(upbeat music) - November 2012, I started the gym, with the intent on pulling all the inner city kids I could into the gym and make sure they graduate high school and they get leadership skills, life skills and become productive citizens.

(upbeat music) - He's sore most days, you know, he's a veteran.

So I mean, he's had a lot of injuries and but he keeps pushing through regardless of the pain, he just, you know, he'll compromise.

Like he'll sit down on the store or something, you know but he still gets up and does it and still fights through and pushes through.

(upbeat music) - Got injured and it's hard for me.

Sometimes it's really hard for me because I have to sit down a lot cause I got bad arthritis, I've had back surgery, I've got pins and plates in my ankles - No matter how tired he is or how sore he is or how many times he's falling down or he keeps getting back up and keeps doing it because he looks at well, "the kids need me here."

You know, "the kids need me open the gym, the kids they need an outlet."

So he's not selfish.

He's selfless - A lot of people don't know you know he spends his own money You know, putting on an event then, you know, for the gym and kids, you know, getting out of school really look forward to that.

I mean, that's very important right there (punches thudding) that's his whole life (squeaking) (punches thudding) (squeaking) (thuds) - When the army VA decided to back pay me, I took the money in this gym, stocked it the ring, the bags everything.

(upbeat music) I thought if I put a program together that taught these kids life skills that I could save a lot of lives turn a lot of kids around and make sure they graduate high school and they get leadership skills and life skills.

I have learned, you know it takes a lot more patience and sometimes you're willing to give, but you know, you gotta look at the overall outcome.

If I take that extra 30 minutes with this kid is it gonna be worth it in the long run, is that extra 30 minutes gonna be the one time that I say or do something that turns this kid around.

(upbeat music) - In the heyday, in the 60s, 70s, 80s the Springfield Boys Club had Golden Gloves teams that went all over the place and there were good boxers, BJ Flores competed in some event, Darrell of course was, was a champion.

(upbeat music) - Golden Gloves and Professional boxing's very deep in this town, back then they used to have Tuesday Night, Friday Night, Fights at the Shrine and back in those days, Springfield Golden Gloves was so big.

It was a three, four day tournament.

And back in those days, you couldn't fight in the open division of the Kansas City Golden gloves or the novice division, unless you won Joplin Carthage or Springfield Golden Glove.

Man there was no place on earth, like the old Henderson unit, the Boys Club the Henderson unit, right across the street from Pipkin Junior High School which is where I went to junior high school as well, and that's where I won my first Golden Glove title that could lead outta Joplin that could lead to the Kansas City Golden Gloves at the young age of 12 or 13, I believe I was back then.

When I came back to this town I thought it was a shame that all the kids that that Golden Gloves Program saved through boxing at the Boys Club.

I thought it was a shame that it had died and I just made it my mission to bring it back.

- [Voice From crowd] C'mon Darrell!

- [Commentator 1] Darrell Smith against Elmer Wilks.

Darrell, in the green trunks, without the headgear (crowd talking) what's Darrell style of fighting.

- [Commentator 2] He's very evasive.

You'll see him He'll switch from fighting left-handed to maybe he'll take a right-hand stance right now.

He's saying a left-handed stance.

(crowd cheering) - Darrell Congratulations on your fight.

What was your key to victory?

- Well, I just wanted to carry the fight through three three minute rounds assault.

I mainly want to carry to fight now point the guy out boxing from that's all.

- Yeah, it didn't seem like there was a lot of actions especially late in the fight.

What was that reason for?

- Well, he's sort of short stocky guy and he has a lot of power inside so I want to keep him on the outside and keep my jab in his face.

Just work everything off the jab and just outpoint him.

- What was probably your most effective punch?

- I'd say my right right hook.

- Darrell congratulations.

- Hey, thanks a lot.

(upbeat music) - When you were, when you were coming up, when you were a kid there's got to have been a moment when you said to yourself this is really what I wanna pursue.

I don't wanna play football or baseball or anything like that.

- I'd have to say that was my, I mean 100% sure would have been my eighth grade year at Pipkin Junior High when McManus, it might've been my seventh grade, one of the two.

