By Jody Jewers, Editor, The Sport Section
When Custio Clayton and wife Charis decided to move back to Nova Scotia in 2022, it did not mean boxing was no longer part of their lives.
The Dartmouth-born Clayton, a six-time national amateur champion who competed for Canada at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and fought professionally for 10 years, compiling a 20-1-1 record, credits his wife for coming up with the idea of giving back to the community through the Box It Out Association, which is dedicated to supporting youth, particularly at-risk children.
“This is where my career started, so it seemed like a full-circle moment to be involved the way others were when I was a kid growing up, to give them the same opportunity that I had,” says Clayton.
“Where we come from, we see some youth that struggle with things like anger issues and ways to express themselves emotionally in a safe environment,” says Charis. “And we felt that was something we could help with, to provide that safe space.”
The association partnered with the Preston Boys and Girls Club for outreach, offering sessions once per week beginning in May, with ages 12-15 on Tuesdays and ages 9-11 on Fridays at the East Preston Recreation Centre. Box It Out also received support from Sport Nova Scotia’s EDIA Funding for this program.
Registration filled quickly, with 15 participants in each group. Clayton said a typical session focuses as much on mental and social skills as it does with any basic physical skills that come with learning to box.
“It’s a real challenge for some of these kids, especially in a group setting, because some of them are pretty shy, and you want to try and get them out of their comfort zone a little bit,” says Clayton. “So a lot of it at first was just trying to communicate and have them open up a little and you try to do some physical things as part of that, like skipping rope or punching a heavy bag.
“You want them to see how far they can go and what they are capable of. One of the first things I told them was, ‘There’s no such thing as can’t. It’s how can I do it? What do I need to do?’”
Charis adds: “Just because they’re learning how to box, it doesn’t mean that it’s something that they should take outside and get involved in a fight. The goal is to channel any aggression they might have into something positive.”
Clayton says the goal is to grow the program with more sessions and they’re looking to add more people to be involved on the instructional side. There is already a waitlist for participants for the next sessions and they’re gauging interest in offering an all-female program that incorporates strength training, boxing fundamentals and improving nutrition and dietary habits.
“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on what we’ve been able to do so far,” says Charis. “And we hope to do more as we go forward. The first six weeks went well and now we just want to be able to build from that.”
