By Tina Depko
It’s just after 6 p.m. on a Monday night and the basement of the Boys and Girls Club in Centretown is filled with 15 sweaty bodies stretching and throwing punches.
A gray-haired man stands with a young boxer, demonstrating the proper stance for a left jab.
The teacher is Ron Gervais. Without him, the gym would be empty.
Gervais is the new head coach of the Gale Kerwin Boxing Club, which runs out of the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club on Nepean Street.
For the past five years, Gervais has assisted Kerwin in coaching local fighters, including troubled youth as well as those who had nowhere else to train.
The death of 66-year-old Kerwin, caused by heart transplant complications on Sept. 19, deeply affected the fighters. Some like Mike Milligan questioned the future of the club.
“We were devastated when Gale died,” says Milligan, a boxer in his 20s. “We didn’t know what was going to happen to the club.”
But Gervais knew what he had to do. A long-time friend of Kerwin’s and a devout believer in the club’s mission, becoming head coach was not an issue.
“I’ve been with the club from the start so it made sense for me to do this,” says Gervais, 68.
Born and raised in Centretown, Gervais had an early interest in boxing. He modestly admits that he boxed “a bit as an amateur,” and has a dozen fights to his name.
Gervais says his goal is to keep the club going as Kerwin did for the past five years.
“He was a hard-working fella and he showed the kids that nothing comes easy in life, including boxing, and that you have to work hard for it,” he says. “You have to put effort into it to get the rewards, so he was a good example for that.”
Claude Turgeon, the executive director of the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club, agrees that Kerwin set an excellent example for the young fighters.
“There are quite a few kids that have grown up with Gale at the club here and spent many hours training and becoming better boxers, so I think he certainly left a legacy behind that is going to be remembered for a long time,” he says.
He adds that Kerwin was an excellent leader who not only developed the boxers’ physical potential, but also their character.
“Besides the physical attributes of being fit, boxing also builds self-esteem and helps people with their own self-confidence,” Turgeon says. “It is also an opportunity to work one-on-one with a mentor and a good role model.”
Gary Recollet, a 31-year-old regular at the boxing club, says that learning to control his temper was an important lesson Kerwin taught him.
“This is a rough area (of the city) where fighting is a part of life,” Recollet explains. “The club is a place to release stress, and from my own personal experience, it keeps me out of trouble.”
For many of the boxers, Kerwin’s lessons on strength were what helped them through their period of mourning and inspired them to get back into the ring.
“Gale taught me to never quit and to keep going,” says 24-year-old Edmundo Roa. “He also taught me to be strong, both physically and emotionally.”
And these lessons continue to be nurtured under Gervais’ careful eye. Milligan, Recollet and Roa say it’s great that their assistant coach has taken over, and they emphasize that it has been a smooth transition.
“We’re all getting settled in again,” Milligan explains.
“But like Gale, Ron is a good person and a good coach, and still having the opportunity to box is what really matters to me.”