By Karen Quincy Loberg, kloberg@VenturaCountyStar.com
October 10, 2007

Boxing is big in Oxnard. It has been a popular program at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme since the 1950s.

The doors at the Harriet H. Samuelson branch on East Seventh Street recently reopened, packing a few new punches in the program.

Ringside, Nick Braker, a 6-foot-4-inch, 225-pound undefeated heavyweight cage-fighting champion, discusses the Boston Tea Party with 13-year-old Nancy Rojas.

It is part of the boxing program's "academics first" policy. Braker is the first staff member hired to mentor the students in their studies, as well as the sport of boxing.

The changes have children coming through the doors who have never stepped foot inside before.

A union is forged among the students, their schools, their parents and Braker, with weekly progress reports. All boxing students get academic assistance from the club, and those with lagging grades get one-on-one tutoring.

Nancy is in her third week of the boxing program and is working to improve her social studies grade at R.J. Frank Intermediate School in Oxnard.

In addition to the academic improvements, the building has been renovated.

The children now work out with new equipment in a new ring. Mirrors and additional punching bags have been purchased and will soon be installed at the revamped facility, said Jaime Zendejas, director of operations.

When it rains, the children can train without the roof leaking or the building flooding, Zendejas said.

There is about one volunteer to every five students. The volunteers help with homework and make sure that it is completed before a student's physical training begins.

"If their homework is already done, the children are engaged in the technological center or some aspect of learning," Zendejas said. "We're helping them in their amateur careers and preparing them for college and for life."

Braker said if a child comes for one day, he considers that an accomplishment. But if the children with it, "they won't get in trouble here or if they are already (in trouble), the boxing program helps them get out of it."

The club has produced several professional fighters over the decades. But to Braker, the importance lies more in his students getting ahead academically, getting physical conditioning and learning what he learned when he started out — "responsibility and how to grow up."