54 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Early Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Coastal Bend Community COACH ERNIE,as he’s known to his students, is retired U.S. Army Sergeant Ernesto Chavarria, whose Chavarria’s Boxing Gym on South Staples at Laredo Street, is the training home to dozens of young boys and girls from age seven or eight, up to seventeen and eighteen. Chavarria’s gym is one of several on Corpus Christi’s north side that offer refuge to kids living in one of the city’s most challenging neighborhoods. “I grew up right over here in the neighborhood on How- ard Street,” said Chavarria, “I started getting bullied around in school and then one day my friend told me there’s a gym over here on Agnes. I was hitting the bag and the trainer said, “Hey you want to fight?” And then I fought, and I knocked the guy out—and the trainer was that guy right there Mr. Plata, him and Tim Brown, they started coaching me and training me.” Chavarria fought in 122 amateur bouts, winning the Corpus Christi Golden Gloves, before losing at the state tournament. He then joined the U.S. Army and stuck with boxing while in the military, winning the Kansas- Oklahoma Golden Gloves and defeating a boxer named Tony Chiaverini, who went on the fight Sugar Ray Leonard for the world title. While stationed in (West) Germany, Chavarria trained and sparred with future 1988 Olympic gold medal winner Ray Mercer, who was the WBO World Heavyweight Champion in 1991-92. “When was a drill sergeant I had a lot of guys who had a lot of problems,” Chavarria remembers, “and I always said that if I can change kids to men in the Army, I can turn these little kids into somebody better in life. That’s my goal. I love to do this.” Coach Ernie has been opening boxing gyms in Corpus Christi since he returned from the military in 1998, and hundreds of North Side kids have found direction, dis- cipline and purpose through his training. “Every gym is going to have a champion—my goal is an Olympic champion—but even if they don’t get there, as long as they become a good father, good mother, policemen, firemen, if they become good citizens in the communi- ty—that’s what I look for,” said Chavarria, who thanks his own childhood boxing coach for instilling the disci- pline in him that led to a successful military career, and to becoming a positive contributor to his community. “The connection is that they learn discipline—they learn what’s wrong and what’s right. You’ve got to feed them the truth that’s one thing you can do when you’re in this sport right here. I don’t lie to them. I don’t curse. I counsel them—I talk to them, I get to know them— I ask them what’s wrong today, and they’ll tell you, they’ll talk to you,” Chavarria says of his students. He continues, “And that’s what they’re missing, they don’t have a father and a mother—they live with their