'It’s in their blood': B.C.’s only Indigenous boxing team vows to keep punching despite loss of funding
Inside the ring, a team of Nanaimo boxers are finely tuned athletes looking to compete and win, but recently Team 700 took a punch that buckled their collective knees.
The 10-member youth boxing club is B.C.’s only all-Indigenous team.
“Everyone of these youth are warriors,” said head coach Ivy Richardson. “It’s in their blood.”
The inclusive squad allows different tribes and genders to skip, shadowbox and spar side-by-side, but the team recently lost a key member, its financial backer.
“I was notified June 30 and it was effective immediately,” said Richardson.
“Our rent was due the next day so it put us in a tough position,” she added. “So we are fundraising so we can stay together in the interim.”
Started in 2019, Team 700 is a youth boxing club aimed at keeping children focused on school while arming them with athletic abilities they may not get without a structured group.
“The goal is just to give are Indigenous youth a safe place to get the tools they need to navigate life,” Richardson told CTV News.
The modus operandi appears to be working.
As she wraps her hands in preparation of a sparring match, teenager Kiana Peters describes what the group means to her. “It means, like, happiness.”
Across the gym, heavy-hitting 21-year-old Trent Jack says the team is like a family as he slams his fists into a punching bag.
“It’s important for, I’d say, my well being,” he says. “It’s my passion.”
Team leadership doesn’t want to publicize who their former financial backer is. The pugilists do, however, need help to stay in the ring.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help cover their annual costs, which currently total around $40,000.
So far, the fundraiser has collected approximately $7,000.
Richardson is dismayed by the loss of funding, but is vowing to keep her eyes firmly on the future and team expansion.
Team 700 has been wildly popular among Vancouver Island First Nations youth and the team has a waiting list.
Richardson wants to expand her coaching team and get more ring time.
The head coach believes the team’s annual budget could soon top out near $75,000.
“We’ve started something really great and we aren’t going anywhere,” she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.