Jose Saenz (right), 18, works out with friend Kyle Cantu at the Whatsoever Community Center at 1201 Ewing Ave. Saenz won a $1,500 scholarship for his boxing.

Whatsoever Community Center director Charlie Gascich sees the boxing club in the center’s basement as a place where kids can get away from the dangers of a rough neighborhood.  For 18-year-old Jose Saenz, the club also has provided help paying for college. 

Saenz received the Bill Daniels Courage Award, a scholar-athlete scholarship from Golden Gloves of America. He won out over about 300 applicants nationwide and plans to use the money to help pay his tuition at Rockhurst University this fall.

“It shows we are really making a difference,” Gascich said of the scholarship. “We are recharged, and the kids have someone to look up to — they have Jose.”  Saenz got interested in boxing through his older brother.  “He was always teaching me stuff at home,” he said. Saenz had played basketball and baseball but took his first trip down the steps to the boxing club in fourth grade.

The Whatsoever center at 1201 Ewing Ave. is housed in a brick schoolhouse built in 1889. The boxing club is in the windowless basement.  The ring rises from a thick wooden frame believed to have been built when the club opened in 1942. The newness of the ring’s blue floor and red ropes is a sharp contrast to the room’s crumbling white stone walls.  The club is free to anyone age 8 to 34.
There’s a regular at the club from the Northland and one from Independence and a couple of girls, but it’s mostly boys from the neighborhood who come to box. Kids like Saenz.  “My goal is to get as many kids here as many nights as we possibly can,” Gascich said. Saenz knew boxing would keep him out of trouble. What he didn’t expect is how the sport helped him focus on school, on work and on goals. 

Saenz graduated last Saturday from Van Horn High School. He was class president and finished eighth in his class academically. He was active in Junior ROTC, earning a rank of a battalion executive officer and participating in the rifle team. He also worked part time at his neighborhood QuikTrip.
Saenz received the scholarship earlier this month at the Golden Gloves of America tournament of champions in Grand Rapids, Mich. It was his second trip to that tournament and his best ranking. He made it to the quarterfinals.  “It was a close fight; the decision just didn’t go my way,” Saenz said.  The $1,500 will be combined with other scholarships. Saenz wants to become an accountant. He also plans to train for a shot at the 2012 Olympics.

“Everything is possible,” Saenz said. “If you put in a lot of hard work, if you are dedicated, if you want it, you can get it.”
-KC STAR-