By Gabe Wagner
Located outside of downtown Buena Vista, the Hinojosa Boxing gym offers multiple classes ranging from self defense, to boxing, to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Hinojosa Boxing opened in 2019, but the journey of its creation started long before that.
Owner of the gym, Larry Hinojosa, is the head boxing coach, with over 10 years of coaching experience. Hinojosa grew up watching boxing alongside his dad, looking up to great boxers like Julio Caesar Chavez.
After working as a police officer, Hinojosa was hired at Virginia Military Institute as the assistant boxing coach. He took over as head coach two years after that and in 2015 Hinojosa led the Virginia Military Institute to a national championship title. The next two years, the team followed with a 3rd and 2nd place finish.
Coach Melissa started boxing while she was working as a behavioral therapist. Melissa joined the gym as a way to relieve stress, while also punching things. After joining, she quickly fell in love with the culture and the environment of the gym.
Both coaches expressed their desire to put an emphasis on good culture and camaraderie. The Hinojosa Boxing gym offers morning classes, kids classes, women’s classes, Brazilian jiu jitsu and HIIT classes. On top of these, the gym also offers classes that can be taken through Southern Virginia University for school credit, including beginner and intermediate boxing as well as women’s self-defense.
In beginners boxing, skills like hand wrapping, proper equipment use, and how to defend and attack with a strong guard are taught. Intermediate boxing puts these skills to use as the class spars, giving live boxing experience.
Nicole Farnsworth (’23) took the women’s self-defense class and described her favorite part as “being able to feel more capable and empowered thanks to the class while feeling safe and comfortable in an all women’s setting.”
The boxing gym also took two Southern Virginia University students, Sydney Birchall (’23) and Kelby Barfield (‘23), to the USIBA National Tournament in Atlanta, GA in March. These girls fought hard, Barfield bringing home the belt for 106lb weight-class as its new champion and Birchall becoming a silver medalist for the 119lb weight-class.
“The gym has had a amazing impact and has introduced me to amazing people and new things that I would have probably would have never done on my own,” says Barfiled.
“Nationals was one of the most amazing opportunities. To win a national championship and get to experience that whole journey with my amazing ‘teamsters’ who have pushed me harder than ever to become a better me and the friendships and family bond that has been created is unbreakable and that’s all I could ever ask for in a gym, a team, and coaches.”
Find the Hinojosa Boxing Club on Instagram @hinjosaboxingclub and on their Facebook page for more details on how to join!
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Hinojosa Boxing Club takes two SVU students to the USIBA Nationals was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.