Powell had a new club join the town: Post 26 Boxing Club. Powell High School’s Mr. David Holland and Mr. Tim Heine organized the boxing club to promote community involvement and overall enjoyment for the participants.
“The Post 26 Boxing Club officially started in January of 2024,” Heine said. “However, Mr. Holland and myself started working on getting it started around October of 2023. So far, we have hosted four Fight Nights and have a few more in the works for this year.”
Fight Nights allow competitors to show off their skills in front of an audience. These events also help build the kids’ confidence and help guide them in physical activity.
“Our Fight Nights are designed to be the main way that our participants can showcase the skills they have learned, and the hard work they have put into their training,” Heine said. “It also gives them some ring time which helps them get ready for the much larger boxing tournaments that we participate in. We also host the Fight Nights to try and pick up some donations for our program, as we are a Non-Profit Organization.”
Since the beginning of the club, inclusion has been the main goal. Getting the word out to publicize has been key to their rapid success. Even if they aren’t actively participating, having a crowd to observe shows the support the community has for this club.
“For each of the events we have hosted, we have had an average of about 200 people in the audience,” Heine said. “The most recent Fight Night we hosted at The Commons here in Powell we had roughly 250 people in the seats, and standing, to watch our competitors.”
Kendal Eden, a senior at PHS, is a close contributor to the club. She helps watch the adolescent and supports the parents as much as she can with her involvement.
“I think the kids have a lot of fun,” Eden said. “I’ll watch a new kid and they’ll be really shy and closed off at first, but then they start to laugh more and have fun.”
The club’s publicity began in the high school and made its way to all ages through the younger schools. Many risks come with boxing, especially safety. Since the club deals with almost all ages, safety is their number one concern.
“The participants in our club range from ages 5 and up,” Heine said. “We have 3 different classes that we work with: 5-11 years old, 12-18 years old, and 19 and up. We take safety very seriously at our boxing club. Each of the coaches are trained to properly teach boxing techniques, as well as being trained to protect our participants. We use all up-to-date training and safety equipment, such as appropriate headgear, mouth guards, wrist wraps, and regulation gloves. Our younger boxers, those under 11 years old, use oversized inflatable gloves in their matches for safety reasons. We also follow all USA Boxing safety regulations.”
The Boxing Club is assisted by locals, and organizers appreciate the contributions of volunteers and supporters.
“There are so many people and groups that help out with the program and organizing the Fight Nights that I don’t think I could name them all,” Heine said. “We have had so much help from the parents and community during this first year…We have participants from all over the Big Horn Basin and state, coming to Powell to train for, and participate in the Post 26 Boxing Club Fight Nights.”
