In the 10 years Dale Gatin has coached and operated the Mission Boxing Club, his goal has always been to produce quality kids and quality boxers. The sport changed his life at an early age, and Gatin wants to make sure the present generation is given the same opportunity he was.
“My vision is to help the kids in the community, help them with their confidence and their self-esteem and get them on the right road,” he says.
In the years Gatin has spent coaching, he’s trained six national champions, a Canada Games medallist, and golden gloves and silver gloves winners. Now he’s partnering with Abbotsford’s Mamba Martial Arts Academy to bring the renamed Abbotsford Mission Boxing Club to a new venue and a new city.
Gatin is offering youth and adult classes at the academy on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The boxing club is a non-profit with grants available for kids unable to pay the regular training fees.
Some of the Abbotsford Mission Boxing Club’s most enthusiastic advocates are its current students. Owen Bergen, 17, and brother Carson Dyck, 13, have trained with Gatin for more than three years in Mission and each have around 10 amateur fights under their belts.
“[Gatin] looks after everybody,” says Bergen. “He’s taught me so much … when I first started I was just not fit at all, I was pretty sad to look at [laughs]. He changed a lot about me, gave me a lot of confidence, gave me a lot of self esteem.”
Further info on the Abbotsford Mission Boxing Club can be found at www.missionboxing.com or 604-826-1455.