Twelfth Street Gym Owner Jaime Cantu - along with help from local entities - has J.K. Northway as the site of the 2010 USA Boxing South Texas Junior Olympic tournament on April 16-18.

“This is a partnership with Kleberg County Parks Department’s Susan Ivy, Carol Anderson of the Kingsville Convention and Visitors Bureau and local Promoter Eddie Aguilera,” Cantu said. “Between the four of us, we got together and pitched in and did our part to bring this tournament to Kingsville.”

The venue will have several South Texas amateur pugilists descending here.

“Overall there should be about 120-140 amateur fighters from the ages of 8-16 who are coming from all over South Texas; everywhere from Killeen, Austin and all the way down from Brownsville, Laredo and Victoria,” Cantu said. “So we are expecting over 60 boxing clubs to show up.”

Fighters ages 8-14 will duke it out in matches consisting of three one-minute rounds. Boxers in the 15-16 age brackets go at it in three two-minute rounds.

“This is tremendous entertainment because you get to see young kids, who are very disciplined in the sport of boxing, go there and perform,” Cantu said. “They fight for three rounds and it is very entertaining to see these kids who work very hard in their respective gyms. Each day you’ll get to see 20-25 bouts.”

Plus, the elder fighters have the opportunity to move on past South Texas.

“In addition, the winners of the 15-16 year old events will go on to the state tour- nament and have a chance to advance to nationals,” Cantu said. “Winning the national junior Olympic tournament allows them to compete internationally, so fans here will see some high quality boxing.”

Cantu is also opening his gym door to anyone who would like to assist him with daily coaching duties.

“We are basically looking for anyone who wants to come out and mainly work with the kids, someone who can communicate with them and give guidance,” Cantu said. “It doesn’t require any experience at all, if they do not know anything about boxing, I will be here to teach them. We definitely need some assistance helping these kids in our gym as we try to keep them in line in the sequence of what they are doing.”

Volunteer boxing coaches are required to undergo a background check as per USA Boxing rules.

“After that, the gym itself will pay their annual fees for them because they are volunteers,” Cantu said. “We’ll take any hours they can put in during the week and will go from there.”