HOUSTON \u2013 After two Houston teenagers were shot and killed near their high schools, 4 Corners Boxing Gym on the north side of the city, is stepping up to offer free youth boxing programming aimed at steering kids away from violence.<\/p>\n
The deaths of 15-year-old Royce Witchet and 17-year-old LePaul Warren Jr. rocked the Houston community. Warren\u2019s family held a remembrance walk and called for active mentorship and expanded youth programming \u2014 a call that 4 Corners Boxing Gym answered.<\/p>\n
Their goal? To teach kids the importance of their actions while helping them recognize how much they can contribute to society.<\/p>\n
Boxing as a path to discipline<\/p>\n
For some, boxing has already proven to be life-changing. Levar Adams Jr. says the sport reshaped his entire outlook.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoxing definitely changed my whole perspective on life. It helped me with discipline. It helped me be a better person. You know, learn how to control myself. Most importantly, once I started boxing, it helped me a lot, and I distanced myself from the trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
That kind of transformation is exactly what gym part-owner Gee Githoro and Adams Jr.\u2019s father, Levar Adams Sr., hope to replicate for Houston\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n
A father\u2019s fight<\/p>\n
For Adams Sr., the stakes are deeply personal. As a single father, he has seen firsthand how quickly a young person can head down the wrong path without proper guidance \u2014 even his own son was not immune.<\/p>\n
Adams Sr. described the challenges his son faced at a young age, and how he very easily could have ended up down the wrong path.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne bad decision is over with, you know. He\u2019d been through a lot, real young. He\u2019d been through a house being shot up. He\u2019d been through, you know, police raids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams Sr. says the absence of a positive role model creates a dangerous void.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not in their life, they\u2019re going to go to the street to get motivated. And somebody that\u2019s on the street is going to be that mentor, but it\u2019s going to be in a bad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why boxing works<\/p>\n
It may seem counterintuitive to use a combat sport to address community violence \u2014 but Adams Sr. says the discipline learned in the ring is exactly the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they boxing in the ring, you know they talk trash to each other\u2026 I\u2019m gonna do this to your mom. I\u2019m gonna do this to your dad. That\u2019s not gonna faze him,\u201d Adams Sr. said. \u201cBut to a kid on the street, you say that to them, and they don\u2019t have that discipline. What you think they\u2019re gonna do? They\u2019re gonna run to gun violence and try to hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams Sr. also notes that coaches are uniquely positioned to spot kids who may be struggling emotionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause when you\u2019re a coach, you can actually see certain things like that. You know, you could look at a kid and like, okay, he\u2019s kind of disturbed.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the earlier that mentorship begins, the better.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you start that at an early age, like it basically sticks with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
A renovated space, a long-term mission<\/p>\n
Githoro says a renovated space will be ready by November 1, where youth will have access to several months of free programming in a safe, structured environment. But Githoro is clear that solving youth gun violence requires more than a temporary fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with these council members, we\u2019re working with these congressmen to be able to have these funds, to be able to have these resources, to be able to have the community come together, so we can have that opportunity for these kids, you know, to be able to train for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Githoro and Adams Sr., the message is simple: investing in young people today is the only way to build a safer future for everyone.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 After two Houston teenagers were shot and killed near their high schools, 4 Corners Boxing Gym…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[485647,64,63,802,18864,17846,5145,85,7813,9963],"class_list":["post-917561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-4-corners-boxing-gym","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-discipline","tag-free","tag-houston","tag-sports","tag-violence","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917561","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=917561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}