TheBurg

08.19 | theburgnews.com | 17 go home "all busted up" from training with men. "I wish they would remember they're fighting a female," she said. While training with the guys hasn't always been easy, Ragland admitted it has paid off, helping her win fights and advance. On June 1, she got her first pro fight. But that was just a few months ago. She's been at the gym for years. "She's one of the best fighters we have in here, but she's a female so she can't get fights," Clark explained. But Clark doesn't give up on her—even though there are not always other women for her to fight and she's pressured to balance her time between her job and boxing. "He [Clark] will stay here until I get here after work," Ragland said. rIng & bAgs Coming in usually at 11 a.m., Clark rarely heads home before midnight. rough Harrisburg's ups and downs, he's been in that gym training fighters. He recalled tragedies that the gym has faced over the years. For instance, boxer Johnisha Wright was shot in 2009, leaving her unable to walk to this day. "Our city has been through a lot, but boxing has remained constant," Clark said. Over the years, Cameron Street Club has maintained the feel of a traditional gym. ere are five trainers at the gym, but Clark and Felix Pacheco are the main coaches—the ones usually wearing the boxing pads and calling punches in the ring. ey are old-school trainers, slightly different from their more modern counterpart, Capital Punishment Boxing Club down the street. "All you need is a ring and some bags," Clark explained. Nonetheless, Clark believes this is the best shape the gym has ever been in. ey've got the essentials: a new ring to fight in, bags to punch and a fresh coat of paint. Not to mention local, state and national champs in their midst. But it's not the trophies or awards keeping Clark around all these years—it's the people. "Probably about half of the gym has been here over 10 years," Clark said. "I've pretty much watched them grow up." In the ring, Clark, Dandy, Johnson and Ragland all seem the same—tough, aggressive, even violent. ey're fighters, the perfect image of what a boxer is supposed to be. But take off the gloves and you have Clark, the man who fought cancer, Dandy the up-and-coming music artist, Johnson, the youngest elected magisterial district judge in Pennsylvania, and Ragland, the single mom. ey've all had their uphill fights, ones they couldn't punch their way through. "ese guys come from all different walks of life, but boxing is their thing," Clark said. You never know who you're going to meet when you step into Cameron Street Boxing Club. It could be a doctor, a judge, a lawyer or a teacher. It may be a group of people who don't have much in common besides boxing. But that's what has kept coaches and boxers around for so long. It's a community and a family, but also a melting pot—an example of what can happen, if instead of seeing differences, we find one thing in common. Who knew fighting people could unite people? Da'sha Ragland, one of the gym's few female boxers, practices at a bag.

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