{"id":701053,"date":"2026-05-28T23:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701053\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:58:11","slug":"she-found-structure-thanks-to-boxing-now-shes-giving-teens-a-second-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701053\/","title":{"rendered":"She found structure thanks to boxing. Now she\u2019s giving teens a second chance."},"content":{"rendered":"

This story<\/a> first appeared on The LA Local<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boxing has never just been about throwing punches for Daysi Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people say boxing saves lives, we don\u2019t mean that superficially,\u201d Garcia said, a Pico Union native and boxing coach at gang intervention programs across Los Angeles. \u201cWe literally see boxing save people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

That belief has become visible in young people like Elijah Rivera. The teen\u2019s father Daniel Lopez said his son was able to avoid returning to juvenile hall after Garcia advocated for him in court and connected him to her boxing program.<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe showed up on his behalf as a third-party program,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cThat ultimately helped him with his case. She really does dive deep into these kids and gets real personal with them. She cares about all aspects of their lives. It\u2019s not just in boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez said his son, now 17, was able to complete probation while participating in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real good diversion for him to be able to focus on boxing instead of the streets,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cHe was able to ultimately turn his life around.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Garcia, stories like Elijah\u2019s reflect the kind of impact she hoped she could have through boxing. Over the last several years, Garcia has helped young people across Lincoln Heights and Echo Park build confidence through boxing and mentorship in gang intervention programs. And now she\u2019s also back in Pico Union coaching at the Graff Lab, in the same gym where she once trained herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my neighborhood didn\u2019t invest in me, I wouldn\u2019t be who I am today,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cSo being able to pay it forward is a big deal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old started the program because she saw firsthand the impact boxing had on her own life.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Pico Union to Mexican immigrant parents, Garcia said she first discovered boxing around age 20 through a gang intervention program connected to the University of Southern California boxing team. At the time, she said she was struggling to find direction in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked for me,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cTraining in a neighborhood gym alongside collegiate boxers helped put me on a pathway back to college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six months later, Garcia said she found herself in college. She eventually earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from Mount Saint Mary\u2019s University and years later enrolled at Southwestern Law School, where she completed her first year of law school before taking time off during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

It was during that break that Garcia began working at PUC Excel Charter Academy, a charter school in Lincoln Heights, where students were barred from playing traditional sports because of COVID-19 restrictions. Garcia proposed creating a boxing fundamentals program as a way to keep students engaged after school and off the streets.<\/p>\n

Within the first week, between 20 and 30 students signed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive, six years later, those students are still with me training,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Garcia first launched the boxing program in Lincoln Heights during the height of the pandemic. The program later expanded to El Centro del Pueblo in Echo Park and eventually it will also be held at the Graff Lab in Pico Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Silvia Martinez, an 18-year-old immigrant from Michoac\u00e1n, Mexico, joining the boxing program in Echo Park was a way to build discipline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working on that because in the future I want to go into the army,\u201d Martinez said in Spanish. \u201cThe first few times I started boxing, I was scared of getting hit, but now it feels normal to me. I like it because Daysi and the other coaches make you feel safe and supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s programs now offer mentorship, literacy support through a boxing-themed book club, court support for young people involved in the juvenile justice system, college guidance, emotional support and conversations around the school-to-prison pipeline and students\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

Garcia said she and members of the boxing team often show up to court hearings to advocate for students like Rivera and demonstrate to judges that they have community support systems behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started my boxing program to help students get off the streets and get students out of juvenile hall,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI really want to finish my law degree because I\u2019m passionate about juvenile justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia was recognized for her work this week at Los Angeles City Hall by Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, an honor she said felt emotional because many of her students were standing beside her during the recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people celebrate me, it\u2019s not just me,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI want my students to know they deserve to be celebrated this way too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia also played a role in the creation of the inaugural World Boxing Council collegiate amateur belt with the USC boxing team. Now collegiate boxers can compete for a WBC-recognized title. Garcia also said students in the program have received scholarships through the Los Angeles Collegiate Boxing Scholarship initiative she created.<\/p>\n

For grandparents like Marcela Sanchez, even though her grandchildren aren\u2019t competing in boxing, she\u2019s also seen how the program has affected them positively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sanchez said she saw changes in two of her grandchildren after they joined Garcia\u2019s boxing classes and other youth activities connected to the program, including art, sewing and tutoring programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk more, they understand more, they listen more. Their behavior is way different now from the beginning,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

Garcia said one of the biggest misconceptions about her work is that the hardest part is dealing with students or the courts. In reality, she said, the biggest challenges are often securing funding, transportation and safe spaces for youth.<\/p>\n

Still, Garcia said she continues to push students with a disciplined but trauma-informed coaching style that she believes helps them build resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in this together, we want to see our students succeed,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we want to see more boxing gyms in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story first appeared on The LA Local. Boxing has never just been about throwing punches for Daysi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1108,341363,341364,341365,341366,341367,85],"class_list":["post-701053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-court","tag-echo-park","tag-gang-intervention-programs","tag-lincoln-heights","tag-pico-union","tag-second-chance","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}