Page 18

voice
PlentyoffightleftatFraziergym
“Boxing has made my life
better, because instea d of me
being out on the streets, I’m
here,” he said, interrupted
briefly when Joe Frazier
walked into the room and
greeted the member s of the
Urban Journalism Workshop. Harris, 15, attends Benjamin Franklin High School
and says that he gets good
grades. He began boxing at
age 9 and now coaches young-
By LETINA MELTON
Vivid Voice
He was one of the top 10 world boxing
contender s. His father is consider ed one
of the greatest heavyweight boxing
champions in history. He put on his first
gloves at the age of 15 and felt the adrenaline rush that has lasted a lifetime . Some
say that boxing is in Marvis Frazier’s
blood, especially having Joe Frazier as a
father.
After Joe Frazier lost a match against
George Foreman in 1976, he boug ht the
Cloverlay Gym on North Broad Street
and later named it after himself . Today,
Marvis Frazier works there as a mentor
and mana ging the gym by “influencing
by example .”
The gym, with its sweat stains on the
floor, tape on the punching bags and several poster s of famous boxers from the
past and present is a training ground for
a wide range of individual from 8-yearold boys to grown women. Marvis Frazier coaches there, not only to train boxers physically but also mentally . He
gives enc ouragement by placing on the
walls large poster s that give boxers a positive look on life. For instanc e, “10 Power
Punches for Life” expresses that education is power and winner s never quit. He
teaches them how to be hard workers by
guidanc e such as “bec ome a good amateur before you bec ome a good professional.”
Man y childr en attend the gym as well
as adults. The gym is predominantly
male, but out of the many boxers who
train there, three are women.
Frazier said that most of the people
who attend the gym do so to lose weight,
cope with self-esteem issues or look for a
dream. Jermaine Harris is one of those
By JESSICA LOPEZ
Vivid Voice
Terry Elman was addicted to
gambling . In his lifetime he’d
lost two houses, multiple cars,
tons of mone y. He’d gone to jail
on more than one occasion.
As he shared his story, his
body became more rigid, his
voice shaky, and his eyes teared
with regret.
When he was 50 years old he
PAGE 18
PHOTOS: MICHAIAH HALEY/Vivid Voice
Marvis (above left) and Joe
Frazier plan to expand
their gym. Tony Hicks
(above right) instructs
Troy Green (left) and
Joshua Jones (center.)
dreamer s. He prepar es himself for matches with a sixday, four-hour
regimen.
Ther e he’s learning discipline and also developing a
safe haven.
er childr en. With a record of 58-5 , Harris
wants to turn his hunger for boxing into
a career by bec oming a professional. He
will be one step closer later this month
when he participa tes in a three-day tournament in Las Vegas.
Marvis Frazier plans to turn the gym
into the Joe Frazier Center. He wants to
expand the building and turn the gym into a “touch and feel” museum. Thing s
that will be added are tutoring and afterschool programs that will be open to children, computer programming and physical therapy. Also, he would like to have a
spin room, track room and amphitheater with a parking lot for the public .
The initial estima ted cost for these renovations was between $400,000 and
$500, 000, althoug h Frazier admitted
that the projected cost has risen.
There are times when people pick up
the hobb y of boxing just because they
think it will make them tough or that it will
help them to beat up a bully in school. But
Frazier said that he doesn’t instruct his
boxers to harm anyone; instea d, he tells
them it’s about “living and walking away
so they can talk about it another day.”
He said to those who criticize the
sport as simply an excuse for violenc e:
“That’s not the rules of the game. It
should never be that you get involved in
boxing just to hurt someone else. It’s a
competition. It’s a sport. You notic e that
most of these guys, unles s there’s some
animosit y against each other, when the
last bell rings after the last round, what
do those guys do? They hug each other.
They embr ace each other because , you
know, it’s a sport.” i
Fourteen-year-old Troy Green (left)
works out under the watchful eye of
Marvis Frazier.
Gambling’s cost often more than money
reached a crossroads.
“My kids took me to dinner,
and basically told me either I let
them take me to a GA [Gamblers Anon ymous] meeting and
stick with it, or they didn’t want
anything to do with me,” he
said.
He stopped gambling and re-
gained control of his life.
When did Elman start this destructiv e habit ?
At the seeming ly innoc ent age
of 9.
Gambling among youth today
is a growing problem.
“All you need is a dream and a
dollar” to get started, Elman
V I V I D
V O I C E
said. Like Elman, many people
start gambling at an early age.
Wha t starts as a simple game of
marbles, flipping or playing
cards can easily escala te into a
life twisted with the constant
struggle for mone y, lies, and
even death. Surprising ly, it’s often the gambler’s own family
that introduc es him to gambling, never intending him any
harm. Outside family influenc e,
gambling is everyw here —
chur ch bingos, raffles, online
poker and offic e basketball
pools, for example .
Because Elman has experienced a life addicted to gambling, he visits about 70 schools
Continued on Next Page
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2007