Garage plans have boxing gym in corner

By Marshall Allen

Saturday, June 24, 2006 | 7:50 a.m.

For months, Robert Johnston kept a secret from the kids at his gritty one-room gym.

He didn't want to worry them.

Over the previous two years, hundreds of youths had poured in from Las Vegas' toughest neighborhoods to lace up gloves, shuffle feet and pound heavy bags at Johnston's gym. It became their haven.

They trained every day. On weekends, many of them traveled to regional boxing shows. Some became champions.

At the gym Wednesday, the kids got wind of something. They approached Johnston anxiously. He was forced to explain.

When his lease ends Sept. 30, he and the young people will be ousted and his Las Vegas Boxing gym will be leveled. It will be replaced by a multi-level parking structure.

Johnston said he held off the news as long as possible, hoping he could find a new location.

"I wanted to give them an answer when I told them something," Johnston said. "I don't want to blab it out and not have any answers. They're all upset about it."

Johnston said he tried to assure them Wednesday that he would find a new place to train and that the program would continue.

The reality is more complicated. Property costs have soared. Johnston pays $1,300 a month in rent and knows he won't find that price again. Plus, he wants to expand the gym to make room for more kids.

It's the same fate suffered by the venerable Barry's Boxing gymnasium, which closed a year ago to make room for additional parking for Treasures strip club. Barry's found a new location but failed to secure a county grant needed to pay for improvements to bring the building up to code.

Now Johnston and the board members of Las Vegas Boxing, which has applied for nonprofit status, are appealing to the community to help find a new location.

"I feel I'm doing a heck of a service to the community, and I hope the community will help us," Johnston said.

Johnston, 41, is a former amateur boxer who now works the graveyard shift maintaining the slots at the Riviera. He opened the gym because of his love for boxing and desire to pass on the life lessons he learned in the sport.

Of the 320 young people on his roster, 95 percent are Hispanic and most are from poor and dangerous neighborhoods, he said. Training for boxing adds structure to otherwise chaotic lives, he said.

"We're in the inner city, and there are lots of gangs," Johnston said. "Kids have no money and a high risk of legal problems, and we're doing our best to keep them out of trouble."

On a recent day at the gym, Johnston wore surf shorts, sandals and a T-shirt and surveyed the room. As Johnston talked, he corrected the stance of beginning boxers posing and punching in front of a mirror. A boom box blared hip-hop.

The young people pay $25 a month to be trained at the gym, if they can afford it. Those who can't work out for free.

About 15 coaches, including former professionals and a past Olympian, work with the boys and girls. Several of the young people have won state and regional championships.

Johnston himself trains about 60 kids. He says he emphasizes the basics - slipping, punching, ducking, all the combinations - and most of all the discipline, which applies to all areas of life.

The kids themselves don't necessarily talk about learning life lessons in the ring, though they are dedicated to their training.

Catalina Gonzalez, 14, wore a tank top, sweatpants and gloves and sat on a weightlifting bench near the gym's entrance. Her parents don't approve of her boxing, she said, because they want her to be more ladylike.

But last year, Gonzalez said, she got "whupped" by a girl at school and realized she needed to learn to fight. For the past year she has taken a bus to Las Vegas Boxing after school every weekday, where she trains until 7 p.m.

Gonzalez said she has lost weight and gained confidence. She smiles and says she's ready for a rematch with the girl who beat her up last year.

"I've got, like, her picture on my mind," Gonzalez said.

Johnston says he had a verbal understanding with the building's owner to stay long-term and perhaps purchase the building, a one-story brick structure at 1201 S. Commerce St., five blocks north of the Stratosphere.

Based on that assurance, he said, he took out a second mortgage on his house and spent $40,000 installing bathrooms, electric wiring and a sidewalk to bring the building up to code.

The building's owner, Raul Gil, is a Mexican immigrant who came to the United States 13 years ago. Gil owns four adjoining parcels in the neighborhood. The most prominent is on Main Street, the site of his Mexican restaurant, Casa Don Juan.

Gil said he has to build the new parking structure to help pay for the increased expenses of owning property downtown. He said Las Vegas Boxing is important to the community and calls Johnston a "very good man."

Gil said he wants to include the gym in the new parking structure. But Johnston wants any future agreements in writing. The two men can't come to an understanding, Johnston said, so he will have to find a new location.

Las Vegas Boxing board member Marty Schultz, a casino marketing executive at the Palms, said the organization is now focused on fundraising and urging community leaders to help find a new location. The ideal would be to get a building donated or buy a site with donated funds, he said.

Fernando Romero, president of Hispanics in Politics, said there are not nearly enough organizations like Las Vegas Boxing to support local young people.

Somebody, perhaps the city, should step forward and help the program find a new location, he said.

"In this case, we shouldn't sacrifice our kids," Romero said.