_________________ FREEPORT _________________
CommUNItY UPDAtE Infections as of July 1
6,138
Infections as of June 30 6,128
$1.00
HERALD
Summer Sunset Concerts reboot
July 9 is rain date for fireworks
Freeport Friends group helps out
Page 3
Page 6
Page 23
Vol. 86 No. 28
JUlY 8 - 14, 2021
PAL boxing looks to expand By REINE BEthANY and KYlE BERthoUD rbethany@liherald.com
Reine Bethany/Herald
FREEPoRt BoxER ChRIStIAN Chavez, left, and former Freeport boxer Joseph Diaz warmed up in the Freeport PAL Boxing gym, coached by Joe Higgins, center. Diaz’s father, Jose Diaz, was outside the ring, center left.
When Freeport native and professional boxer Patrick Day died at age 27 on Oct. 16, 2019, of head trauma incurred during a match, his personal goodness was what everyone recalled, even more than his world-class fighting. “If you had a cup of coffee with this kid, he changed your life,” said Joe Higgins, Day’s boxContinued on page 12
For amateur fighters, boxing is safer than many sports By REINE BEthANY rbethany@liherald.com
Patrick Day’s death from boxing evokes the question of safety. Day, a Freeport star, died at age 27 after three knockout blows to his head during a professional match against Charles Connell in October 2019. Many parents want to know whether their children can safely box — and in particular, whether they can suffer neurological injuries from strikes to the head. Amateur boxing, however, has a lower injury rate — including head injuries — than a surprising number of other popular sports.
In fact, according to a 2018 study by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, boxing did not appear in the top 10 categories of sports-related head injuries for children 14 and under. Those categories, from highest number of injuries to lowest, were playground equipment, football, basketball, cycling, baseball and softball, soccer, swimming, trampolines, powered recreational vehicles and skateboards. Even among the general population of adults and children, the top 15 categories of most frequent head injuries did not include boxing. The lists in the
B
oxing is among the most regulated sports in all of athletics. DoUg WARD
TitleBoxing.com AANS study were compiled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Despite those statistics, however, parents may worry about face and head injuries because points in a boxing match are
earned by landing punches on the opponent’s head and body. How, then, is boxing made safe enough for children? First, the regulations for sparring and competition are stringent. Doug Ward, an official with Title Boxing, commented in a recent article, “The real fact is that boxing is among the most regulated sports in all of athlet-
ics. The very foundation of amateur boxing (where all fighters should start their pursuit) is built on providing a level playing field for the competitors.” Leveling the playing field for children involves not just weight, but age, said 26-year-old Christian Chavez, who grew up a few blocks from the Freeport Continued on page 12