I was a photography student in college the first time I went to a boxing match. I talked my way into the event and was given the opportunity to shoot the bouts ringside with a 50mm lens and my elbows resting on the ring. It was my first boxing experience and I was hooked.
As years went on and I became a mother, I stopped going to matches. When my daughter was six, I asked if she would like to attend a Summer Slugfest event at Western Speedway. The evening showcased boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts. After that evening she was hooked, too. Watching combat sports became one of our favourite mother-daughter bonding activities.
During a conversation with Langford Mayor Stew Young about boxing, he told me he recently brought his son to the Emerald Gloves Tournament in November at City Centre Park.
For nearly 20 years, the City of Langford has been emphasizing its desire to bring more high-end sporting facilities to the West Shore. It reminds me of the film Field of Dreams from the late 1980s, with the catchphrase: “If you build it, he will come.”
“If we don’t build the facilities, we lose out on opportunities,” Young said, speaking of all the sporting facilities and high-calibre teams training in Langford.
Langford is a leader in sports development and recreation facilities, as has been demonstrated time and again, spanning turf fields and stadiums to a wave pool and bowling alley. I have lived, worked, or lived and worked on the West Shore for more than 10 years. During this time, I have seen these strides firsthand.
Many years ago, I interviewed Young when the first turf field was being installed at City Centre Park. He explained the goal Langford had to become a sports hub. He said his childhood experiences playing on team sports taught him how to be a leader and how to work with colleagues as a team.
He talked about city council’s goals to attract Olympic athletes and to have top-quality facilities. It’s incredible to think back to that conversation and see Young’s words demonstrated in measurable outcomes.
This week will be another milestone in Langford’s accomplishments as a sporting leader in our capital region and beyond. The city is hosting the 2019 Super Channel Championships from April 23 to 27, which doubles as the national boxing competition. The bouts are taking place in two rings simultaneously on the clay tennis courts at Bear Mountain Resort.
For the past year, Bryan Colwell, two-time Canadian heavyweight boxing champion, has been training to defend his title.
“Boxing is going through a resurgence. In my opinion, it is the pinnacle of combat sports,” Colwell said. “MMA is a combination of five different sports. In boxing, there are six attacks and three defences; it’s a perfection of nine moves.”
Colwell works at Bear Mountain as a bartender and was ecstatic to hear these championships were going to be held there, giving him the home-field advantage.
During the first week of April, Colwell competed in the Pan-Am Games pre-qualifier and secured his spot on Team Canada’s A Team. This win landed his name on the roster for the Pan-Am Games in Peru in July.
While this is great for Colwell and our country, he won’t be fighting at the 2019 Super Channel Championships, because his recent win secured his spot on Team Canada for a third year. Colwell will attend and will be bartending at the event.
Colwell’s next goal is to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and he’s confident he’ll earn a spot in the qualifiers.
“I will be the one going to the Olympics qualifier; no one is going to take my crown,” said Colwell.
Boxing is another event Langford is adding to its list of sporting facilities. Young said Langford is adding a boxing gym to City Centre Park in the next year. This facility can help bring up the next generation of boxers in Langford.
“We need to support our kids who aspire to go farther in sport,” Young said. “When building sport facilities, we go a little bit better than the community standards. Right now, we have over 100 Olympic athletes in our city, and that will continue to grow.”
Charla Huber is the director of communications and Indigenous relations for M’akola Group of Societies.
