The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

The basement gym at the Garden Home Recreation Center in southwest Portland is as different from the place Victor Morales grew up as it is distant from those tough streets in El Paso, Texas.

Here, 32 miles from Morales’ Camas home, is a boxing ring. Here, the thud of fists connecting with heavy bags and the thwup of jump ropes slapping the floor is mixed with happy greetings and words of encouragement.

There? In the El Paso neighborhood where he grew up, boys like Victor too often end up one of two places: prison or the cemetery. Which is why, 14 years ago, Victor’s mother sent him to live with relatives in Vancouver.

That act, Victor says, might have saved his life. But the action that sent Victor to the life he now embraces was a simple internet search seven years ago by his wife, Tabitha.

Days after Tabitha found West Portland Boxing Club online, Victor went to check out the place. Since then, the gym has been a second home for the Morales family.

“You kind of know when you find what you’re meant to do,” Victor says.

Recent results indicate the Morales’ passion has found its mark. This summer, 10-year-old Tyler Morales won a national Junior Golden Gloves championship. Victor Jr., 12, was a runner up at the Junior Golden Gloves nationals. He is a two-time regional Silver Gloves champion.

Both boys have been boxing for six years and have big dreams in a sport that has consumed the Morales family almost since the day in 2003 when Victor, Sr., got his first look at the West Portland Boxing Club.

“They breathe and eat boxing,” their dad said.

Victor, Jr., is entering the seventh grade at Shahala Middle School, and credits boxing for keeping him focused in the classroom. Or maybe it’s the other way around?

“School helps me with boxing. I know if I get bad grades, I pay for it by not coming here,” Victor Jr. said.

Tabitha is involved on the administrative side. She has judged fights and wants to become a referee. She said that 6-year-old twins Dylan and Austin are eager to join their boxing brothers.

Victor, who works as a general contractor for Quick-n-Clean pressure washing, said he was struck by more than a passion for boxing when he first visited the club. He sensed it was a place of friendship and support, guidance and encouragement.

That family atmosphere is why four days a week the Morales family makes the trip from its Camas home to southwest Portland, where Victor, Sr., is a volunteer coach and his sons are aspiring pugilists.

Bill Meartz founded the West Portland Boxing Club in 1979 in his own garage. Since the early 80s, its home has been a low-ceilinged room at the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District building. Here, Meartz coached national champions and some successful pros.

Along the way, Meartz said, he wanted to teach skills that transcend the ring, develop habits that might steer young people toward successful lives.

When Victor Morales showed up, he was a feisty 26-year-old man who had the instincts and aggressiveness of someone who grew up on tough streets. But he also had a desire to learn.

“He wasn’t afraid to fight, and he was always impressed when I’d teach him something,” Meartz says. “Victor’s a pretty smart guy. He wanted to learn everything. He wanted to know not only what he should do, but why he should do it.”

That combination might have made Victor a successful fighter. But boxing isn’t a sport you grasp over night. And when you don’t start learning until age 26, well, the window is all but closed.

Victor had only one amateur bout, answering the bell when Meartz had an open slot for a Portland show. His opponent that day was also fighting for the first time, but he was 7 inches taller than Victor and knew how to jab.

“I got my butt wupped,” Victor says. “I found out what a jab was in that fight.”

He wasn’t able to use that knowledge in competition — there aren’t many rookie fighters in their late 20s. Victor admits to being disappointed that he missed his window to compete. But that hasn’t stopped him from becoming a force in the gym.

When Meartz retired three years ago, he enlisted Victor to take on some of the coaching duties.

“Probably more than anything, he has a love for the sport,” Meartz says. That, his ability to relate to young people, and his enthusiasm for learning, are the characteristics that made Meartz ask Victor to step into coaching.

Not a day goes by, Victor says, that he isn’t passing along a lesson — boxing or life skill — that Meartz taught him.

“He changed my life,” Victor says.

That’s the kind of impact Victor Morales hopes he can make as a volunteer boxing coach. The 52-minute trip from Camas to southwest Portland, Victor says, is a short commute to a better life.

“I’ve never felt so completed as a person as I do now as a coach,” Victor says.

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