'It's going to be a lot of hard work' - new era for boxing club in Kilkenny
Urlingford Boxing Club looking forward to setting up a permanent base in Kilkenny
A new era is looming on the horizon for Urlingford Boxing Club following confirmation that they have been accepted as new tenants of the old fire station in the town.
For many years now, the boxing club, which has excelled at regional and national level, has had no permanent training facility.
The lack of a permanent training facility has meant that coaches have had to put in a lot of extra hours getting temporary facilities set up and disassembled after every training session.
As well as that, many young boxers struggled to get to training, an issue that the new local base aims to alleviate.
Over the years, the club have been based in a variety of buildings, including the Mason’s Apron in Urlingford, a local hall, a hotel and a good bit down the road in Freshford.
Head Coach, Pat Stokes, told the Kilkenny People that having the fire station will be ‘huge for the club’.
“We’re delighted,” he said. “We cater for all types of people here, various backgrounds, all for the love of the sport.”
Stokes explained that the lease ‘still has to be signed over’ and following that, “there’s a lot of work to be done.”
“We’re all going to pull together as a club in the next few months to get this club up and running in the fire station,” he said.
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work, and we’re going to be trying to raise funds, but we are very happy to be where we are right now.”
Amongst those Stokes wanted to commend were Syd Martin, Michael McCarthy, Tom Stokes, Stuart Leahy, Johnny Purcell and Jason Scully.
The boxing club have been punching above their weight for some time now (given their resources) but Head Coach Stokes hopes that with their own dedicated facility that they can reach an ‘elite’ level.
There’s no denying the ambition of the club, and recent success stories like those of Michael Anthony McCarthy and Rachel Ivors show the quality of the talent and the coaching there.
For Urlingford Boxing Club, it’s definitely a case, looking forward, of watch this space!