Never Too Late

Written by Adam Chaffe

Spoken by Chino Garcia

The streets prevented Heriberto, aka Chino, Garcia from pursuing his real goals in life and there seemed no escape from this cycle of violence that loomed over him. As Chino’s life went on and changed in various ways, he would realize that it was his ability to fight both physically and mentally that allowed him to escape his troubled past and have a fresh start. Star City Boxing would turn out to be a key element in this fresh start, and a new chapter in Chino`s life.   

Chino is not from Reading, but he has been familiar with the area for quite some time. This is because he would visit his mother who lives here. Chino was born in Philadelphia, and moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey when he was about seven or eight years old. Chino did not begin boxing until he moved to Reading but has been fighting his entire life. As Chino puts it, “I was always interested in this. I had a chance back in Jersey because they had a gym there, but I was so into the streets. I let the streets take me over and pull me in. I was never good at thinking of consequences.”    

The streets were a major part of Chino`s life in New Jersey, but once the violence and crime kept getting worse in the area he was living in, his mom finally convinced him to leave the area and his past behind him. That doesn’t mean he came out of there unscathed, though. When Chino was fifteen years old, an incident happened with two of his older family members, and even though he was so young, he had to face legal repercussions for his part in it. Since Chino`s family did not have a lot of money at the time, they could not afford a lawyer, so they had to go with a public defender. Since this public defender seemed more focused on working with the judge rather than doing what was best for Chino, they convinced his mother to let him stand trial as an adult even though he was just fifteen years old. Chino was locked up between the ages of fifteen to twenty-one, with five of those years being in an adult prison.    

Chino has stayed out of trouble ever since being released from prison and has been making the best with the second chance that he has been given. Shortly after his release from prison, Chino met Tempest, the woman that he is now married to, and had his son Josiah with her. He has also been focused on building a good relationship with his daughter Kayla, who lives in Florida with her mother. Chino and his family stayed in New Jersey for a time but eventually moved to Reading for that fresh start, and he never looked back.   

In 2019 Chino was working at a job building trailers for eighteen-wheelers. It was here where he would finally get an opportunity to fulfill his dream of boxing. He began to hear word of one of the welders being a boxing coach. This coach turned out to be Coach Bates. Chino was finally in a place in his life where he felt that he could take on the responsibility of boxing, so he took action and asked Coach Bates to train him. Coach Bates was hesitant to train Chino at first because he was unaware of how serious Chino was about training. To prove his commitment to Coach Bates, Chino went out and bought boxing equipment to bring to work. He showed Coach Bates the equipment asking, “So, what's up coach, do you think I’m serious now?” It was this act that convinced Coach Bates that Chino was not taking this lightly, and that he was going to give this his all.   

Coach Bates began to train Chino during their thirty-minute lunch breaks. There was no time to change into athletic clothes during these breaks, so they trained in the summer heat without air conditioning in steel toe boots. Chino humbly admits to his lack of skill when he first started training, but soon noticed that he was improving. He also started to see other positive changes in his life, such as how he handles stress, how he handles his anger, improvements in his speech, and of course his physical fitness.    

Chino's training at work was going well, but it eventually got interrupted with Covid-19; their place of work had to shut down. The temporary solution was for them to train in Coach Bates’s parking lot at his home until Star City began taking new members, which was inevitable with Chino`s dedication and increasing skill set.   

Chino is now a full-fledged member of Star City Boxing, and has continued his hard work with Coach Bates, Coach Julian, Coach Shakeem Hodge, and Alex Betances. He eventually began participating in competitive matches, and now has two wins with no losses. As of this writing, he is training for a Golden Gloves Tournament in Scranton in April 2022. Along with Chino`s new purpose, he has also gained a new family here at Star City. He cannot help but admire Alex Betances and the team behind Star City Boxing for helping the youth in the area as well. They have a saying that states, “Boxing saves lives.” This sport, and specifically the team at Star City, helps keep kids off the streets, like the ones that consumed Chino in his youth. As Chino says, “It ain’t never too late to do something you love or wanna do, and that being in the streets is not a winning thing.”