Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Ange Desinor | COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – Spc. Joseph Fisher, an operations specialist for 3rd...... read more read more
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FORT CARSON, Colorado – When Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Alvarez takes off his Army boots at the end of the day, he trades them out for boots of a different kind.
But as he straps on his boxing shoes, the principles he maintains as a senior telecommunications sergeant and the signal noncommissioned officer in charge of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, go with him to the YMCA’s Memorial Park and Recreation Center in Colorado Springs.
It’s here that he spends more than 10 hours a week, stepping into the ring with children as young as 8, teaching them how to box, turning them into champions of principle, if not straight champs. His Army values bleed into his volunteer work, the Soldier imparting scruples like personal courage and a sense of duty, to never give up no matter the adversity.
“I am the head coach for local amateur boxers – the Colorado Silver Gloves, Golden Gloves, and the Junior Olympics team’s representative for this gym,” said Alvarez, a USA Boxing certified and registered coach.
“I focus on the kids’ ability to compete at local, state and national level,” said Alvarez, who’s also a New York state Golden Glove champion. “Boxing has been in my family. I was always around professionals and amateurs.”
Consequently, he found himself in the ring at a young age, learning the same values of discipline and hard work he now imparts on his cagey adolescent apprentices. Now he trains the children at the local YMCA Monday through Friday for two hours each day.
Alvarez said he sees many parallels between the challenges of ensuring 3rd Brigade’s telecommunications are always running smoothly and the lessons he teaches his youth boxers.
“What we do here isn’t just an individual sport, it’s a team effort,” said Alvarez. “This brings out everyone’s true colors by testing out your abilities. We sweat, train, live, eat and breathe this sport.
“What happens at work, what happens during training, and what happens when you’re in a combat environment when things don’t go as planned?” he said. “When you’re in between these ropes, you’re entire world changes. What are you going to do? Quit? Are you going to run? Or are you going to dig deep, fight through and make split-second decisions so you don’t go down.”
Boxing, like the military, is not for the faint-hearted. Yet it’s also more than just outmuscling an opponent.
“This is smart person sport. A tough person can come in here and get hurt just like in real life, just like in the Army. It’s the smarter person who usually comes up on top,” Alvarez said. “That’s what we teach the kids here. You have to think smart and fast to make sound decisions.”
When Alvarez was deployed to Kuwait last year with 3rd ABCT, he organized a boxing program that attracted an average of 15 Soldiers daily.
Some of those Soldiers, like Spc. Joseph Fisher, an operations specialist for 3ABCT, now volunteer at the gym to help Alvarez train the children.
“I usually do mixed martial arts but wanted to train with him to see how the program was,” Fisher said of first meeting Alvarez in Kuwait. “When we came back, he asked if I wanted to work with the kids at the Memorial Park and Recreation Center YMCA. Ever since then I’ve been working with him and coaching.”
The children who train with these Soldiers generally come from low-income families.
“I do this for the community,” said Alvarez. “A lot of these children are able to stay off the street, come to an area where they can put in hard work and get rewarded for it. This is like a sanctuary for some of the kids. For some, all they know is poverty and living a hard life.”
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 11.03.2016 16:24 |
| Story ID: | 213770 |
| Location: | COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, US |
| Web Views: | 49 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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