And he came after practice and he said, "haven't seen a kid with your drive before."

And he said, "you're, you're sitting outside the door "when I get here for boxing practicing "you're always the last one to leave" and he said, "at first, when I saw you, "I thought, this kid is the only black kid I've ever seen.

"that has absolutely no rhythm, no coordination.

(laughs) "I thought there was no chance of you "ever becoming a boxer."

And he really told me that.

(laughs) And, that made me wanna stick with it but then, when I was the youngest one in the nationals in 82 he told you or the newspaper one that I was quite possibly the best fighter, he ever trained.

- The days back in the army when you went to the command.

- Yeah and when I entered and he said, "well, I need you to enter a battalion championships during American week" Which is the 82nd Airborne division all American week.

They have the battalion Boxing Championships.

- They have everything.

- They have everything.

They do it every year, they still do it to this year.

I knocked everybody out at 156.

- How many others were there?

- Four and three days later the all army boxing team was calling - There you go (chuckles) there you go - And telling me, we wanna try to get this kid on the team and we wanna try to help him make it to the Olympic trials.

- When you were on that all army team, - God - Who were some of the other fighters that... - Oh my God, Oh, Anthony Hambrick was on my team, made it all the way to the Olympics and Eddie cook, who went on to win the Bantamweight Championship of the world.

He won the IBF, who I'm still good friends with now and who I talked in, to becoming a USA boxing, official - Ray Merciless, Mercer - We had some, me and him had some good times together in all Army Camp out at Fort Huachuca Arizona.

He went on to win a gold medal in 88 and then beat Tommy Morrison for the WBO heavy weight championship brutally knocked him out.

- I met Smitty in 1985 and I went back to all Army Camp in 1988, which was the Olympic year.

I mean, when I met him 1985, we had so much fun, I mean, you know we was in the all Army Camp and we all became brothers then.

I just want everybody to know what kind of man this man really is and he does a lot like I said for these kids and that's why I come here - I love the kids I love developing kids that's my ultimate goal in life now.

I'm gonna ask you we have two donation jars here I think they are out front and we're gonna bring one in here and I'm gonna ask you to put whatever you can in them cause we're taking two kids to the Olympic qualifier.

Luis Velasquez and Arturo Moreno of Central High School (audience applauding) (upbeat music) Doctor tells me now, only let my assistant coach go up the steps and work the corners and I try to do that, I try so hard cause there's been a couple of times I've actually fell in here and scared the heck out of the kids - Don't do that - Ruptured my achilles tendon one time because of this, but you know, saving these kids' lives.

I feel like who else do they have?

When they told me I didn't need to be working, I fought it for two years and everybody kept telling me how blessed I was and I said, man, I wanna work.

I said, what am I going to do?

I got to do something.

I just can't sit and watch the four walls, which I did for two or three years.

And then, I saw this place and I said, it's a shame after all the kids lives that boxing saved at the Old Boys club, Henderson Union on Boonville, that that program's not up and thriving in Springfield and I said, that's what I'm gonna do.

(upbeat music) When methamphetamine and crack cocaine hit the scene and it hit the scene hard it hit it real hard.

We went from a little bit of violence, a few little people who might think they were gangs, that weren't and stuff like that to all of a sudden, we went to people are stabbing people.

People are robbing people that never robbed people before, people are shooting people.

Kids are dying, people are overdosing.

And by the, by the thousands Crime rates are going up 75%, we went to seeing things that we had never seen before right here in a little bitty old Springfield.

(music) - I've known coach Smitty for several years.

He's really focused on the community and the kids.

So coach Smitty's gym, basically takes kids anywhere in the city, but mainly focuses on the North side of town.

And some of the challenges in our community is kids not having something to focus on and work on.

So we're not unique in, in dealing with kids with challenges of getting in trouble with law enforcement or making bad decisions and turning to drugs or alcohol.

So coach Smitty's gym gives kids an opportunity to focus on a sport and having a mentor to guide them.

The bottom line is if he didn't get those kids and turn them around it'd be somebody that I would have to deal with later on.

