarah Denny Cultural Centre but chose a storage facility near the Eskasoni fisheries building as the best option for now.
Bernard said he's only staying there as long as it takes for the club to build its own building.
He said he's not waiting for the new recreation facility to be built and plans to build a 28-foot-by-40-foot garagestyle building next to his daughter's home on Mickey's Lane. He said its central location in the community will make it more accessible for families without transportation.
In the meantime, Bernard and his 20 or so boxers are making the most of the space they are in now and have spent the last three weeks fixing the place up to meet their needs instead of waiting for the band to do the renovations.
NEXT CARD
The club hosted its first boxing card in February 2017, eight months after it opened. Five years later, it is now planning its eighth card on May 22 at the Sarah Denny Cultural Centre, which will feature Marshall and another of Red Tribe's rising stars, 13-year-old A'leah Young.
Young said she had a tough home life when she was younger. Things got better after her parents separated but she said it was joining boxing a few years ago that's had the biggest positive impact on her life.
"I had all this pent-up anger and it was deep, deep down, like, I couldn't get it out but when I joined boxing I was able to take it out and be happier afterward. It was a gamechanger," she said.
After two years of training she had her first fight in Oromocto, N.B. and her fight was named "fight of the night" by the officials.
She trains most days during the week and doesn't think twice about going into the ring with the male boxers, who outnumber the female boxers by more than three-to-one at the club.
"Especially as a young Indigenous female, it's important for me to learn how to fight and protect myself."
Young was recently named top female athlete of the year by Ring 73 in Glace Bay. Her mother, Renee Young, supports her daughter's boxing career and knows she'll go far in the sport.
"Boxing is her life and it helped so much with everything at home, with our family breaking up and everything. Steering her away from drugs and alcohol is my main goal and I want her to have something that I couldn't have when I was a kid," she said.
That's the goal for Bernard as well, who, along with the rest of his family, volunteers his time and has provided training for free to the more than 200 boxers that have come through the club.
"We have saved a lot of kids through this boxing program. Boxers never come from rich families, they come from poor families. I've been fighting all my life. I went to Indian day school, I've been to hell and back, and to me, saving one kid makes a big difference in the community," he said.
Bernard said he's running a Chase the Ace fundraiser and has been receiving donations for the new building from individual community members and private businesses, and has gotten offers of help from local contractors.
He said he's not sure what the total cost of the build will be. He plans to break ground later this month and have it finished by the end of the year.
Red Tribe Boxing is not currently incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under provincial or federal regulations but it is something Bernard said he is working on completing in the near future.
The club is registered with Boxing Nova Scotia, the organization that supports and develops the sport of boxing in the province, according to its website.
Chief Denny said the Eskasoni band will continue to support the club regardless of where they're located.