At the Pecos Community Center in north Denver, early evening brings a stream of boys and girls to the Aztlanecos Boxing Club, a longstanding club designed to draw them off the streets and prepare them for life’s challenges.
The club has been around since 1986, started and run by former professional boxer Tim Lucero.
Since the club opened, Lucero has volunteered his time, often using his own money to keep the club afloat or help young people whose families sometimes couldn’t afford groceries, much less boxing shoes.
Colorado has 49 boxing clubs and about 550 registered boxers, says Jeanne DePriest, president of the Colorado Boxing Association. Roughly 85 percent of the clubs are in the Denver metro area, where it’s rare for a coach to work without pay.
Coaches like Lucero teach more than boxing, she said. They teach self-confidence, self-discipline, self- respect and respect for parents and others.
“These kids can fight on the street and get in trouble and go to prison, but in the ring they can box and get a trophy,” DePriest said.
Lucero tells his boxers, both boys and girls, that smoking is an entry- level drug. Learning to box doesn’t give them the right to pick fights, he says. Instead, they should treat others with respect. And they should finish school.
“One of the greatest strengths we have in the Chicano community is people working together,” Lucero said. “Yes, we have drug issues, gang issues. But without people working together, they would take over the community.”
“School comes first”
Jaime Carillo, one of the club’s first boxers and now an operations manager for Denver Parks and Recreation, said Lucero remains an inspiration for him.
“Along with boxing, we had tutoring,” said Carillo, who coached with Lucero for 12 years. “If one of the boxers was having trouble with homework or in school, we would do that first before working in the gym. One of the things Tim stressed is that school comes first.”
That attitude has paid off for many of Lucero’s boxers.
Julio Parra, one of six children raised by a single mother, this year became the first one in his family to graduate from high school. A winner of the Metropolitan Mayors and Commissioners Youth Award, a nine-county recognition program for teens who have overcome adversity, he will attend the Community College of Denver this fall on scholarship.
Lorenzo Sanchez came to the club after his sophomore year in high school, when he was hauled into court for fighting. He chose Lucero’s club from a list provided by the court.
Boxing at the club helped him focus, he said. Despite the time his studies require, he continues to work out at the club because it provides him with “support and structure.”
This fall he starts his sophomore year at the University of Denver, where he has a four-year full scholarship, thanks to his test scores. He now helps other students prepare for the SAT and ACT tests.
Parra said that if he has a problem, he talks it over with Lucero, who is like a family member. He said he’s determined to finish college.
“I want to show people that being Latino doesn’t mean you join gangs and do drugs,” Parra said. “I want to make my family proud.”
Lucero started boxing as an amateur in 1976. His first year, he was the statewide Golden Gloves novice winner. The next year, he went straight to the open division — a division for those with more than 20 fights behind them, although Lucero had half that number. That year, he won all but the first night in the state open division.
His coaches, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and Ralph Luna, were two of the best, he said.
World-class trainers
Gonzales was a world-ranked professional boxer, firebrand Chicano activist and internationally known champion for human rights. His funeral in 2005 drew some 2,000 people, including such luminaries as then U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, former Denver Mayor Federico Peña and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Lucero remembers both Gonzales and Luna on a more personal level.
“They were world-class trainers, but they reinforced the values my parents taught: To respect others and not pick fights,” Lucero said.
Lucero, 48, estimates that he has coached some 500 kids since starting the club, which still draws 17 to 25 boxers a night, five nights a week.
All of Lucero’s nieces and nephews have come through the program, as did his daughter, Reyna Lucero, who boxed for 20 years. His older brother, Tony Lucero, helps at the club, and Lucero’s wife of 29 years, Luann, handles the paperwork.
“It’s pretty much a family thing we do,” said Reyna Lucero, whose daughter, Victoria, also loves boxing. “It’s his passion. He loves boxing. He loves helping the kids.”
Lucero has also had his share of winning boxers.
Eleven-year-old D’Angelo Sandate is the 2008 and 2009 state Golden Gloves winner in his age and weight division. Only those 16 and older may advance to the national Golden Gloves competition, but D’Angelo also is a two-time state Silver Gloves winner, for junior boxers, and this year won the national title in his age and weight division.
Rising stars in his ring
If he remains as focused as he is, Lucero thinks D’Angelo has a good chance of surpassing Denver’s Louie Byrd, an 18-year-old boxing prodigy and the top-ranked American boxer at 112 pounds.
D’Angelo isn’t alone in showing promise. Adan Gonzales, 12, who has been boxing with Lucero for the past four years, has had his own set of challenges, but is doing better now than he’s ever done.
Lauriene Gonzales, Adan’s mother and a teacher, credits Lucero, who is like a father to her son.
“When Adan started, there weren’t any other little kids. He left for a bit to play football, then said, ‘No, my love is boxing.’ I think it’s totally Tim who brought him back,” Lauriene Gonzales said. “He pushes our youth and keeps them involved, but he’s patient with them. He never gives up on a boxer.”
For years, Lucero has dipped into his pocket for things like equipment and road trips to tournaments. Although the Pecos Community Center is providing more support, Lauriene Gonzales said she would like to see sponsors for some of the boxers.
Lucero admits that fundraising is frustrating. At times, he thinks it would be nice to pass the club onto someone else.
“But, then, you see these kids,” he said. “You come in here, and the joy you get from being around them makes you forget about ever retiring. It’s all for these wonderful kids.”
