Jim Howell’s dad got him boxing at a very young age. As a child he trained with coach Barney McCarthy at a gym in North St. Louis on top of an auto mechanics shop. At the age of seven in 1944 Howell had his first fight and he’s been involved in boxing ever since as a fighter, a referee and now a long time coach.
The North County Athletic Association gym where Howell coaches has been open since 1972. Before that it was located at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley.
This past week Howell co-promoted the St. Louis Golden Gloves open-division finals at the Heart of St. Charles Banquet Center. Howell admits they a hard time getting advertisers and sponsors, but was pleased with the level of competition and fighters this year.
“You’re not seeing knockouts. Everyone is coming here in shape,” Howell said.
The only woman who’ll be representing St. Louis at the Golden Gloves nationals in Salt Lake City May 21 is Munae Ward of Pagedale. She got there by defeating Jermesh Polk of North County in a spirited bout.
On the men’s side Jermiah Smotherman of Wellston at 108 pounds and Timothy Jarman of Wohl at 114 pounds advanced due to walkovers.
At 123 pounds Donte Randall of All City Boxing advanced by defeating a game but outgunned Hieu Huynh of the South Broadway Athletic Club in a tough bout.
Lamontez Hughes of North County advanced at 132 pounds by defeating Javon Tollivar of Cherokee. Dalton Hitchcock of Skywalker Boxing Club in Beardstown, Illinois advanced by defeating Doente Fisher of Pagedale in a razor-thin decision at 141 pounds.
At 152 pounds Jeremiah Millett of Pagedale , son of former world champion Terron Millett, defeated Darius Green of Wellston in a tough bout. Ray Ship of Pagedale at 165 pounds defeated Darion Green of Wellston in back to back wins for Pagedale over its North County neighbor.
Jeramiah Nguyen of Rescue Boxing Club in Belleville, Illinois won the Outstanding Boxer of the Night trophy based on his defeat of Henry Dorsey of Flash Boxing Club in East St. Louis in an all east side affair at 175 pounds.
Leroy Jones of Cherokee advanced by defeating Brandon Martin of North County at 201 pounds and in the final bout of the night Brandon Johnson of 12th and Park advanced by defeating Lamont Williams of the Beardstown Boxing Club in the heavyweight division.
The spirited crowd in St. Charles featured a number of local notables including former boxing standout brothers Lavell and Terrell Fingers and the father of undefeated boxing prospect Keandre Gibson.
A confident Howell is upbeat on the prospects for St. Louis region fighters in Salt Lake City. “We’re always competitive,” Howell said. “We’ve been ranked tenth out of about 30 regions, but actually tied for fourth or fifth if you look at how they count it.”
Follow Umar Lee on Twitter @STLAbuBadu.
