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Community Youth Athletic Center

Organization Spotlight

By Christina Orlovsky
Community Youth Athletic Center

Any given weekday afternoon, on a busy street corner on National City Boulevard, dozens of kids are putting up their dukes and preparing for a fight—and it’s the best thing they could possibly be doing.

That’s because on that corner lies Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC), a nonprofit boxing gym that caters to at-risk youth in the South Bay. Founded 17 years ago in a National City backyard in an effort to keep local kids out of gangs and drug activity, the strictly volunteer-run CYAC moved to a two-car garage when the need increased. In 2002, the center finally got a home of its own: a former gun store purchased with grant money from United Parcel Service and Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino. A donated boxing ring and computer room completed the picture.

“We’re the only gang diversion program in National City that targets the kids some other organizations would shove out,” explains Carlos Barragan Jr., CYAC’s executive director.

In fact, CYAC sees more than 750 kids--boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 17--walk through its doors every year. They’re offered a workout that has helped many boxers lose extra weight and assisted at least one overweight teen in dropping from 180 pounds to 125; access to computers, tutoring and encouragement to succeed in their education; the discipline and confidence that comes from organized sports; and a reason to hold their heads high: They’re staying on the right side of the law while many of their peers are straying.

“We teach the kids how to shake hands and look people in the eye,” says retired physician Gerald Farrow, the gym’s medical director. “We tell them, ‘You’re just as good as everyone else.’”

On August 2, the Barona Band of Mission Indians and Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino pit local law enforcement officers against each other in Barona’s Battle of the Badges VI. The annual fund-raiser, held in conjunction with the National Latino Peace Officers Association, invites featherweight through heavyweight male and female boxers into the ring to benefit Community Youth Athletic Center. 4 p.m. 1932 Wildcat Canyon Road, Lakeside, 619-474-2922; www.cyacboxing.org.