Box Clever

I recently visited a house on a local council estate. It is the home of Michael and Alex Connolly. They are the parents of three children: a daughter who is a bank employee, a son who is an officer in the Royal Medical Corps and a younger son, Kevin, who is a college student.

The army officer has served in Bosnia and Angola. He has also been introduced to “H.M. the Queen” and included in a parade inspected by “H.R.H. the Prince of Wales”. The family is quite naturally very proud of him.

However, it is their youngest son who I had gone to see. Kevin Connolly is presently attending Oldham Sixth Form College. He is studying Media, Leisure and Recreation. His hobbies include tennis and swimming but his main sport is boxing and he has been a member of the Collyhurst Boxing Academy for the past seven years, since he was nine and a half years of age.

My purpose for a visit was to get Kevin’s views on vandalism and what he thinks could help in stopping such mindless activities. He was very deliberate in his thinking and gave a remarkable account of his thoughts.

Initially, Kevin thinks that more places should be provided for youngsters to go where they can take part in competitive activities to teach them team spirit, discipline, self confidence and character.

Sports clubs are a good place to start, but finance for them is a bit thin so there aren’t many of them around. The boxing club where Kevin is a member has some good trainers who keep to rules which include no swearing, and definitely, no arguments with trainers. The rules are there to draw the lines where discipline takes over from disruption, and if a lad can get his head around discipline, especially self discipline, he is on his way to becoming a decent member of society.

Asked what he would say to a group of youngsters to make them think about what vandals really are, Kevin said that youngsters become vandals because they go along with others who do it and are too scared to look like they’re chicken. “But it isn’t being brave to be a vandal if you really are not one. Being tough is not being a vandal or a thief.” I had to agree. To earn money by working and paying for the things you want is more rewarding than depriving someone of their belongings and that’s where character shows itself.

Kevin’s ambitions are to try to achieve everything he needs in his education. Then and only then, to further himself in boxing, he wants to win in the national finals, then next year get a crack at the A.B.A. followed by the Olympic Games.

I thank the Connolly’s for their hospitality and wish Kevin “Good Luck” both in his educational aims and his boxing.

Tom Connor