KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ritchie Cherry’s entire life has been about beating someone to the punch.
He used to be a professional boxer.
“It was an outlet for me. I didn’t get in the ring to make money,” he said. “I got into the ring to escape.”
These days, he’s still beating something to the punch. Going toe to toe, using hooks, uppercuts and jabs to keep a different, and sometimes deadly, opponent at bay – the streets.
“I’m a school counselor with the Kansas City Public School District. My students are coming in anger. I’m an ex-professional fighter, so I saw it fit to combine the two concepts," Cherry explained.
Cherry’s concept and new outlet is called Boxout.
“I wanted Boxout to be a first responder type of program,” he said. “A responder program to the major stressors in peoples lives.”
Boxout is a form of stress relief and conflict resolution.
While it’s something for people of all ages, Cherry recognizes the impact it could have on teens and young adults - a group that is far too often becoming the victim or suspect of violent crimes.
“We see the homicide violence rate has increased,” Cherry emphasized. “That’s because a lot of people are stressed. We see also that the coronavirus pandemic has also heightened stress and most people don’t know how to relieve that. They don’t know where to go. Some people suppress it with drugs and alcohol.”
For young people like 18-year-old Exavier Howard, it’s a good way to blow off steam before things escalate.
“It’s better to have it out than in. This really helps you lose your anger and you really get to let that out onto a pad instead of a person," he said.
A lot of Cherry’s work is done in the school district.
The pandemic has caused a challenge in reaching and impacting as many young people as he’d like, but as the sport suggests, sometimes you have to roll with the punches.
As classes continue virtually, Cherry does offer smaller, socially distanced classes, and looks forward to helping students, teachers and members of the community box out their stress before it turns into something unproductive.
