JBA boss reiterates call for high-school boxing
Published:Wednesday | April 30, 2025 | 12:07 AMGregory Bryce/Staff Reporter
STEPHEN ‘BOMBER’ Jones, president of the Jamaica Boxing Association (JBA), has continued to stand firm in the belief that the next step in the development of boxing in Jamaica will be to introduce the sport to high schools.
Jones said similar to sports like track and field and football, the launch of a boxing competition open to high schools will help the JBA’s goal of developing boxers at an early age.
“This is one of the most important mandates for us because that taps into teaching people from early. If we can take boxing into the schools, it will increase discipline, and the talent will obviously showcase itself,” the JBA president said.
“Once we have a wide pool from the schools, then that will be a nucleus that will get us to the next level.
“I believe that will shift Jamaica in terms of our culture and our talent pool in boxing to make sure Jamaica is known around the world in boxing like it is in the other sports.”
He is confident in the future of a high school boxing competition as his association has already been fielding requests from interested schools.
Jones believes that the next step will be to erase the stereotype of boxing being a violent sport, but rather promote the competition as a means of discipline and spirited competition.
“People relate boxing to violence, but after delving into the sport, they will see it is not. Fighting is violence, but boxing is not fighting,” Jones explained.
“Boxing teaches not to fight. It teaches you self-discipline and self-control. With that, what we see happening now is that the teachers have been coming to us, the guidance councillors and the parents are coming to us.”
He added, “It has been working as a holistic thing that we weren’t even planning for, and they have been asking for us to come into the schools.”
Jones said ideally, such a high-school competition would be done in collaboration with the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) to help legitimise it and build its sustainability.
He also believes that it is important for the JBA to build the foundation of its competition before taking their ideas to the ISSA.
“We wouldn’t start this before talking to ISSA first, but I think we’d like to build it and then they’ll come.
“I believe once we get to the level of 16 schools and can have a high-school championship, then the demand of other schools will want to come on board and then we can bring that to ISSA,” Jones said.
“The boxing association will want to show that we can handle 16 schools and then ISSA will surely have the mechanics to extrapolate that and even expand to 200 schools if needs be.”