(punches thudding) (upbeat music) - I met Smitty when I became a member of the Heart Of The Ozarks Sertoma Club, probably six years ago and started understanding who he was, what he was trying to do.

He was a veteran, I'm a veteran.

So we had that in common and one of the first things we did together was actually a veterans day presentation to some kids at the Boys and Girls Club.

The focus of our club, The Heart Of The Ozarks Sertoma Club, is kids programs.

The main benefactor of our funds is the Boys and Girls Club of Springfield.

- We want kids to come to our clubs experience things that help them learn and grow and become better individuals.

So by the time they graduate they have a plan for their future and they're gonna be productive, responsible citizens.

And Smitty is a huge part of that, not just with his gym, but also his active involvement in Heart Of The Ozark Sertoma he works tirelessly for this organization as a volunteer.

Whether it's working at events to raise money for the club, whether it's coming into the Sertoma unit and talking to kids about his path, his history encouraging kids through mentorship, that's what he does.

He just embodies a selfless human being that really cares about the future of this city.

(punches thudding) - Those kids might not necessarily came from bad family.

They might just have two hard working parents that were working half the time and at home half the time and it gave them an outlet to where they didn't in trouble and they learned something along the way.

- One - one two three - [All] Two - One two three - [All] Three - one twp three four - [All] Four - One two three - [All] Five - Teach them they got just as much right to be successful and great as the next person, they got just as much right to stand up and talk loud with a clear voice and not be shy or scared about it.

Well, I expect a C plus average in school, mandatory homework days I expect you to bring homework in here.

If you got a problem, I expect you to tell me two, three weeks out.

Don't wait till the day before report cards come out and say, "coach, I'm getting a D in math."

No, doesn't work that way because I have volunteer tutors that I can contact and get them over here and get you some help and you know, you gotta show me that you wanna be a champion outside the ring, as well as inside.

And if you're gonna be a champion at anything or good at anything, show me, you're trying.

(upbeat music) These kids sometimes need that extra kick in the butt.

You gotta give it to them if they need it but you got while you're doing it you gotta let them know you care, you gotta let them know you're not trying to belittle or embarrass them.

You gotta let them know you're trying to make real men and women out of them.

It'll be an easy day for you until you get in here, but I want your undivided attention, okay?

Rhythm and timing is the most important thing in boxing to me.

You got good rhythm you got good timing you got good foot movement.

Hell I've seen boxers win a fight with their feet because they out moved the other guy.

Two three two.

Two three two.

- Get out of there - Back to the body, dig Dig!

Hard!

There you go dig hard.

You're too damn wide shorten it up Beautiful jab.

It will be a whole lot more beautiful If you'd add the two to it, I'm tired of telling you that.

I need you to let your punches go and punch through.

(beeps) And why on earth won't you throw a two.

I damn near gotta pull a tooth, to get you to throw a two.

Let your hands go son (beeps) this is boxing... Work time!.

I like to tell my kids if you're gonna be a champion, in my ring you're gonna have to be a champion outside of it as well.

You're going to have to conduct yourself accordingly, do good things in the community.

You can't just say I'm a boxer and leave it at that.

You gotta put the work in inside the ring, outside.

(upbeat music) When we go out of town I have my secretary do research and find out what historical sites are there or what that city or that state is known for.

And then we try to go visit something educational.

We were in recently went to the Sugabert Boxing Nationals in Montgomery, Alabama and we went to the Civil Rights Museum and where the Rosa parks bus was, on of the houses of Dr. Martin Luther King, and you know, the kids love it.

We go to Kansas City every year.

I take a group to the Negro League Baseball Museum, to the Jazz museum.

Some of them it'll be the only time they ever lived Springfield, you know, and it's life experience for them that I was blessed to get and I want them to get it And I want as many of them to get it as I can possibly give to, you know.

- One of the things that I've realized in my tenure here, is just when you can put egos aside and holistically serve a kid the outcome is really, really, really beneficial, and people like Smitty represent that.

He's provided free program services at his boxing gym for our kids.

So if you're a boys and girls club kid and you want to be involved in boxing, he's gonna teach you and he's gonna give you basic and fundamental skills in boxing, but it's so much more than that.

