LANSING, Mich.– Zach Valdez, at 13-years-old, already has experience travelling to competitions and boxing inside storied venues such as the Milwaukee Athletic Club.
He started boxing less than two years ago, but has quickly found a home at Crown and in the sport. Valdez is working hard for his next bout, the fourth of his life, and another trip to Milwaukee.
“It’s really nice doing the fights of course, especially if I win,” Valdez, a native of Grand Ledge, said. “It’s really nice, my first fight was in this [Milwaukee Athletic Club] as well, really good stadium too.”
Valdez kickstarted his career through Crown Boxing Club, a non-profit organization that provides chances for individuals to grow into competitive fighters. The gym hosts local bouts and travels across the Midwest by assembling its own team.
Valdez’s journey to Crown started simply.
“My Dad saw it on a Facebook post and he asked me if I was interested, and I said yes,” he said. “…it’s really nice because it’s something you can lean back on, like working out helps with the motions and everything. I came here to be a pro boxer of course.”
Valdez has grown into a reliable and consistent part of his Crown’s competitive rotation. He;s developed a steady stance and a cool-under-pressure attitude in the ring, hallmarks of boxers who find success.
Ali Easley, the head trainer at Crown Boxing and a Michigan State faculty member, fields his squad through local youths interested in the gym's offerings and through his MSU students.
“I try to integrate some of our younger kids with the MSU students because the MSU students, after taking a course, they understand what’s expected of them. So they’re disciplined, they’re obviously pursuing a degree, they’re trying to better their life through education,” Easley said. “Some of those things are foreign or not spoken about in the households of our younger kids ,so we certainly want the influence of people that are doing positive things in life to rub off on the younger kids.”
When these two worlds collide during training sessions, the unit starts growing into a family built on physicality. This is especially true as the crew nears its Friday, Oct. 16 tilt in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“They get to travel out of state, ride together as a team, so they build that camaraderie by going on the trip. We all travel together, eat together, stay together, everything is just very close knit,” Easley said. “Anytime we stay on the road, when we’re travelling, we try to stay at a university or college in the dormitory and eat in the cafeteria, just to provide that experience for the kids that there’s more out there than just a hotel.”
The club offers a one month trial period as a window into its youth program, an offer Valdez took advantage of when getting his start, for those outside of MSU’s boxing programs. Easley is looking for those who want to progress, and eventually, compete.
“Three or four times a year we offer a free month of youth boxing, kids sign up for it, they come in here for one month free of charge with the understanding that at the end of the month,” Easley said. “Those that are doing well and are showing interest in competing may receive an invitation to advance and join our team… our ultimate goal is to develop a team that competes.”
Those enrolled in MSU can take the other path through Crown’s doors. Finn Hillier, a junior studying zoology and marine biology, took this road after arriving at MSU after being unable to find ways to learn how to fight in his home town.
“As a freshman at Michigan State I saw it was an option as a class, so I ended up taking the boxing one conditioning class here at Crown,” Hillier, 20, said. “Loved it, stuck with it for all three levels of the class, competed last year, became a TA last year for the beginner class I took my freshman year, now I'm still here boxing a part of the team and the club.”
Hiller, a native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, isn’t yet sure if he will be fighting in Milwaukee, as the team has not yet been named by Easley. But he hopes to have a potential homecoming and a chance to make the card as a light heavyweight.
“It would be great because all my family and friends are from Wisconsin, I got some family in Michigan which is one of the reasons I'm here at Michigan State,” Hillier said. “But it’d be really cool to be able to fight for a home crowd and have a bunch of my friends come to Milwaukee and all my friends from Madison.”
