Our boxing year started with bouts in September and ended with a summer break in July and August. Join us as we reflect on our amazing 2018/19 year.
August/September 2018: We were honoured to host a Canada Winter Games training camp, a sparring showcase with some of BC’s best athletes, and a public open house. We traveled to the Savard Boxing Club’s Fight Night in Richmond, BC. Jesse also attended the Nelson Festival of Programs, we started women’s boxing classes twice a week, and said goodbye to Kate Harvey-Vieira, our Front Desk Coordinator!
October 2018: We welcomed Catherine Fisher as our new Front Desk Coordinator, opened a Twitter account, and Jesse Pineiro and Leah Eberle were featured in a Kootenay Co-op Radio documentary series about youth in sports. We also brought five young boxers to Cranbrook, BC for the Cranbrook Charity Challenge.
November 2018: Our boxers traveled to Victoria, BC for the B.C. Emerald Gloves, and Wallace, Idaho for Wallace Fight Night. We also started selling healthy snacks at the club, making Charcuterie Totoche‘s delicious pepperoni sticks available. We also got some beautiful Nelson Boxing Club hoodies printed. Max Berkeley was our Boxer of the Month. We also brought seven boxers to the Pre-Provincials training camp on the west coast.
December 2018: We brought eight boxers to the Provincial Championships in Abbotsford B.C., got some Nelson Boxing Club tuques and gift certificates printed, and participated in the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy’s “Book Under Every Tree” initiative. The team also enjoyed an amazing training camp in Mexico, and we capped off the year with a “Boxing Day” party including free classes, a sparring demo, singing, and a beautiful cake.
January 2019: January was our busiest month ever at the gym. Our Boxer of the Month was Caeden Rennie, we held our boxing team’s first fundraising bottle drive, and we got NBC ball caps printed. We also brought four boxers to the Alberta Golden Gloves in Calgary, AB.
February 2019: Another eventful month! We made a clean sweep at the Tacoma Golden Gloves, Brayden Hellekson won a bronze medal at the Canada Winter Games, and we were recognized as the Mallard’s Team of the Week.
March 2019: Our Boxer of the Month was Cali Wolf. We started a second weekly yoga class, and the team held a second bottle drive in partnership with Kootenay Co-op Radio. The team also traveled to the Jimmy Gallagher Memorial Cup in Cloverdale, BC, and to the 2019 Team BC Pre-Nationals Training Camp.
April 2019: We did some more team fundraising with Save On and Safeway gift cards and Elias Martinez, Makalu Babott, Leah Eberle and Brayden Hellekson all brought medals home from the Nationals in Langford, BC.
May 2019: Our big May event was Fight Night VI, which brought together 24 boxers from Cranbrook, Portland, Revelstoke, Salmon Arm, Nanaimo, and Nelson at the Rod & Gun Club. The event was supported by Kul Nijjar Real Estate, Viasport, BCGEU, Big Cranium Design, the Sacred Ride, the Hume Hotel, Streetclothes Named Desire, Sidewinders Coffee, and the Nelson Police Association.
June 2019: The team traveled to War on the Shore VI in Gibsons, BC and to Spokane’s Fight Night III, our last trip of the season. Later in the month we participated in Nelson’s ArtWalk for the first time, hosting photographer Louis Bockner’s beautiful landscapes.
July 2019: We partnered with Red Path Movement to offer two boxing/parkour summer camps, and hosted a second ArtWalk 2019 opening, featuring pieces by artists from Bright Lights Community Art Studio, a partnership between the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute & the Salvation Army Nelson. Finally, we were recognized by City of Nelson for our outstanding contributions to the community.
Nelson boxing had a great year:
77 total bouts
9 BC Provincial Champions (Ryan Lewis, Elias Martinez, Brayden Hellekson, Riel Martinez, Max Berkeley, Leah Eberle, Stryder Sutton, Makalu Babott, Brett Adams)
1 Bronze Medal, 2019 Canada Winter Games, Red Deer, Alberta (Brayden Hellekson)
3 Silver Medalists and 1 Bronze at the Canadian Championships in Langford, BC. (Elias Martinez, Leah Eberle, Makalu Babott, Brayden Hellekson)
4 Tacoma Golden Gloves Champions (Stryder Sutton, Riel Martinez, Leah Eberle, Makalu Babott)
1 Alberta Golden Gloves Champion (Brett Adams)
Jimmy Simms Award for Excellence (Samson Berkeley)
Junior Boxer of the Year (Elias Martinez)
Voted Boxing Club of the Year by the BC Amateur Boxing Association
Nelson Boxing Club 