He becomes a mentor for them.

(upbeat music) - I have actually had teachers from the surrounding community call me and tell me stories of my kids stopping bullying in the hallways, or breaking up a fight that was about to be a fight and, and because they got involved and the manner they got involved in it, there wasn't a fight or the fight stopped.

- We lose over 200 kids a year from suicide, from being bullied.

I tell everybody, talk to your kids, you know get in your kid's life, find out if they're being bullied.

If they are, they'll be able to come talk to you.

You have to talk to your kids about bullying, you know, or they could be getting bullied they wouldn't know what to do.

If they're not talking about it, don't think they're not getting bullied.

Talk to em about bullying because it's a big problem and we had to figure out some kind of way to talk about it and talk to our kids about it and get it straight.

(upbeat music) - There are lot of times kids are bullied and they never think about fighting anybody.

I got bullied growing up.

And one day, I mean, I had learned how to box you know and I was still afraid of this particular guy and one day I had to go to the store with my mother and I said, you know, I know how to fight So I said, I'm going straight across.

I'm not going to be afraid of this guy anymore.

Boxing builds character, cause you learn not to bully not to be a bully yourself.

- Well, boxing is a sport that instills self discipline as a competitive sport and it teaches our kids that they have to be disciplined and that they never ever ever start a fight with anybody.

In the WBC, The World Boxing Council recently started a program called KO Bullying, and I am involved with that and anti bullying is a program that's kind of dear to my heart.

So, I had that in my boxing curriculum, along with checking grades, tutoring, and these are things that we teach our kids within our program.

It's a program I think we need because kids need to know ways to walk away from certain situations.

(upbeat music) Double uppercut there you go, there you go strike back, strike back.

A good coach can look at a kid and some people are just not gonna do it by the book, they're not gonna do it by the basics.

they're going to have a certain awkward style about em or an awkward way about em and a good coach can look at that fighter and say, "this is what I can work with this is what I can do," and can develop a style of training with that fighter and still turn that fighter into a champion.

Strike back, strike back (groans) Jab only!

Jab only!

Jab only!

Randy Mast, a kid to come in here, boasting that, you know nobody in his family graduated high school or did this or did that was dropping out.

I made him go back and get his GED and made him start training and now he's getting ready to fight on the under card of Errol Spence and Mikey Garcia, the biggest fight of the year for 2019.

I teach him to be that kid that the other kids want to be like.

like Randy, he's got the guts to stand up and say, "I don't want to sell drugs.

"I don't want to be a dope dealer.

"I don't want to drop out of school."

Luiz Velasquez, Arturo Moreno both have won national titles.

There you go, rolling with the shoulder more though make something happen Both y'all knock out ten Let's go.

Did I not say 10 seconds?

Nobody fought like I said, 10 seconds.

What are you supposed to do - All out!

- You supposed to fight like your life depended on it that last 10 seconds steal that round.

Leave something in the judge's mind to give you that round... - 10 pushups come on, we're a family.

- Come on knock them out again.

Both have won Ringside World title in a tournament that normally 1800 kids and eight countries compete in for five days, Alicia White Lighting Acero had a so-so amateur boxing record.

Then she got with me and she went like 22 and O and got a good job, and got a house and got all her stuff together and she won national titles and she won Ringside World twice.

Now she's fighting pro.

All right come back with a two, three Alicia.

Be there though get that extra step.

If you got it in you anywhere, I'm gonna find it and I'm gonna pull it out of you.

Double that jab up.

I've been blessed to be a little reach down deep and find it, get it out.

(grunts) (punches thudding) There you go.

There you go White Lighting, there you go there you go, there you go That's the White Lighting that I train right there.

(grunts) there you go (upbeat music) I don't know how many times I've fallen off those steps or falling up there in that ring.

I wake up some days I can't even walk and I'm hurting and I'm hurting bad, but I still have that fire come over here try to save kids and try to turn the kids around.

And some days I just don't have that energy but I always tell these kids, you know as much as I'm giving you, you're giving me because you gave me something to look forward to in life.

So it's something that has become a part of me and my investment into this place was my way of giving back the way it gave.

(upbeat music)