Saving local children two gloves at a time

If you want your kid to learn the Queen’s English and not hear some cuss words, don’t bring him to Coach Lloyd Stewart’s boxing gym.

But that’s not what it’s for.

The gym is about right and left hooks, footwork, and pummeling your opponent to the canvas, while wearing gloves and headgear, and the youngest kid doing this right now is 5-years-old, so he mostly spars and drills, and does not know yet what it is to take a truly hard jab. But his time is coming. Boxing is about being consistent and being disciplined with your craft, says Coach Lloyd, and you have to discipline yourself to be consistent.

The coach’s program is called P.A.P. which stands for Pro Athletic Performance, and it has already seen results.

We talk about the need for mentors and blue ribbon panels to combat the subculture of violence that rules the lives of some young men on the streets and roads of Houma and Terrebonne. What Coach Lloyd knows through hard experience is that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. There are ways that violence, in its proper context, can fight violence. And there is a big difference between the lure of the ring and the lure of the gun, and right now the guns are winning. The boxing is not for every kid, but there are a lot who can benefit, if they want to take part. The way the Coach explains it is that the gym kids become a family, in a context where there are leaders, men who make demands and don’t take bull, and in this way there are changes that happen to these boys and men one at a time.

“You can’t be a part-time mentor, because if you mentor part-time you punch out, it becomes a job,” says Coach Lloyd. He doesn’t award trophies, he awards belts and if you hope to wear one you’d better be willing and able to earn it. “When they get it, their demeanor, their confidence, brings light to their eyes.”

“I was lucky, I had a coach, and my coach was who called me and was concerned about my being. I knew he cared, and I knew that I needed to prove myself to him if he was going to keep on teaching me. I wanted what he had,” says Coach Lloyd, who has literally snatched some kids from the Juvenile Detention Center immediately after their exits. They didn’t go back.

Some of the leaders in our community know about all this, and have been supportive, and not just because there was publicity to be had.

Councilwoman Arlanda Williams sponsored plane tickets and lodging for three kids to go to Kansas City. Councilman John Navy sponsored rooms for an Atlanta trip. Councilman Al Marmande helped sponsor an event that included a visit from Evander Holyfield. Marmande also showed up Saturday at a car wash, over by O’Reilly’s on Tunnel Boulevard. It all helps in a program where the coach, who wants no kid left behind, has even served as a chauffeur.

The point here is that a lot more can be done with a project like this, if there is more help. More kids need to participate and the parents, too, as many as can be had to overcome the absence of others. Coach Lloyd knows that the parents need to be motivated. And yes, there is a role for the moms and the grandmas. They sew patches. They sell raffle tickets. This is important in a world where mothers have to be fathers and sometimes grandmas need to be moms. If the moms and grandmas need a friend the coach’s wife, Delilah, who is from Dulac, is always around. She’s quite a fighter as well.

The program isn’t free, but there are ways – constructive ways – that the Stewarts have to ensure inclusion. If a kid can get to the gym or wants to be brought there, they maintain that anything is possible.

To find out more call 832-483-1174 or check them out on Facebook under Houma Boxing Gym. Or visit at 155 N. Hollywood Road.

Coach Lloyd’s program is not a panacea and doesn’t claim to be. But it is a solution for some, and solutions these days are in very short supply. •