BRANDON BOXING CLUB: Shock gives way to resolve for members

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This article was published 10/06/2018 (2780 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It wasn’t just Noel Harding who lost something in the fire.

While the owner of the Brandon Boxing Club begins the journey of resurrecting the gym after the massive downtown fire that consumed it on May 19, the people who trained and made friends there are also coming to grips with the sudden loss of the facility.

Karen Grant was baking cookies at home when her phone went off, and Facebook starting lighting up with the news. It was a terrible development, but she said her fellow clubmates quickly rallied around each other.

“We’re trying to encourage each other and keep other going,” Grant said. “Of course you get down. Going there and going through the rubble and pulling things out, you see what burned if you remember what was in that corner that’s now a pile of ash. It’s keeping others going because you’re going to go through all sorts of emotions. You’re going to be upset, you’re going to be mad, you’re going to be angry.

“Then all of a sudden, it’s ‘Don’t worry, we got this, we can do this.’ We’ll stay positive and keep each other going.”

Harding and the club held a fundraising event on Saturday at the Victoria Inn as the quest to raise money begins. Different club members sparred against each other in front of several dozen people.

Landon Broome, 16, took up boxing a year ago at the club and earned a national championship in March in the junior boys’ 80-kilogram plus division. He was in Edmonton at club volleyball nationals when the fire occurred.

“It was basically my second home,” Broome said. “I was there just as much as home basically, working out and having fun.”

Broome, who said the impact of the fire didn’t really hit him until the next morning, said his memories of the place revolve around Harding helping him improve from a newcomer to a national champion so quickly.

He’s driven by to see the old club, but says it’s hard.

“I don’t even like to look at it,” Broome said. “But life goes on.”

Broome sparred on Saturday against veteran Paul Riggs, 25, who moved to Brandon from Ireland five years ago and quickly began going to the club.

Riggs said he walked out of his house that morning and saw thick, black smoke. It wasn’t until the late afternoon that he learned the boxing club had gone up.

He had some of his boxing gear stowed at the club, but it’s not that he’s worried about.

“It doesn’t matter,” Riggs said. “That can be replaced, but the club is a hard thing to replace. That’s where I spent most of my time. I work, I come home and I train, Monday to Friday and Saturday as well. That’s where my hours are spent and now I’m a bit lost the last couple of weeks.”

Riggs said the memories of the many hours of work put in at the gym, and the chances he had to help with coaching, are what he will carry forward. He said he would be happy to fight in some fundraising events for the club.

“We need a boxing club,” Riggs said. “It keeps young people off the street and doing something with their time. It’s pretty helpful for the community.”

Nash Wrightson, 10, joined the club in the last year. When he saw the smoke, he and family members went a little closer to get a look.

“It was shocking that it was burning,” he said.

He said he liked going to the gym to work on his skills and hopes that it comes back.

“Noel said it’s going to be bigger and better,” Wrightson said. “I’m hoping it will.

“It was a good place. Everybody was nice.”

Kyle Nabess, 30, was home when he heard about the fire, and went down to see for himself. He was surprised the boxing club later caught fire, and didn’t learn about it until the next day.

Nabess said he’ll miss the environment that the old building provided.

“It seemed really vintage and old school, like when you watch Rocky and he’s there in that old gym,” Nabess said. “It had that old gym feel. I liked that about it. And the people were the same way, genuine.”

Nabess is hopeful that Harding will rebuild the club, and will support him any way he can. He noted that club members continue to train outside with Harding as the plans crystallize to replace the facility.

“It was somewhere I went to relieve stress, I guess,” Nabess said. “I knew everybody there after while. Even the first day I went there it was welcoming. I had never boxed before but nobody judges you. It’s a very welcoming place to go.”

Nabess said he has no doubts that the club will return: All that has to be decided is when and where.

One thing that was lost in the blaze was the club history, something Grant hopes can somehow be replaced. She said she used to work out looking at old posters and newspaper clippings of Brandon boxing legends such as Clarence Cantelo and Terry Fowler.

“I know standing there skipping forever that’s what you would stare it,” Grant said. “It is upsetting that things were lost but hopefully people have copies and when we rebuild the gym we can get those back and keep going, start again.”

She said she worried that Harding found about the destruction when he was in Mexico for a fight

Grant has been by a couple of times to look at the burned-out remains at the Pacific Avenue location.

It was more than bodies and boxing skills built there. There were also memories.

“There was hope,” Grant said. “You would see the same guys and you’re learning too, and you look forward to going because it is so welcoming and it was home. I didn’t know anybody in Brandon when I came, and I sure did after that. It became a family and a team. You did everything together.”

Grant moved here four years ago, and was looking for a place to make some friends and possibly get in shape. She found both at the club.

That’s why rebuilding is so important to her and so many other club members.

“It’s really welcoming,” Grant said. “They’re fantastic people to be around and very encouraging … I miss it terribly, but like Noel says, we have to keep going. We fight for a reason, and we have to keep going and get the people back together.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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