Boxer got start toughing it out in reserve school

But Willard Lewis, the 1993 national amateur heavyweight champ, is a softie when it comes to kids.

Page R5

At 5 foot 11 and barely 185 pounds, Willard Lewis had some people believe he was too small to be a heavyweight.

But the 19-year-old boxer showed them December 5, 1993 when he won the national amateur heavyweight boxing championship in Winnipeg, Man.

Lewis may be shorter and lighter compared to his competitors, but's an uncompromising fighter who will take a punch to give a punch.

Previously Canadian middleweight and lightweight champion, Lewis beat Jean-Paul Bergeron, defending heavyweight champion from Montreal, 12-9 in the first match. His second match against Mark Simians, in which he won 16-12, earned the most outstanding bout of the tournament. And he won 14-10 in his final match against Steve Gallinger.

"My mind is my strength," Lewis said. "If I get hit ten times, it make me stronger. Anyone who has to fight me knows he's going to have to fight."

Lewis credits spirituality for his clarity of mind. There was a time when he was wondering whether he should continue boxing.

"It was after the world championships last year when I busted my nose. And there were some politics as well," he said. "So I spent some time with my family. I feasted with Elders, did some sweetgrass and had some sweats with my father. I'm good now and I know what I have to do."

Now that he's "got the nationals done," Lewis said he's preparing for this August's Commonwealth Games in Victoria.

"Then there's the Olympics and following that - the world championships," he said. "I gotta get it all done."

Brought up on the Beaver Lake Reserve in northern Alberta, the young Cree said his interest in boxing goes back to his early youth.

"If you're tough, you can make it at reserve schools. If not, you get bullied. I decided enough of getting bullied and learned how to fight," he said.

At 13, he won his first match weighing in at 165 pounds. "I was this little balloon of a guy," he said, laughing. Within six months, he had lost 26 pounds and was training regularly.

Lewis said the independent aspect of boxing is what made him fall in love with the sport that has quickly become his life.

"There's no team play. If you miss a fly ball, your whole team can lose. But if you catch a punch in the face nobody suffers but you."

His coach, Harley Dalke, said Lewis is renowned for the damage he can exact on an opponent. Competitors have often conveniently backed out when they knew who they were up against, said Dalke.

But on the flip side of this fearless fighter is a warm-hearted comedian who is as dedicated to youth as he is to his sport.

Dalke calls Lewis the "Pied Piper of Hobbema," a community in central Alberta where the two coach and 50-member Indian Nations Boxing Club.

"Willard has a bubbly personality and a library of one-liners," Dalke said. "And he cares very much about kids. If he ever goes away, the kids are always asking for him."

Lewis said he tries to bring something to Hobbema's children that many children don't know.

"I try to bring trust to these guys. They're Indians. I'm Indian. A lot of us have been led astray in the past," he said. "I know I'm young and there's only so much I can do. But I'm trying to be honest. I'm trying to be there for them."

Lewis said he plans to train as a counsellor so he can work with people and practice what comes most naturally to him - aside from boxing, of course.

Until then, he said his future won't be complete until he's the first Native boxer to hold the world title. But back in Hobbema, where wide-eyed children trail in his wake, Willard Lewis is already becoming a legend.